Song facts
- Original key
- B♭ major
- Type
- Christmas carol
- Music
- Richard Storrs Willis (died 1900)
- Original lyrics
- Edmund Hamilton Sears (died 1876)
- First published
- 1849
Public-domain songs · Christmas carol instrumental
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Play the It Came Upon the Midnight Clear instrumental in the original key of B♭ major, or from 3 semitones lower to 2 higher. Made by MR Maker from a public-domain score.
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Backing track by key
The original key is B♭ major. If it sits too high or too low for your voice, try the shifted versions and pick the one you can sing comfortably.
3 semitones lower (G major)
2 semitones lower (A♭ major)
Original key (B♭ major)
2 semitones higher (C major)
About this song
Edmund Hamilton Sears, a Unitarian pastor in Wayland, Massachusetts, published the poem in Boston's Christian Register on 29 December 1849; it dwells less on Bethlehem than on war and peace in his own time. Richard Storrs Willis, a New York music critic trained in Germany, issued an early form of the tune CAROL as a choir study in 1850 and later expanded it. US hymnals use CAROL in B-flat major, as the 1927 Mennonite Church Hymnal does; Commonwealth churches prefer Sullivan's NOEL.
Rights
The melody is in the public domain (first published 1849). MR Maker made this accompaniment from a public-domain score. It contains no lyrics, translations or third-party recordings.
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