Snow on snow

It’s the Winter Solstice today—the longest night and shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Humans have been marking the turning back of night around this time for millennia—celebrating the resurgence of light and hope over darkness and despair. Because no matter how black and cold it might seem at this moment, they know that the seasons will revolve; spring will follow winter; there is life beneath the frosted landscape.

Advent is very much a period of banking the fires, focusing inward and holding out through the dark time, knowing that light will return, good will bloom and hope provides the continuo.

The English poet Christina Rossetti wrote “In the Bleak Midwinter” in 1872, although it wasn’t published until 1904. The imagery of the first stanza just makes you shiver—earth hard as iron; moaning, frosty wind; water like stone; snow piled deep on itself. It’s a frozen world, an absolutely perfect description of the Winter Solstice. As Rossetti goes on to describe the mother and child, the stable beasts and the angels, you can just about see their breaths billowing misty into the night air.

I’m giving two versions of this one, both performed by the choir of Kings College, Cambridge. The first set to music by Gustav Holst:

This one’s by Harold Darke:

They’re not markedly dissimilar. With both versions done by the Kings College choir, this is like A/B testing. You can decide on your preference to help you through the longest night.