It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

Edmund Hamilton Sears, a Unitarian Minister wrote a poem “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” in 1849 to be used in a Christmas play. “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” is an American poem based on the Gospel of Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth where the angels announce to the shepherds that there will be ‘peace on earth, good will toward men.’ It has become a most popular Christmas carol.

A friend of Sears, W. P. Lunt --a Quincy, MA, minister, requested that he write “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear” to be sung in a Sunday School Christmas play. The Christmas carol is now very popular among many denominations and is used extensively in Christmas pageants in America.

 

 

Apparently, the text was used with several different melodies before it was officially set to specific music in today’s Christmas carol form. Composer, Richard S. Willis adapted the words of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” to his musical work “Carol.”

Read more at - http://gospelpiano.com/articles/it-came-upon-a-midnight-clear-24.htm