Description
Darke, Harold: In the Bleak Midwinter. SATB and Organ
Ref
CH8
Category
Choral Music
By
Harold Darke
SATB and organ
In the Bleak Midwinter
was composed in 1911 as a Christmas present for a friend. Christina Rossetti’s haunting poem with music by Gustav Holst had already been published in
The English Hymnal
of 1906, and it was not until Darke’s appointment as organist at King’s College Cambridge in 1941, replacing Boris Ord for the duration of the Second World War, that his version came to prominence through the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols broadcast annually from the chapel.
In 2010, ‘the 50 greatest carols as voted by the world’s finest choirmasters’ (
BBC Music Magazine)
named Darke’s setting of
In the Bleak Midwinter
at number one.
Optional string parts (score and 8.8.6.6.4.) to accompany the SATB or SSA version (ref. Y17) are available for sale and an arrangement by John Rutter is available for rental (Ref. HL313).
