See amid the winter's snow
See, Amid the Winter's Snow
- Metre
- 7.7.7.7 with refrain
- Written
- 1858
- Copyright
- Public domain
Lyrics
See amid the winter's snow,
born for us on earth below,
see the tender Lamb appears,
promised from eternal years.
Hail, thou ever-blessèd morn!
Hail, redemption's happy dawn!
Sing through all Jerusalem,
Christ is born in Bethlehem!
Sacred Infant, all divine,
what a tender love was thine,
thus to come from highest bliss
down to such a world as this!
Hail, thou ever-blessèd morn!
Hail, redemption's happy dawn!
Sing through all Jerusalem,
Christ is born in Bethlehem!
Teach, O teach us, holy child,
by thy face so meek and mild,
teach us to resemble thee
in thy sweet humility.
Hail, thou ever-blessèd morn!
Hail, redemption's happy dawn!
Sing through all Jerusalem,
Christ is born in Bethlehem!
History
"See, amid the winter's snow" is a Christmas carol by Edward Caswall. John Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) records that it appeared in Caswall's The Masque of Mary and Other Poems in 1858 and was reprinted in his Hymns and Poems (1873). It was written as seven four-line stanzas, each followed by a chorus, and many hymnals print only some of them. The last stanza, addressed to the Virgin Mary, was often dropped from non-Catholic hymnals.
Caswall was born in 1814 at Yateley in Hampshire, where his father was a clergyman. He was ordained in the Church of England as deacon in 1838 and priest in 1839, was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1847, and joined John Henry Newman's Oratory of St Philip Neri at Birmingham in 1850. He is also known for translating Latin hymns from the Roman Breviary. The carol was among those that Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer included, in 1871, in their well-known collection of Christmas carols.
The tune most often paired with the words is HUMILITY by John Goss (1800-1880), organist of St Paul's Cathedral. Goss's tune is dated 1871, and his score suggests a solo treble or tenor. The text is listed in about 180 hymnals, and some of these use other tunes, including a different HUMILITY from the Oxford tradition, as well as WINTER'S SNOW and CHRISTMAS MORN.
The melody was later borrowed for at least one protest song, "Coal, Not Dole".
Performance
This recording is credited in its video description to St Martin's Voices and runs for about 2 minutes 36 seconds.
Sources: hymnary.org · en.wikipedia.org · St Martin's Voices recording and Words book
About St Martin's Voices
The recording on this page is sung by St Martin's Voices, the professional vocal ensemble based at St Martin-in-the-Fields, the church on Trafalgar Square in London. One of the UK's most versatile professional choirs, they sing for services, concerts and broadcasts — including on BBC radio and Classic FM — and have released a number of acclaimed recordings.
Their hymn recordings are made freely available to Anglican parishes through the Church of England's A Church Near You Resource Hub, produced by Andrew Earis, Director of Music at St Martin-in-the-Fields, in collaboration with the Royal School of Church Music.