It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

This page includes a lyric video, a short history, sheet music, and other resources for the Christmas carol “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.” Enjoy!

Enjoy this You Tube video with lyrics of “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear”:

History of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”:

“It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” was one of the first Christmas carols to be written and composed by Americans. The author, Edmund Sears, was born in Massachusetts and claimed descent from one of the original Pilgrim Fathers. In his youth, Sears developed his love for poetry. His poem “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” was written in 1849 during a time of great social unrest. Americans were still dealing with the effects of the Industrial Revolution; the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) had just recently concluded, and tensions over the issue of slavery in America were growing (these tensions of course led to the Civil War in 1861). To add to the chaos, in the same year that Sears wrote his poem, thousands of Americans, the “forty-niners,” were rushing to California in search of gold. Perhaps this inspired Sears, whether consciously or not, to include three different references to gold in his carol (“harps of gold,” “golden hours” and “Age of Gold”). It comes as no surprise that Sears’ carol laments the “woes of sin and strife, the world has suffered long” and focuses on the angels’ message of peace.

Richard Storrs Willis, the composer, was born to a prominent family in Boston. He claimed descent from a distinguished Puritan, Nathaniel Willis, who immigrated to America in 1626. Richard received the best education that America had to offer, and when he entered Yale in 1837, he quickly earned distinction in literary and musical societies. He went on to publish several books and collections of music (his arrangement of “Fairest Lord Jesus” is still widely used). In 1850, one year after Sears composed his poem, Willis composed a tune called “Study No. 23” in his Church Chorals and Choir Studies. How the tune came to be used with “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” is not known. A letter written by Willis himself simply states, “On my return from Europe in [1876], I found that it [the tune] had been incorporated into various church collections apparently to Edmund Sears’ text.”

For more intriguing history on “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” (and 19 other classic Christmas songs), you can purchase our Christmas Songs eBook (only $2.99; use code “celebrate20” for 20% off).

You can also download our free, complimentary Sheet Music for “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.”

For additional resources (like original sheet music), visit Hymns and Carols of Christmas or Net Hymnal.

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