From Poem to Song

This commentary will trace a particular trajectory of the carol’s dissemination: that is, the legacies of Gustav Holst and Harold Darke’s settings of the early twentieth century. It will explore the contexts in which these settings were composed, and then the process that brought them into pop culture today. Its second aim is to understand how the lyrics of Rossetti’s original text are reframed in these new contexts–what themes resonate most with these composers, and how do they convey these themes through music? My study of these settings and arrangements is guided by the principle that musical settings are interpretations that in themselves transform the meaning of the poem. Dr. Elizabeth Helsinger explains this idea in her essay, “Poem Into Song”:

When a poem, set to a tune, is widely sung, it enters a new life as song. In that life it may be severed from its poet-author and changed in words and prosody, henceforth recognized and remembered first in its musical form. That form may itself not be stable: as song it is subject to perpetual reshaping. The work of the song, what it is and what it does, changes not only with its singers but with new audiences and contexts of performance. It becomes the possession of those who sing and hear it, perhaps no longer associated with a poet (or composer) at all. (669)

“In the bleak midwinter” is a compelling example of this phenomenon–its musical settings have become so popular that it is far better known as a Christmas carol by Holst or Darke than as a poem by Rossetti.

Sources:

Helsinger, Elizabeth. "Poem Into Song." New Literary History, vol. 46, no. 4, 2015, pp. 669-690. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/nlh.2015.0044.