In Recent Years

experimental

In recent years, “In the bleak mid-winter” has experienced several significant, innovative revivals. Jacob Collier, a delightfully experimental, genre-bending musician who has already won four Grammys at 26 years old, rearranged Darke’s setting in 2016. His is a ten-part mostly a cappella piece in which he sings each part with extraordinary precision.

Music theorist Ethan Hein explains Collier’s radical modification of Darke’s setting through a modulation that occurs in the bridge between the third and fourth verses, of what Collier calls his “four magical chords”:

Collier doesn’t just change key, he changes the entire tuning system he’s singing in. He’s able to accomplish this feat by exploiting the subtle differences between interval sizes in equal temperament versus the ones in “pure” harmonic tuning. Each of the four magical chords is overall a little bit sharper than the one before, but it still sounds in tune because it also shares a tone exactly in common with the previous chord.

Through this modulation, which begins in the key of E and completes in the astounding G half-sharp, Collier makes what is already a bright sound even brighter. Thematically, it’s an interesting choice to place such a modulation here. The third verse conveys the glorious image of worshippers, finished with the Virgin Mary worshipping “the Beloved / With a kiss.” The final verse, beginning “What can I give Him, / Poor as I am?” is introspective and meek, yet this giving of oneself is made glorious through Collier’s ecstatic G half-sharp. It’s interesting to compare to Darke’s version, in which the transition between the third and fourth verses is characterized by a proud tenor solo giving way to the gentler treble voices. Collier gives prominence to the joy of the scene.

In 2020, James Blake released a cover of "In the Bleak Mid-winter" for Apple Music.

In an interview with Zane Lowe, Blake discussed his choice of song. Worth noting is his lack of knowledge regarding the original poem:

I love this song and there’s something… I don’t actually know. Is it an English poet who wrote the original? Whether it is or not, it reminds me a lot of England. I have a huge fondness for choral music, Anglican church spiritual vibes, even though I’m not particularly religious. There’s something very appealing to me about the feeling I get from classical choral music. And I loved it when Jeff Buckley did that cover “Corpus Christi.” In the back of my mind, there’s always been a thing where I’ve got to tackle something.

Look man, all the pop Christmas songs have been covered a million times. I’m not going to out-sing Mariah.

Blake's perception of the carol seems characteristic of the average twenty-first-century listener: even for those who are unaware of Rossetti's authorship, the Christmas carol evokes a quintessentially English tradition.

In Blake's version, he plays on the carol's choral roots while incorporating them into his own skeletal, electronic production. Nina Corcoran gives a nice description in Consequence of Sound:

Blake overlaps his vocals to give the choir effect the original version practically mandates, but he also sneaks a smooth synth line beneath it all. As the song progresses, that electronic backbone grows louder and louder, an effect that almost feels like hearing a church organ speak its mind mid-hymn.

instrumental

Tunes often become so commonly associated with the poems to which they are attached that it becomes difficult to separate the words from the music. Many arrangements of Holst’s setting are purely instrumental, yet upon listening to them, we follow along with Rossetti’s lyrics. In 2018, Sheku Kanneh-Mason chose the Holst setting in his instrumental arrangement of “In the bleak mid-winter” for cello. Like Collier’s cover, Kanneh-Mason’s arrangement enlivens the existing tune, bringing out the joy and wonder of Rossetti’s poem even though the words themselves are absent. The song begins solemnly in a straightforward rendition of the Cranham tune, and with each verse Kanneh-Mason embellishes upon the theme. By the third variation, the cello and piano parts are playful and complex. This piece is a beautiful tribute to Rossetti’s poem and Holst’s tune, but it is also a masterpiece in its own right. It is all the more moving to watch Sheku perform it with his sister, Isata, on piano.

christian

In the last few years, Christian artists have brought back a sacred emphasis to the carol. Chris Tomlin inserts lines from the carol in his worship song “He Shall Reign Forevermore,” steeping it in Christian radio beats that some may find make it nearly unrecognizable from its choral origins. Paul Cordell and Audrey Assad’s 2018 arrangement captures more closely the pensive and wintry tone of Holst’s setting. In an earlier interview about a different song, Assad referenced Rossetti’s poem as well: “we wanted to elicit the deep uncertainty that often underscores the Christian life, and call forth the feeling of bleak midwinter.” Assad has often arranged traditional hymns, and she’s remarkably sensitive to the moments of doubt as well as faith found in their lyrics. For KING & COUNTRY released a Christmas album in 2020 in which Holst’s “In the Bleak Mid-winter” is shaped into a gentle prologue and epilogue that bookend the rest of the music. For these artists, “In the bleak mid-winter” is about not only the joy of the Christmas season, but also its sorrows.