"A Christmas Carol" [Henry Bird Collins]

"A Christmas Carol" [Henry Bird Collins]

First line of lyrics: In the bleak mid-winter

Collins, Henry Bird; music (English, 1870-1941)

Rossetti, Christina Georgina; text (English, 1830-1894)

1900 [copyright] [publication: other version 1]; 1903 [publication]

London: Houghton & Co.

genre: carol|art song (lied)|Christmas music|song|sacred music

solo: voice

instrumentation: piano

initial sharps/flats: five flats

initial time signature: 3/4

other version 1 - solo: low voice

origin: United Kingdom

male composer

English

Rossetti poem(s): "A Christmas Carol" ("In the bleak mid-winter")

Composition history: The score indicates that “the words are printed by kind permission of Messrs Mcmillan & Co.” Ives notes that "Although Holst’s setting in The English Hymnal (1906) is often assumed to be the first setting of the poem, Holst was preceded by Collins, whose setting was also published in The Vocalist (Dec. 1903)" (DM288). The setting's appearance in “The Vocalist” was not the first printing of Collins’ “A Christmas Carol.” The editor’s note in “The Vocalist” states that the song “has already made its appearance in an album, where it was published in a low key” ("From the Editor" 258).

Tempo markings: "Allegretto"

Notes: The song begins in B flat major and modulates to the key of B flat major in the final verses.

Format 1: musical score

4 pages

In reference to the published works below: Gooch and Thatcher 4288; Ives DM173

Reference: Gooch, Bryan N.S. and David S. Thatcher. Musical Settings of Early and Mid-Victorian Literature: A Catalogue. New York: Garland, 1979.

Reference: Ives, Maura. Christina Rossetti: A Descriptive Bibliography. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2011.

Other data reference(s): "From the Editor." The Vocalist, No. 72, December 1903, 258-259.

Cataloguer: Emily McConkey, University of Ottawa

musical score: "A Christmas Carol." The Vocalist, No. 72, December 1903, 267-270. University of Victoria Library, Victoria.

Opus: 14, number 2

Record: CRM-christmascarolinthebleak-collins

File(s): CRM-christmascarolinthebleak-collins.pdf

"Copyright by Houghton & Co. 1900"

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