It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
Do you ever hear a song that transports you back to an insignificant moment that you’d otherwise forget? When I hear “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear” (Vol. X version), I am immediately transported back to my middle school band holiday concert. A flurry in the stomach as the curtains unfurl. The soft sound that my flute made as I ran warm air through it. The smell of old fried food lingering in the cafeteria-turned-auditorium. Stiff, plastic chairs. The cold, wet Virginia air. Thin, flimsy white button-up shirts. I can see myself as an innocent pre-teen gobbled up in the madness that is the month of December in the suburbs. Jazzy concerts, church plays, Christmas sales at Kohls, handbell choir practice, deep cleaning the house for incoming relatives, grocery shopping with Mom… endless, frenzied days leading up to the BIGGEST day of the year - Christmas. With whirlwind woodwinds and no vocals, “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear” descends upon us in the same maddening, hasty, and exciting way that parallels those frenetic days leading up to Christmas.
Lasting only 40 seconds and just one stanza of the original 1849 poem, Sufjan’s version feels not quite together, slightly out of tune, but earnest. The fast pace, harmonic moving flute parts, delicate trills, and sweet tune seems childlike and sweet, reminiscent, as mentioned, of Christmas pageants and cute kids playing recorders in Christmas sweaters. But reading the history of the original five stanza poem by Edmund Sears, I learned that the lyrics are quite dark and are sometimes omitted entirely from hymnals. Sears, a jaded pastor, wrote this poem after a personal breakdown and after the bleak witness of war. Terms like “weary world,” “ye men of strife,” “beneath life’s crushing load,” “toil along,” and “ever-circling years” are all used in the original poem. The overarching theme is that angels are constantly singing “Peace” around us, trying to expand our cognition of the spiritual realm, but we are too world-worn and busy to notice or hear them. Sound familiar?
So to me, this sweet, kind of crazy 40-second song is a reminder that despite the business of the season, I should seek some “solemn stillness” and pause to consider the heavenly blessings constantly surrounding me. Perhaps the song manifests as a jaunty, flawed, but genuine offer to the Heavens, not unlike ourselves and our messy little lives. And despite all the holiday parties, Christmas cards, and church concerts, “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear” reminds us to focus on the “all-gracious King” and the true peace found in Christ.
Allie Frazier is a city-girl-gone-wild, uprooting from D.C. to move alone to Montana in 2020, seeking some “solemn stillness” and a closeness to nature. She’s also an art gallerist, a ceramicist, a Ragdoll cat mom, a joy seeker, a Sufjan fan since 2005, and a fierce empath (wsup, 2W3’s!). You can find her on Instagram at @allie_ology.