Description
Sister and brother composing duo Elizabeth and Thomas Coxhead have set a Christmas poem by Joseph Gélineau (in the original French). The music is based entirely around the opening melody, which is treated as an unadorned tune, canonically, and accompanied with rich harmonies. The texture of the overall piece is palindromic: beginning with a solo soprano, moving to soprano duo, and then full SATB, before going backwards again. Much like the Coxheads’ popular "My Eyes for Beauty Pine," the overall effect is exquisite and gently beautiful, and suitable for performance even by a vocal quartet or quintet.
Text
Aujour-d'hui, le Roi des Cieux
au milieu de la nuit
Voulut naittre chez nous
de la Vierge Marie.
Pour sauver le genre humain
l'arracher au péché
Ramener au Seigneur
ses enfants. égarés.
En ces lieux durant la nuit
demeuraient des bergers
Qui gardaient leurs troupeaux
dans les champs de Judée.
Or, un ange du Seigneur
apparut dans les cieux
Et la gloire de Dieu
resplendit autour d'eux.
L'ange dit: 'Ne craignez pas;
soyez tous dans la joie
Un Sauveur vous est né,
C'est le Christ, votre Roi'.
'Près d'ici, vous trouverez
dans une étable, couché
D'un lange emmailloté,
un enfant nouveau-né.
Translation
On this day our Heav'nly King
let himself be born our kin,
underneath the starlit sky
in a manger he did lie.
Born to save us from our sin,
welcoming God’' glory in,
to bring back unto the Lord,
all his children to the fold.
All that night evading sleep,
shepherds watched their flocks of sheep
in the fields of Judea,
up upon the hilltops near.
Now an angel of the Lord
appeared to them in rays of gold,
smiling on the humble men,
as God’s glory shone on them.
Angel said, 'Be not afraid,
your Saviour’s in a manger laid,
Down below the hilltop steep,
in a stable sound asleep,
Wrapped in swathing bands, this child,
in Mary’s arms, his mother mild,
Born the human race to save,
Christ the King a newborn babe.'
--tr. Elizabeth Coxhead
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