Backstory: It Came Upon The Midnight Clear

Strictly speaking, a Christmas carol is a song that tells the Nativity story. That's what made Edmund Sears's song, "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" so unusual when he wrote it. It didn't tell the story of Jesus's birth; it told the story of how people reacted to the news. This "humanist carol" arrived at a time when music itself was in the midst of some major changes. Music in This Episode"Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 9 no. 2" — Aya Higuchi, via Musopen"It Came Upon a Midnight C...