Sussex Carol as it appeared in MAGNET
… and other Christmas goings on
On Christmas night all Christians sing
To hear the news the angels bring
On Christmas night all Christians sing, To hear the news the angels bring
News of great joy, news of great mirth
News of our merciful King’s birth.
Then why should men on earth be so sad
Since our Redeemer made us glad
Then why should men on earth be so sad , Since our Redeemer made us glad
When from our sin he set us free
All for to gain our liberty.
When sin departs before His grace
Then life and health come in its place
When Sin departs before His grace, Then life and health come in its place
Angels and men with joy may sing
All for to see the newborn King.
From out of the darkness we have light
Which made the angels sing this night
From out of the darkness we have light, Which made the angels sing this night
Glory to God and peace to men
Now and forever more Amen.
Song collected from Harriett Verrall, Monks Gate, Sussex
by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1904
Known to many by its first line: “On Christmas night all Christians sing”, this is an old song that only became associated with Sussex because it was ‘collected’ at Monk’s Gate, near Horsham, by composer Ralph Vaughan Williams who, with his astute mastery of harmonisation and instinctive feel for the freedom and mystery in folk melodies, made an arrangement that became popular. The verse was first published in the year 1684 as part of the ‘Small Garland of Pious and Godly Songs’ by Luke Wadding, an Irish bishop. No-one knows whether it had a similar tune or any tune at all in those days.
Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) went to school in Rottingdean. As a young composer he studied with Max Bruch and Maurice Ravel but also he was one of the English song collectors who toured the countryside in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, gathering and notating treasures from the oral tradition of working peoples’ verse and music. Later he served as president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, indeed the library at Cecil Sharp House – home of EFDSS in London – is named in his honour. Cecil Sharp himself retrieved an example of the same Christmas song, on his travels in Herefordshire – so the story could have gone a different way!
Harriett Verrall lived at Monk’s Gate with Peter her husband and both were known locally as singers with a great store of songs. Folk historian and Horsham resident Tony Wales reported their son remembering Vaughan Williams visiting the Verralls’ home armed with early phonograph recording equipment as well as his manuscript paper.
Vaughan Williams would tend to tag a good tune with the name of the village where he collected it. So why isn’t the Sussex Carol called Monk’s Gate? The answer is that Mrs Verrall was the source of another great tune which took that name in Vaughan Williams’s notebook. It was her rendition of ‘Our Captain Calls All Hands’ that provided Vaughan Williams with the melody for his setting of John Bunyan’s verse ‘To Be A Pilgrim’. That well-known tune has been listed as ‘Monk’s Gate’ ever since, having appeared as such in The English Hymnal (1906 – Editor: Ralph Vaughan Williams).
The Sussex Carol features in Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols, alongside another beautifully arranged folk melody, “The Truth From Above”.
And so, with thoughts of: “Gracious! Has another year flown by?” we approach again the Yuletide, season of mince-pies (now available all year round) and goodwill to all (less easily obtainable). We can hope for peace, at least, and perhaps each do some little thing towards it. Come the time, I always try to catch the broadcast on Christmas Eve of Nine Lessons and Carols from the chapel of King’s College Cambridge. The Sussex Carol often is included and for me it’s the moment when I can begin truly to feel the Christmas spirit kindling, even though I may have been assisting schools with carols and music for nativity plays since November.
Best wishes to everyone for a happy new year.
Mark Broad for MAGNET
Writing and editing 