In moonlight's peaceful glow

In moonlight's peaceful glow we hear a sound; 

See, the young mother lulls her child to sleep.

Calm is the night, no other soul around;

Snow falling soft and deep.

 

Once, long ago, the mother Mary's child,

Wrapped up in cloths, is cuddled to his rest.

See, humankind and God are reconciled!

God gives to us his best. 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2023 (after a poem probably by George W. Chadwick, mid-1890s).

MUSIC: Tune PEACE, George W. Chadwick, 1890.

In his Symphonic Sketches from the mid-1890s, the composer George Chadwick appended brief bits of poetry at the beginning of each movement. The poem before movement 2, "Noël," described a contemporary scene of a mother putting her child to sleep, and moved from there to an imagined scene of the Nativity. Once that poem (after another listen to the orchestral movement) provided the impetus for a sung text, it seemed only fair to choose one of Chadwick's handful of hymn tunes for setting.