Day 8 - Bethlehem Down (Peter Warlock & Bruce Blunt, 1927)
The poet and journalist Bruce Blunt told the story behind the creation of Bethlehem Down in a 1943 letter to Gerald Cockshott . . .
Blunt and Peter Warlock were short on money in the run up to Christmas 1927. They had the idea to write a Christmas carol together in the hopes it would be published and earn them enough for alcohol (or as Blunt called it, an "immortal carouse"). Whilst on a night time walk between two pubs - The Plough in Bishops Sutton and The Anchor in Ropley - Blunt thought up the words to Bethlehem Down. He sent the text to Warlock who set it to music within a few days. The completed carol was entered into The Daily Telegraph's Christmas carol competition that year . . . and it won! It was published in the paper on 24 December 1927. The carol would be published again the following year by Winthrop Rogers (now Boosey & Hawkes). Warlock and Blunt would work on other carols together, including The Frostbound Wood, which was published in the Radio Times on 20 December 1929.
Bethlehem Down
When He is King we will give him the King's gifts,
Myrrh for its sweetness, and gold for a crown,
"Beautiful robes", said the young girl to Joseph
Fair with her first-born on Bethlehem Down.
Bethlehem Down is full of the starlight
Winds for the spices, and stars for the gold,
Mary for sleep, and for lullaby music
Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.
When He is King they will clothe Him in grave-sheets,
Myrrh for embalming, and wood for a crown,
He that lies now in the white arms of Mary
Sleeping so lightly on Bethlehem Down.
Here He has peace and a short while for dreaming,
Close-huddled oxen to keep Him from cold,
Mary for love, and for lullaby music
Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.
Bethlehem Down - The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge
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