This original carol sets the poem A Carol from Flanders by Frederick Niven, which describes the story of the Christmas Truce of 1914. The simple piece is in a modified strophic form, intending to emulate traditional carol settings while providing some contrast among verses.
A Carol from Flanders
2007 • 2min • SATB
by Frederick Niven
In Flanders on the Christmas morn
The trenched foemen lay,
The German and the Briton born,
And it was Christmas Day.
The red sun rose on fields accurst,
The gray fog fled away;
But neither cared to fire the first,
For it was Christmas Day!
They called from each to each across
The hideous disarray,
For terrible had been their loss:
”Oh, this is Christmas Day!”
Their rifles all they set aside,
One impulse to obey;
’Twas just the men on either side,
Just men—and Christmas Day.
They dug the graves for all their dead
And over them did pray:
And Englishmen and Germans said:
”How strange a Christmas Day!”
Between the trenches then they met,
Shook hands, and e’en did play
At games on which their hearts were set
On happy Christmas Day.
Not all the emperors and kings,
Financiers and they
Who rule us could prevent these things—
For it was Christmas Day.
Oh ye who read this truthful rhyme
From Flanders, kneel and say:
God speed the time when every day
Shall be as Christmas Day.
A Carol from Flanders
Contact
Use the form below to request a perusal pdf or if you have any questions.