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It Came Upon the Midnight Clear: the melody (soprano)

The melody of It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, sung by the soprano, in Bb, from D4 to D5. Hear it on its own or with the others, then sing it and watch each note light up.

Carries Willis's tune, most often on F, then G, up to its top D on many notes, among them "came" at the very start and "Peace on" in verse 1's "Peace on the earth", and down to its low D only where the tune falls an octave: "the earth," in verse 1, "its sad" in verse 2 and "for glad" in verse 3.

Range
D4 to D5
Key
Bb
Guide voice
The app's own voice

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How to learn the soprano part

  1. 01 · Your part

    Hear your part on its own until the tune of it is in your ear.

  2. 02 · With the others

    Hear it with the others, so you know where it sits in the chord.

  3. 03 · Sing it

    Sing it with the others under you and watch each note light up as you land it. The mic listens only while it plays, and nothing is recorded.

About It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

Words: Edmund Hamilton Sears (1849)

Tune: "Carol", Richard Storrs Willis (1850, full form by 1869)

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear is Edmund Hamilton Sears's carol to the tune Carol by Richard Storrs Willis. The earliest known printing of its words is in the Christian Register, a Boston paper, on 29 December 1849, and of the words with Willis's tune in Hymns and Songs of Praise, published in New York in 1874. Our arrangement is read from Willis's four parts in Charles L. Hutchins's Carols Old and Carols New, printed in Boston in 1916, in B-flat and six-eight as printed: the soprano sings his tune, and the lower parts are adapted for beginners. This is verses 1 to 3 of the four Hutchins prints, Sears's stanzas 1, 2 and 4, for 2 to 4 singers: the angels' song of peace on a midnight long ago, their song still floating over the weary world, and the call to all who toil to rest and hear the angels sing, with Hutchins's "O ye" where Sears has "And ye".

All about It Came Upon the Midnight Clear More Christmas carols, part by part

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Stackapella recording a part: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording a part: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording a part: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording a part: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up.
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  • Your notes light upEach note shows where you landed, and a hint when to go up or down.
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