Bethlehem Down

Peter Warlock was a prolific composer of songs, with over 119 to his name. His choral music is less well-known, but within that genre, "Bethlehem Down" is one of Warlock's most famous carols.[2][3] The poet and journalist Bruce Blunt told the story behind the creation of "Bethlehem Down" in a letter to Gerald Cockshott, dated 1943.[4] He said that he and Peter Warlock were short on money in the run up to Christmas in 1927, so they had the idea to write a Christmas carol together in the hopes it would be published and earn them enough money for alcohol (or as Blunt called it, an "immortal carouse").[2][5] Whilst on a night-time walk between two pubs—The Plough in Bishops Sutton and The Anchor in Ropley[6]—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 and won.[7] It was published in the paper on 24 December 1927.[5][lower-alpha 2] The carol would be published again the following year by Winthrop Rogers (now Boosey & Hawkes).[9] Warlock and Blunt worked on other carols together, including The Frostbound Wood,[6] which was published in the Radio Times on 20 December 1929.[10]

In 1930, Warlock arranged a solo version of "Bethlehem Down".[11] It was written especially for Arnold Dowbiggin to perform as part of a Christmas recital in Lancaster Priory Church.[12] The musicologist Barry Smith writes that in this late period of Warlock's life, he was feeling increasingly depressed.[13] Dowbiggin himself wrote that the solo arrangement of "Bethlehem Down" is "a source for sorrow".[14] The solo arrangement of "Bethlehem Down" was the last piece of music Warlock wrote,[13] less than three weeks before his death.[15] Dowbiggin said that he received the manuscript on the day that Warlock died.[14]

The choral arrangement of "Bethlehem Down", written and published in 1927, is written for unaccompanied SATB choir. The piece is in D minor and 6/2 time. It is characterised by long phrasing of lines with melancholic modal harmony[16][17] in a largely homophonic texture.[15] Smith writes that the music complements the lyrics with a "finely-crafted melody" and "imaginative and sensitive harmony".[18] Chromaticism is used throughout the piece,[17] one example being the Tudor-styled flattened sevenths which populate the melody;[3] Ian Alfred Copley writes that this is a common recurring motif in Warlock's music. A prominent example of a flattened seventh occurs in the soprano line of the fifth bar of each verse:[19]

Each verse ends with a phrase which Smith describes as "haunting".[3]

In the solo arrangement of "Bethlehem Down", the solo part uses the same melody as the SATB soprano line. The solo is accompanied by a new keyboard part[12] which can be performed by either piano or organ.[15] Trevor Hold describes the keyboard accompaniment as more "intricate" than the SATB arrangement.[15] It features more complex harmony than the SATB version with additional counterpoint, differences in texture, and a passage linking penultimate and final verses—reminiscent of Warlock's other carol, Corpus Christi.[20] The solo arrangement accompaniment features what Copley calls the "gloom motif"—a motif used in other Warlock pieces consisting of a chromatic sequence played over a pedal. Copley describes the motif as "desolate",[19] and Smith writes that the accompaniment as a whole "highlights the inherent sadness of Blunt's poem".[13]

Smith writes that, although Warlock was not religious and was anti-Christian, he liked the story of Christmas.[21] Hold writes that Blunt's text takes an "oblique" approach to carol text, contrasting the Christmas story ("Myrrh for its sweetness, and gold for a crown") with the later life of Jesus ("Myrrh for embalming, and wood for a crown").[15]