1999, rev. 2017

The Child Comes Every Winter

for voice and piano

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Program Notes & Text

Video

Premiere

5 December 1999

Judith Bettina, soprano | James Goldsworthy, piano

Songs by Chester Biscardi
Reisinger Concert Hall, Sarah Lawrence College
Bronxville, NY

Work Details

Duration:

ca. 3 minutes

Vocal Range:

C♯4 - C♯5

Publisher:

Biscardi Music Press
No. B48-99-1

Distributors:

Classical Vocal Reprints

Theodore Front Musical Literature

Text:

Lyrics by William Zinsser

Dedication:

Dedicated to Ariana Tamar Goldsworthy.

Sample Pages

Cover of a Naxos CD titled "A-Z of String Players by David Milsom"

Program Notes

“The Child Comes Every Winter,” for voice and piano (1999), was written with William Zinsser to be performed at the end of a set of three American Christmas carols: “At Christmas Time” (December 19, 1917; in C Major), by Otto Luening and Hermann Hesse; “A Christmas Carol” (December 1894; in F Major), by Charles Ives; and “The Child Comes Every Winter” (in A Major). What is sadness in Otto Luening’s carol becomes poignancy in the song by Charles Ives, and hopefulness and sadness are contrasted in the lyrics and the music of “The Child Comes Every Winter.” This work was written in the spring of 1999 at the Liguria Center for the Arts and Humanities in Bogliasco, Italy. It is dedicated to Ariana Tamar Goldsworthy.

Text

The child comes ev’ry winter
To tell us the amazing news:
Hope is born in Bethlehem.

The star comes ev’ry winter
To tell us where to find the boy.
Come, it says, to Bethlehem,
Come in peace and joy.

The three kings come ev’ry winter,
Far away they heard a call:
Wise men, wise enough to know
That the child is the wisest one of all.

Ev’ry year the same story,
But the story’s always new.
Always too good to be true.
(But it’s true).
Winter’s child is born for you.

The child comes ev’ry winter
To tell us the amazing news.

—William Zinsser