Glorious, Glorious sets to music excerpts from the joyous final scene of Charles Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol. 

 

Here, bells chime in celebration of Christmas Day as Ebenezer Scrooge awakens from his encounter with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. No longer the miserly curmudgeon he used to be, Scrooge resolves to live in the “Past, the Present and the Future” and to bring the spirit of Christmas into his daily life. 

 

Though Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, its message is timeless: resolve to honor the past, present and future by living a joyful, compassionate life every day.

 

Glorious, Glorious is dedicated with gratitude to the participating choruses of the Christmas Past, Christmas Future! Carol Consortium, who co-commissioned this piece along with Completing the Circle. While Completing the Circle sets a modern text that recalls nostalgic memories of Christmas, Glorious, Glorious sets a classic text that looks ahead to a bright future. 

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Peruse or purchase all three voicings of this piece at Graphite Marketplace.

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GLORIOUS, GLORIOUS

 

No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold;

cold, piping for the blood to dance to;

Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells.

Oh, glorious. Glorious.

 

Clash, clang, hammer; ding, dong, bell.

Bell, dong, ding; hammer, clang, clash.

A merry Christmas to everybody!

A happy New Year to all the world.

 

I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!

The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.

I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel.

Oh, glorious, glorious.

 

Clash, clang, hammer; ding, dong, bell.

Bell, dong, ding; hammer, clang, clash.

A merry Christmas to everybody!

A happy New Year to all the world.

 

I will honour Christmas in my heart,

and try to keep it all the year.

 

Clash, clang, hammer; ding, dong, bell.

Bell, dong, ding; hammer, clang, clash.

A merry Christmas to everybody!

A happy New Year to all the world.

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—Charles Dickens (from A Christmas Carol, 1843)

adapted by Dale Trumbore