The next set of works centers on the gathering of people and animals in the manger, to adore and stand in wonder at the of the newborn Jesus. The set opens with the lively Rise Up Shepherd, and Follow, part of the huge repertoire of Black spirituals. The earliest of these originated before the Civil War, as the informal sacred music of enslaved Africans. Rise Up Shepherd, and Follow, which probably originated in the 1870s or 1880s (it first appeared in print in 1891), is a joyful “jubilee” spiritual. It addresses the shepherds with a refrain directing them to rise up and hurry to see the baby Jesus. The 14th-century Provençal tune of Bring a Torch Jeannette Isabella was actually a “carol” in the original Medieval French sense of the word: a lively song that accompanied dancing. It may have been connected to the ancient Provençal tradition of erecting and dancing around an elaborate crèche, or nativity scene, to honor the Baby Jesus. French poet and playwright Émile Blémont published a French text to accompany the tune in 1901, and it was translated into English in 1909 by the British church musician Edward Cuthbert Nunn. The lovely melody Greensleeves seems to have originated in 16th century England, though it has never been clear who composed it. One story, however, credits this song to none other than King Henry VIII, who supposedly wrote it for his lover and second wife Ann Boleyn. It’s a great story…but there is no evidence that it is true, though Henry was, in fact, an accomplished composer. In 1871, Sir John Stainer adapted this tune to set a Christmas hymn by William Chatterton Dix, What Child Is This.

Sometime before 1872, the English poet Christina Rossetti wrote her In the Bleak Midwinter, intending it for the American literary magazine Scribner’s Monthly. It was never published during her lifetime, however, and the Christmas poem—destined to become one of her most enduring popular works—did not appear in print until 1904. Rossetti’s poem has received attractive settings by the English composer and choirmaster Harold Darke (1909), English clergyman Harold Strong (1916), and the American Stephen Paulus (1973), but the most familiar version is a setting written by Gustav Holst in 1906—prepared for The English Hymnal (a complete renovation of the Anglican hymnal overseen by Holst’s friend Ralph Vaughan Williams).