See Amid the Winter’s Snow for String Quartet – The twelfth carol on the Manor House String Quartet‘s second CD of Christmas carols called ‘It Came Upon The Midnight Clear and other carols’ is an arrangement of ‘See Amid the Winter’s Snow’ by John Goss (you can click on the above link to hear a sound sample of this carol as well as the other 22 carols from this disc). It is also known as ‘Hymn For Christmas Day’ and the melody first appeared in Bramley and Stainer’s ‘Christmas Carols New and Old’.

Rather like ‘It Came Upon The Midnight Clear’, it is a tender and peaceful melody that suits the sonority of a string quartet. Vaughan Jones‘s arrangement allows the simple harmonies to speak and has a gentle, legato feel that hopefully conjures up a feel of soft snow under foot and provides contrast after the livelier rendition of ‘Past Three O’ Clock’.

You can also purchase the sheet music of Vaughan’s arrangement for the combinations of string quartet and string orchestra here:

See Amid the Winter’s Snow – Music Score