It Came Upon the Midnight Clear is our latest carol arrangement. Since Larry had his shoulder surgery in May, we’ve been enjoying the challenge of working on some handbell arrangements that can be played using only six bells, with piano accompaniment. Larry doesn’t need to wear his sling any more. However, he’s been putting it on for the last few 6-bell demonstration videos, because why waste a perfectly good sling?

Larry’s arrangement of It Came Upon the Midnight Clear has no bell changes, no shared bells, and needs no tables, so it would work perfectly for a small ensemble to play.

Would this piece work for your small handbell ensemble?

If you’d like to play It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus, our music site. An mp3 accompaniment track is also available to purchase separately, for anyone who doesn’t have a pianist available or wants to practise at home.

And look! There are more!

We have several other arrangements of this hymn, all available from Choraegus, and all suitable for socially-distanced handbell groups:

An 8-bell (unaccompanied) arrangement

A 12-bell arrangement

An 8-bell arrangement of the traditional English melody NOEL, also used for this carol

Please note that sheet music from Choraegus is designed to be downloaded as PDFs. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Purchase of a 6-bell arrangement allows you to print and maintain up to three copies for your handbell group (plus the accompaniment score). Purchase also gives permission for recording, broadcasting, live-streaming and online video-sharing. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites and social media, as well as in any printed materials.

If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. Please contact us if you don’t find the answers you need, and we’ll do what we can to help!