This edition was prepared by Douglas Walczak — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Down in yon forest
Staff Notation • Sacred, Christmas
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2 editions of this piece
Different typesettings and voicings of the same work. This page shows the main edition; the others are below.
SATB · Douglas Walczak
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Down in yon forest by Ralph Vaughan Williams — Lyrics
1. Down in yon forest there stands a hall:
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring:
It's covered all over with purple and pall
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything.
2 In that hall there stands a bed:
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring:
It's covered all over with scarlet so red:
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything.
3 In that bed there lies a knight,
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring:
Whose wounds do bleed by day and night.
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything.
4 At the bedside there lies a stone:
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring:
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About Down in yon forest
This SATB setting of a traditional English carol paints a vivid, dreamlike scene of a hall in a forest, where the bells of Paradise ring. The imagery moves from the hall to a bed covered in scarlet, where a knight lies wounded. The text then shifts to the stone upon which the Virgin Mary knelt, and finally to a flood running beneath the bed. The recurring line, 'And I love my Lord Jesus above anything', anchors the spiritual devotion within this mystical Christmas narrative. Vaughan Williams’ arrangement captures the carol's blend of earthly imagery and profound religious sentiment.
