Whence Comes This Rush of Wings?

Alternate Title: Carol of the Birds

Traditional French by Bas Query
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF

Source: Carol #460, Rev. Charles Lewis Hutchins, Carols Old and Carols New (Boston: Parish Choir, 1916)

1. Whence comes this rush of wings afar,
Following straight the Noel star?
Birds from the woods in wondrous flight,
Bethlehem seek this Holy Night.

2. "Tell us, ye birds, why come ye here,
Into this stable, poor and drear?"
"Hast'ning we seek the newborn King,
And all our sweetest music bring."

3. Hark how the Greenfinch bears his part,
Philomel, too, with tender heart,
Chants from her leafy dark retreat,
Re, mi, fa, sol, in accents sweet.

4. Angels and shepherds, birds o' the sky,
Come where the Son of God doth lie;
Christ on earth with man doth dwell,
join in the shout "Noel, Noel."

Sheet Music from Charles L. Hutchins, Carols Old and Carols New (Boston: Parish Choir, 1916), Carol #460

Sheet Music from Francis James Finn, Father Finn's Carol Book. 60 Christmas Songs and Carols, Old and New, Selected from the Repertory of the Paulist Choristers. (Boston: C. C. Birchard & Company, 1917), p. 51.

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