Both words and music of this traditional carol from Poland are thought to date from the thirteenth century. SDAH notes the meter as “Irregular,” but it could be counted as 8.7.8.7.8.8.7.7., the same as SDAH 128, ERMUNTRE DICH. However, the two are not interchangeable, because of a difference in the musical phrasing and where the accents fall. Based on a typical Polish folk dance rhythm, W ZLOBIE LEZY feels more like 4.4.7.4.4.7., etc., because all of the eight-syllable phrases are broken up by the music and rhyming scheme into two phrases of four syllables each, such as “swift are winging, angels singing.” Its popularity is undoubtedly a result of this very natural rocking lullaby rhythm or two eighth notes followed by two quarters, and these interior rhyming schemes.

The English version of the carol was first published in a monthly magazine, Music and Youth, of which Edith Reed was the editor, 1923-1926. Its first appearance in a hymnal was in England in 1926, in School Worship’ edited by George Thalben-Ball and published by the Congregational Union of England and Wales. Note that each stanza ends with a practical application, first for all, then a personal one.

Edith Margaret Gellibrand Reed was born in Islington, London, in 1885. She was educated at Clifton High School, St. Leonard’s School, St. Andrews’, and the Guildhall School of Music, An associate of the Royal school of Organists, she devoted her whole life to making music more attractive to children, writing and editing several books and magazines toward this goal. Some of her publications were The Music Student, Panpipes, and Story Lives of the Great Composers. She died June 4, 1933.

The tune name W ZLOBIE LEZY comes from the first line of the original Polish carol, and means “in manger lies.” The musical arrangement is by the committee that prepared The Australian Hymn Book, 1977.