"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is an English

Christmas carol A Christmas carol is a Carol (music), carol on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas and holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French or ...

that first appeared in 1739 in the collection ''Hymns and Sacred Poems''. The carol, based on , tells of an

angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

ic chorus singing praises to God. As it is known in the modern era, it features lyrical contributions from

Charles Wesley Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788) was an English Anglican cleric and a principal leader of the Methodist movement. Wesley was a prolific hymnwriter who wrote over 6,500 hymns during his lifetime. His works include "And Can It ...

and

George Whitefield George Whitefield (; 30 September 1770), also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican minister and preacher who was one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement. Born in Gloucester, he matriculated at Pembroke Coll ...

, two of the founding ministers of

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

, with music adapted from "Vaterland, in deinen Gauen" of

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions inc ...

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian language, Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal music, vocal Musical composition, composition with an musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, ty ...

'' Festgesang'' (''Gutenberg Cantata''). Wesley had written the original version as "Hymn for Christmas-Day" with the opening couplet " Hark! how all the Welkin (heaven) rings / Glory to the King of Kings". Whitefield changed that to today's familiar lyric: "Hark! The Herald Angels sing, / 'Glory to the new-born King. In 1840—a hundred years after the publication of ''Hymns and Sacred Poems''—Mendelssohn composed a cantata to commemorate

Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg ( – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who invented the movable type, movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg's inven ...

's invention of

movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable Sort (typesetting), components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric charac ...

, and it is music from this cantata, adapted by the English musician William H. Cummings to fit the lyrics of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", that is used for the carol today."Hark! the Herald Angels Sing"
at ''Hymns and Carols of Christmas''

Textual history

The original hymn text was written as a "Hymn for Christmas-Day" by

, included in the 1739

John Wesley John Wesley ( ; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a principal leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies ...

collection ''Hymns and Sacred Poems.'' The first stanza (verse) describes the announcement of Jesus's birth. Wesley's original hymn began with the opening line "Hark how all the Welkin rings". This was changed to the familiar "Hark! the Herald Angels sing" by

in his 1754 ''Collection of Hymns for Social Worship''. A second change was made in the 1782 publication of the Tate and Brady ''New Version of the Psalms of David''. In this work, Whitefield's adaptation of Wesley's hymn appears, with the repetition of the opening line "Hark! the Herald Angels sing/ Glory to the newborn king" at the end of each stanza, as it is commonly sung today. The hymn has a

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud. Roud's Index is a combination of the Broadsid ...

number of 8337.

Melodies

Mendelssohn melody

In 1855, British musician William Hayman Cummings, organist at Waltham Abbey Church, adapted

's secular music from '' Festgesang'' to fit the lyrics of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" written by Charles Wesley. Wesley had originally envisioned the words being sung to the same tune as his Easter hymn " Christ the Lord Is Risen Today". "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" was regarded as one of the Great Four Anglican Hymns and published as number 403 in ''The Church Hymn Book'' (New York and Chicago, 1872). In Britain, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" has popularly been performed in an arrangement that maintains the basic original William H. Cummings harmonisation of the Mendelssohn tune for the first two verses, but adds a

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

descant and a last verse harmonisation for the organ in verse three by Sir David Willcocks. This arrangement was first published in 1961 by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in the first book of the '' Carols for Choirs'' series. For many years it has served as the recessional hymn of the annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols at

King's College Chapel, Cambridge King's College Chapel is the chapel of King's College in the University of Cambridge. It is considered one of the finest examples of late Perpendicular Gothic English architecture and features the world's largest fan vault. The Chapel was bu ...

. % There are many different arrangements; % this is from https://imslp.org/wiki/File:PMLP576994-Hark_the_Herald_Angels_Sing_Full_Score.pdf \header \layout global = soprano = \relative c' alto = \relative c' tenor = \relative c bass = \relative c verseOne = \lyricmode verseTwo = \lyricmode verseThree = \lyricmode \score

Advent adaptation

Mendelssohn's melody has been used for a 1990

Advent song Advent songs () are songs and hymns intended for Advent, the four weeks of preparation for Christmas. Topics of the time of expectation are the hope for a Messiah, prophecies, and the symbolism of light, among others. Several of the songs are part o ...

in German, "In das Warten dieser Welt" (Into the waiting of this world) by Johannes Jourdan. It is part of regional sections of the common Catholic hymnal '' Gotteslob'' and songbooks.

Handel melody

An uncommon arrangement of the hymn to the tune "See, the Conqu'ring hero comes" from Handel's '' Judas Maccabaeus'', normally associated with the hymn " Thine Be the Glory", is traditionally used as the recessional hymn of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at

St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Saint Patrick's Cathedral () in Dublin, Ireland is the national cathedral of the Church of Ireland. Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Christ Church Cathedral, also a Church of Ireland cathedral in Dublin, is designated as the local cathedral of ...

. This is broadcast live each year on Christmas Eve on RTÉ Radio 1. The usual (first) three verses are divided into six verses, each with chorus. The arrangement features a brass fanfare with drums in addition to the cathedral organ, and takes about seven and a half minutes to sing. The Victorian organist W. H. Jude, in his day a popular composer, also composed a new setting of the work, published in his ''Music and the Higher Life''.''Hark! The Herald Angels Sing''
National Library of Australia.

Footnotes

Notes Citations

External links

* *
"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"
various versions at ''Hymns and Carols of Christmas'' * (to the arrangement by David Willcocks) sung by the Georgia Boy Choir * , Mendelssohn's "Vaterland, in deinen Gauen" from his '' Festgesang'' {{authority control 18th-century Christian texts Christmas carols Hymns by Charles Wesley Choral compositions by Felix Mendelssohn Songs about Jesus 18th-century hymns Hymns in The New English Hymnal