This year during Advent, I’m taking an uncharacteristic “Advent break” for the Sunday posts in my series Then Sings My Soul: The Hymns of My Youth. During my youth, my church did not observe Advent or much else on the church calendar… so we inserted Christmas carols into the hymn selections in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Typically we would start with only one carol on Sunday morning, adding more as Christmas got closer. This week’s selection is “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” written by Charles Wesley in 1739. Wikipedia has a good intro to the carol, which explains that the carol was written by Charles Wesley, the brother of John Wesley and first appeared in “Hymns and Sacred Poems” in 1739. The original opening couplet was “Hark! how all the welkin rings / Glory to the King of Kings”, while the version commonly known today is the result of alterations by various hands, most notably George Whitefield, Wesley’s co-worker, who changed the opening couplet to the one we know today.
The same article explains of the music that one of the tunes originally used for the carol was also used as a tune for Amazing Grace, but Wesley himself envisaged his lyrics sung to the same tune as his Easter hymn, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” The tune now almost always used for this carol is based on a chorus composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1840, part of his “cantata Festgesang an die Künstler” (“Festival Song”) to commemorate the printer Johann Gutenberg and the invention of his printing press. The cantata was first presented at the great festival held at Leipzig. Festgesang’s second chorus, “Vaterland, in deinem Gauen”, was adapted in 1855 by William Hayman Cummings. Mendelssohn said of the song that it could be used with many different choruses but that it should not be used for sacred music, perhaps because the melodic and harmonic structure of the tune are similar to the Gavotte of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 4; indeed Mendelssohn (who has always been linked with the music of Bach) may simply have adapted Bach’s music for his chorus, as was proposed by Nigel Poole with his (transposed) arrangement of the Gavotte as Bach’s Christmas Carol.
It is almost certain that all of us will have memories of this carol which reach way back into our childhood — which for some could even be credit to a whole different Charles in A Charlie Brown Christmas, which features the hymn at the finale.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With th’angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”
History buffs may be interested in comparing the lyrics we know now with Wesley’s original version:
Hark, how all the welkin rings,
“Glory to the King of kings;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
Universal nature say,
“Christ the Lord is born to-day!”Christ, by highest Heaven ador’d,
Christ, the everlasting Lord:
Late in time behold him come,
Offspring of a Virgin’s womb!Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate deity!
Pleased as man with men to appear,
Jesus! Our Immanuel here!Hail, the heavenly Prince of Peace!
Hail, the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
Risen with healing in his wings.Mild He lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth;
Born to give them second birth.Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conquering seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.Now display thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to thine.Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface;
Stamp Thy image in its place.
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in thy love.Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the life, the inner Man:
O! to all thyself impart,
Form’d in each believing heart.
I had to look up welkin. It is interesting to see the rougher edge (from our viewpoint) of the original words, though I must say the last couple of stanzas haven’t changed much. Probably because we don’t sing them much.
When I was a kid, I thought the phrase, “with th’ angelic host proclaim” was “with the jelly toast proclaim,” so I have a mental picture of walking around the kitchen table with my toast held in the air.