Hark
the herald angels sing
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (Live At
The Helix In Dublin...
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"Hark!
The Herald Angels Sing"
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Published
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1739
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Form
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"Hark! The Herald
Angels Sing" is a Christmas
carol that
first appeared in 1739 in the collection Hymns
and Sacred Poems, having been written by Charles
Wesley. Wesley had requested and received slow and solemn music for
his lyrics, not the joyful tune expected today. Moreover, Wesley's original
opening couplet is "Hark! how all the welkin rings / Glory to the King of Kings".[1]
The popular version is the
result of alterations by various hands, notably by Wesley's co-worker George
Whitefield who
changed the opening couplet to the familiar one, and by Felix
Mendelssohn. A hundred years after the publication ofHymns and Sacred
Poems, in 1840, Mendelssohn composed a cantata to commemorate Johann
Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, 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 propels the carol known
today.[2][3]
