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Category Archives: Christmas Music

Christmas Music, Part 7 – Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Charles Wesley (1707-1788), the younger brother of John Wesley wrote the words to this Christmas Carol.

Charles was a hymn writer and a poet, also known as one of the people who began the Methodist movement in the Church of England. Hark the Herald Angels Sing appeared in 1739 in a book called Hymns and Sacred Poems.

Wesley envisioned this being sung to the same tune as his hymn, Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, and in some hymnals it is included along with the more popular version.

This hymn was regarded as one of the Great Four Anglican Hymns and published as number 403 in “The Church Hymn Book” (New York and Chicago, USA, 1872).

To celebrate the invention of the printing press, Felix Mendelssohn composed a cantata in 1840 called Festgesang or “Festival Song”. The melody of Mendelssohn’s cantata was then used by William H. Cummings and adapted it to the lyrics of Wesley’s “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 the angelic host proclaim:
“Christ is born in Bethlehem”
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”

2 Comments

Posted by MaryO on December 7, 2012 in Christmas Music, Posts of Interest, Videos

Tags: Cantata, carol, Charles Wesley, Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, Christmas, Christmas Music, Church of England, Felix Mendelssohn, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, hymn, hymnal, John Wesley, Methodist, music, William H. Cummings

Christmas Music, Part 6 – Just In Time For Christmas

06 Dec

From RevKev, Pender’s Associate Pastor – “As it was, so it is, Christmas about Jesus. We are all distracted by the glitz and festivities, but let us hear the sound of Angels and the call to worship our Newborn King. Just in time for Christmas, a gift from God to you: A baby in a manger who would love us through and through.

Just In Time For Christmas, the latest album release by JC Reigns. 100% of the sales from this CD go to Western Fairfax Christian Ministries to support their mission of providing life-essential support to those needing assistance.

CDs available for purchase at Pender UMC, Fairfax Va and the WFCM Thrift Store in Chantilly, Va. Visit www.jcreigns.org for more information and for a link to purchase digital copies.”

Christmas Music, Part 5 – Carol of the Bells

05 Dec

Carol of the Bells was composed by Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych (1877-1921) in 1916. Originally titled Shchedryk, this Ukrainian folk song is sometimes called Ukrainian Bell Carol.

It was first performed in the Ukraine on the night of January 13, 1916, on the Julian calendar this is considered New Year’s Eve. In the United States the song was first performed on October 5, 1921 at Carnegie Hall.

This video is from the Christmas special of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, presented at the BYU channel. Very beautiful sound of bells, the orchestra and choir, enjoy the video!

Not the standard version –

2 Comments

Posted by MaryO on December 5, 2012 in Christmas Music, Videos, Webmaster posts

Tags: carol, Carol of the Bells, Christmas, Leontovych, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Muppets, music, Ukrainian Bell Carol

Christmas Music, Part 4 – I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day

04 Dec

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” is a Christmas carol based on the 1863 poem “Christmas Bells” by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The song tells of the narrator’s despair, upon hearing Christmas bells, that “hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men”. The carol concludes with the bells carrying renewed hope for peace among mankind.

This version is done by Casting Crowns. I chose it because the Pender choir sang this on Christmas Eve with past-Associate Pastor Dan Elmore singing the solo…and I fell in love with this version.

As seen on 2008 TBN Christmas special. “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day” is available on Casting Crowns’ Christmas album, Peace On Earth.

More traditionally, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s version:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

2 Comments

Posted by MaryO on December 4, 2012 in Christmas Music, Videos, Webmaster posts

Tags: bells, carol, Casting Crowns, choir, Christmas Eve, Christmas Music, Dan Elmore, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, music, Peace on Earth, solo

Christmas Music, Part 3 – Angels We Have Heard On High

03 Dec

Angels We Have Heard On High

Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o’er the plains
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strainsCHORUS:
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be
Which inspire your heavenly song? Chorus

Come to Bethlehem and see
Him Whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King. Chorus

See Him in a manger laid
Jesus Lord of heaven and earth;
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,
With us sing our Savior’s birth. Chorus

This is a traditional French carol (Les Anges dans nos Campagnes) that was translated into English by Bishop James Chadwick.

This carol commemorates the story of the birth of Jesus Christ found in the Gospel of Luke, in which shepherds outside Bethlehem encounter a multitude of angels singing and praising the newborn child.

In 2009, Andrea Bocelli and David Foster collaborated to produce a Christmas album with a number of other music legends. This is “Angels We Have Heard on High” with choir and orchestra.