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Christmas Music, Part 2 – Joy To The World

Joy To The World

Joy to the World, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King.

Isaac Watts wrote the words to “Joy to the World” in 1719, based on Psalm 98 in the Bible. The hymn originally glorified Christ’s triumphant return at the end of the age, rather than a song celebrating His first coming. Only the second half of Watts’ lyrics are still used today.

The music was adapted and arranged to Watts’ lyrics by Lowell Mason in 1839 from an older melody which was then believed to have originated from Handel. The name “Antioch” is generally used for the hymn tune.

As of the late 20th century, “Joy to the World” was the most-published Christmas hymn in North America.

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Posted by MaryO on December 2, 2012 in Books of The Bible, Christmas Music, Music, Posts of Interest, The Holy Bible, Videos

Tags: Antioch, Bible, carol, carolers, Christmas, Feast of Tabernacles, God, Handel, hymn, Isaac Watts, Joy to the World, Lowell Mason, music, Psalm 98, Psalms, Savior

Music!

27 Nov

Christmas caroling accompaniments are available for free download from http://www.gbod.org. Save to disk or drive, take the “piano” with you.

From that link:

These piano accompaniments of familiar hymns are provided as free downloads as a joint project of The General Board of Discipleship and United Methodist Communications. They are intended to provide accompaniments for congregational singing for those churches which, for whatever reason, are unable to provide accompaniment for singing. You may find that you can also use them for choir, solo, or Sunday School use, Christmas caroling, or singing at any group setting. All accompaniments are provided without copyright. You may use them for any purpose without charge or having to seek permission.

In almost all cases, we have provided accompaniments from The United Methodist Hymnal (1989), with an introduction and multiple stanzas in the key provided in the hymnal. Occasionally an alternate harmonization is included. Watch for new hymns to be added in the future.

Also most of the Methodist Hymnal is available as sheet music (I guess that term is now defunct!) for the iPad. The app plays each hymn, as well.