As I mentioned last year at this time, I usually don't start thinking about practicing Christmas music until after Thanksgiving .... and then get really good at it by about the middle of February!  Each year I vow to start going over those tunes earlier.  In light of the fact that most of the local shopping malls already seem to be putting out their Christmas displays, it seems appropriate.   So this month's free tab is a 2-part arrangement of the classic Christmas anthem "Hark the Herald Angels Sing".

The words were penned in 1739 by Charles Wesley, who along with his brother John were leaders of the evangelical revival in the Church of England in the eighteenth century, which eventually evolved into the Methodist church.  Charles wrote over 9000 hymns and poems in his lifetime.  Some of his better known works include "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus", "Amazing Love", "Love Divine All Loves Excelling", "Oh For A Thousand Tongues to Sing", and the Easter anthem "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today".  In fact, Charles wrote both his famous Easter and Christmas anthems in the same year (1739), and originally, they both shared the same tune (which is still the tune most commonly associated with "Christ the Lord Is Risen"). 

About 15 years after its original publication, Wesley's student and friend George Whitfield made some changes to the original lyrics, reorganized the verses to make them longer, and deleted some of Wesley's original lines (all against Wesley's expressed written wishes!).

But the transformation of this hymn didn't end there.  In 1840, Felix Mendelssohn, whose bicentennial is being celebrated this year, wrote a cantata to commemorate the printer Johann Gutenberg and the invention of his printing press.  In 1856, organist W. H. Cummings adapted the 2nd movement of that cantata to the Christmas hymn, further reorganizing the lines into the now familiar 10-line stanzas, and further altering Mendelssohn's music to fit. 

This is a 2-part arrangement, so find a playing partner, and start practicing now! ;-)

Cheers,

--Tull

Here are the complete set of lyrics:

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!”

Refrain

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.

Refrain

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.

Refrain