Hymn Of The Week: December 14, 2020

Hymn of the Week: Angels We Have Heard on High!
Glory to God #113

Angels We Have Heard on High!

Verse 1
Angels, we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o'er the plains,
And the mountains in reply
Echo back their joyous strains.

Refrain:
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Verse 2
Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be
Which inspire your heav'nly song. [Refrain]

Verse 3
Come to Bethlehem and see
Him whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee
Christ the Lord, the newborn King. [Refrain]

The French people love to sing at Christmas! Chants de Noël (Christmas Carols) from France may be found in most English-language hymnals. In Luke 2:14 we find the canticle of the angel’s song—one of the most famous and frequently sung of the Christmas canticles. The refrain of “Angels we have heard on high” is taken directly from this verse.

Reflecting a common theme found throughout the history of Christian hymnody, a cosmic chorus resounds in the first stanza. The chorus begins in heaven with the angels. Then the “mountains in reply” echo back in response—antiphonally, symbolizing the participation of earth.

The entire hymn is a traditional French carol that originated as early as the eighteenth century and was published in North America in Nouveau Recueil de Cantiques (New Hymnal) for the Diocese of Quebec in 1819. Several versions, or translations, of the text, can be found, but they all stem from the same source and are inspired by Luke 2:6-20.

The original hymn appeared in French – “Les Anges Dans nos Campagnes” – in eight stanzas arranged in a dialogue form alternating between the shepherds (Bergers) in stanzas one, three, and six, and the women (Femmes de Bethlehem) in stanzas two, four, and seven. All sing together in stanzas five and eight.

The carol as we know it today originated around the 1700s, though it was not printed until the following century. Because it uses a vernacular language for the narrative stanzas and Latin for the refrain, it belongs to a special category of hymns called: “macaronic” or mixed-language texts.

Enjoy this week’s JuBellee ensemble playing this much-loved Christmas Carol. This group works hard and I know you will thoroughly enjoy listening to Linda Lamb’s arrangement of this carol.