Angels We have Heard On High

[simpleazon-image align=”left” asin=”B000YRNXV2″ locale=”us” height=”350″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ikpxDEv7L.jpg” width=”350″]This is definitely one of my favorite Christmas Carols. It always brings me great joy whenever I sing it. Angels We Have Heard On High is considered one of the many French carols sung during Christmas. The French is Les Anges dans Nos Campagnes.  The hymn was translated by Bishop James Chadwick on 1862 and published in The Crown of Jesus Music. It also was printed in Holy Family Hymns in 1860. Bishop James Chadwick wrote the words and the music was written by Edwin S. Barnes from a traditional French Christmas hymn.

The literal translation of Les Anges dans Nos Campagnes is Angels In Our Countryside. The hymn makes reference to the heavenly host that visited Jesus on his birthday.

The Christmas hymn has 4 versus and the familiar refrain, Gloria, in excelsis deo. The refrain itself was part of a charming French custom in southern France. Shepherds on Christmas Eve would call to each other from whatever hillside they were on, Gloria in Excelsis Deo. The calling appears to have been part of a Medieval Latin chorus.

No one really knows who wrote the traditional French hymn that incorporated that refrain used by French shepherds. The hymn, however, was sung in England as early as 1816 when James Montgomery wrote his hymn, Angels From the Realms of Glory. Angels From the Realms of Glory used the music of Angels We Have Heard on High until 1967 when Henry Thomas Smart gave it new music.

The French hymn was published in 1855 in France and appeared in The Crown of Jesus Music published by Henri Frederick in 1862. The music was composed by Edwin S. Barnes and the words were from Bishop James Chadwick.  The American Angels We Have Heard on High was printed in 1916 in a collection of hymns called Carols Old and Carols New.

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 strains.

Refrain
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?

Refrain

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

Refrain

See Him in a manger laid,
Whom the choirs of angels praise;
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,
While our hearts in love we raise.

Refrain