One of the most classic tunes in Christmas, the lovely “Angels We Have Heard on High” is instantly recognizable. Its flowing, lovely stanzas combined with sweet lyrics are often stated as one of the most popular choices in Christmas carols during the holiday season. We sing it over and over each holiday season, but few of us have stopped to question its source or where the original lyrics and tune came from. Where did this gorgeous hymn originate? What is the history behind this famous carol? How long have Christians been singing its lyrics to praise God in the highest during the holiday celebration season?
The first version of the song was from a traditional French carol called “Les Anges dans nos Campagnes” and was translated into English by the Bishop James Chadwick in the nineteenth century. It appeared for the first time in the Holy Family Hymns in 1860. Chadwick translated the popular and common English version that we sing today.
The carol that we know and love today came from the Lorraine region of France, although its first French publication most likely was in Quebec in 1842. From the French lyrics, Chadwick translated the song that we know and love today with its call to shepherds and their rural setting.
Oftentimes, the version that we hear and play today uses a slightly different version of “Gloria,” taking its cues from an anonymous tune arranged by Edward Shippen Barnes. It is the version that we all now will hum consistently to ourselves during the holiday season and is the crowning moment of the song between stanzas.
What inspired this song to be created and be sung in celebration at Christmastime? The French legend indicates that on Christmas Eve, many shepherds would sing and call to each other from hillside to hillside. They would call “Gloria in excelsis Deo” which means “glory to God in the highest” in Latin. It was how they would spread their holiday message and cheer from points far away to one another. From hillside to valley, the shepherds song must have truly sounded like angels calling to one another in celebration of the birth of Christ for the Christians living in nearby regions. Also, the song reflects the shepherds joy that the time of the holiday season has arrived yet again.
Angels we have heard on high
Learn the instrumental guitar arrangement of ‘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)
An alternate translation, by George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934):
Shepherds in the field abiding,
Tell us when the seraph bright
Greeted you with wondrous tiding,
What you saw and heard that night.
(Refrain)
We beheld—it is no fable—
God incarnate, King of bliss,
Swathed and cradled in a stable,
And the angel strain was this:
(Refrain)
Choristers on high were singing
Jesus and His virgin birth,
Heavenly bells the while a-ringing
“Peace, good will to men on earth.”
(Refrain)
The Angel’s Song
For the shepherds, their song to one another was an imitation of the song that they believed the angels’ to have sung on the eve that Christ was born. In the second century on A.D. 129, Pope Telesphorus ordained that this phrase be sung at the midnight mass on Christmas Eve to celebrate the occasion. From that point on, the phrase and song was known as the “Angel’s Hymn” and was considered to be one of the first Christmas hymns of the Christian church. The shepherds used their bucolic surroundings to let their celebrations be heard from long distances, keeping the tradition alive and keeping the Christmas hymn in the forefront of their neighbors’ minds.