HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING

Music: Felix Mendelssohn
Text: Charles Wesley
Arrangement: Michael Davis

This popular Christmas song would probably have been rejected by the composer and lyricist had they known it in its present form. Famed German composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) originally wrote the melody for an 1840 cantata commemorating Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press and declared that the “soldier-like” tune would never be suited to a sacred text. One hundred years earlier, Charles Wesley had suggested that his own hymn text “Hark, how all the welkin [heaven] rings” should be sung to a slow and solemn melody. It was William Cummings who, in 1855, ignored both their suggestions, joined Wesley’s text with Mendelssohn’s music, and created one of the most joyful and beloved Christmas hymns.
 

Michael Davis, formerly Chief of Music Production for the United States Air Force Band, and a regular collaborator with The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square, wrote this arrangement of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” especially for Ruthie Ann Miles and the Choir and Orchestra.