Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

About this arrangement

Mendelssohn’s tune, arranged in C major so there are no black keys. The thumb starts on the G below middle C for “Hark! the her-ald”, then moves up to middle C for “an-gels”, putting the hand in C position. The first two lines stay between that G and E, apart from “Glo-ry to the” in bar 3 and “God” in bar 7, which leap up to G. Look out for the dotted crotchet and quaver on “her-ald”, the pair of quavers on “is” in “Christ is born”, and the climb to A in bars 13 and 17, where the little finger stretches up a key. The left hand plays block chords in C, F, G, A minor and D minor.

Practice tip: Bars 1 to 4 and bars 5 to 8 start the same way and only differ at the end, so learn bars 1 to 4 well and the second line is nearly free. Bars 3 and 4, “Glo-ry to the new-born King”, sit right in C position: G G G F E D E with fingers 5 5 5 4 3 2 3.

The words

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 angelic host proclaim, "Christ is born in Bethlehem." Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King!"

A short history

Charles Wesley wrote the words in 1739, in his Hymns and Sacred Poems, as a Christmas hymn that opened “Hark, how all the welkin rings”. His friend and rival George Whitefield changed the first line to the one we sing in 1753, and other editors trimmed Wesley’s ten verses to the three that are usual today.

The tune came a century later. In 1840 Felix Mendelssohn wrote a cantata, Festgesang, for a festival in Leipzig marking four hundred years since Gutenberg’s printing press, and one of its choruses had a stirring march-like melody. Mendelssohn thought the music would never suit sacred words. In 1855 the English organist William Hayman Cummings fitted Wesley’s hymn to it anyway, and the pairing has stuck ever since.

It is one of the Great Four Anglican hymns of the 19th century and has closed the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, since 1918.

Quick facts

Tune

Felix Mendelssohn, 1840; adapted by William H. Cummings, 1855

Words

Charles Wesley, 1739

Key

C major

Time signature

4/4

Length

20 bars

Tempo

Joyfully, crotchet = 112

Difficulty

Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 79 of 201)

Type

Carol

Hands

Both: melody in the right hand, chords in the left

Copyright

Public domain tune; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal and classroom use

Questions and answers