Angels We Have Heard on High


"Angels We Have Heard on High" is a Christmas carol to the hymn tune "Gloria" from a traditional French song of unknown origin called Les Anges dans nos campagnes, with English lyrics that were translated by James Chadwick. Chadwick's lyrics are derived and inspired and in parts a loose translation, from the French original. The song's subject is the birth of Jesus Christ as narrated in the Gospel of Luke, specifically the scene in which shepherds outside Bethlehem encounter a multitude of angels singing and praising the newborn child.

Tune

"Angels We Have Heard on High" is generally sung to the hymn tune "Gloria", a traditional French carol as arranged by Christian Edward Shippen Barnes. Its most memorable feature is its chorus, Gloria in excelsis Deo, where the "o" of "Gloria" is fluidly sustained through 18 notes of a rising and falling melismatic melodic sequence.
In England, the words of James Montgomery's "Angels from the Realms of Glory" are usually sung to this tune, with the "Gloria in excelsis Deo" refrain text replacing Montgomery's. It is from this usage that the tune sometimes is known as "Iris", the name of Montgomery's newspaper.

Lyrics

The lyrics of "Angels We Have Heard on High" are inspired by, but not an exact translation of, the traditional French carol known as Les Anges dans nos campagnes, whose first known publication was in 1843. "Angels We Have Heard On High" is the most-common English version, loosely translated in 1862 by James Chadwick, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, northeast England. Chadwick's lyrics are original in some sections, including the title, and loosely translated from the French in other sections. The carol quickly became popular in the West Country, where it was described as "Cornish" by R.R. Chope, and featured in Pickard-Cambridge's Collection of Dorset Carols. It has since been translated into other languages, and is widely sung and published.
"Gloria in excelsis Deo", Latin for "Glory to God in the Highest", is the first line of the song of the angels in the Gospel of Luke.

English


French