?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing? is a Christmas carol
that first appeared in 1739 in the collection Hymns and
Sacred Poems, having been written by Charles Wesley.
This is not the version widely known today. The popular
version is the result of alterations by various hands,
notably George Whitefield, Wesley's co-worker, who
changed the opening couplet to the familiar one, and
Felix Mendelssohn. A hundred years after the
publication of Hymns and Sacred Poems, in 1840,
Mendelssohn composed a cantata ...(+)
?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing? is a Christmas carol
that first appeared in 1739 in the collection Hymns and
Sacred Poems, having been written by Charles Wesley.
This is not the version widely known today. The popular
version is the result of alterations by various hands,
notably George Whitefield, Wesley's co-worker, who
changed the opening couplet to the familiar one, and
Felix Mendelssohn. A hundred years after the
publication of Hymns and Sacred Poems, in 1840,
Mendelssohn composed a cantata to commemorate Johann
Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, and it is
music from this cantata, adapted by the English
musician William H. Cummings to fit the lyrics of
?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing?, that propels the carol
we know. (Wikipedia)
SHEET MUSIC