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Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

[ Roud 8337 ; Ballad Index FSWB381C ; Bodleian Roud 8337 ; Folkinfo 391 , 709 , 806 ; DT HRALDANG ; Charles Wesley]

Ralph Dunstan: The Cornish Songbook Ian Russell: The Sheffield Book of Village Carols The Derbyshire Book of Village Carols

Charles Wilson and the Empingham Hand Bell Ringers rang Hark, the Herald Angels Sing to Jean Ritchie in 1959. This recording was released on her Folkways album Field Trip—England. She noted:

Mr. Wilson is one of seven men (one for each note in the scale, and they can each ring two bells, if the tunes go higher or lower than one octave, and most tunes do) who have been meeting to ring handbells for many years. It is a sort of club, and much more sociable than church-bell ringing. All stand round a small table covered with a heavy cloth to deaden the sound of setting down the bells after they are rung. Also, sometimes they ring real changes where the bells are rotated around the circle until the change is completed. They perform for various functions in the village, and, of course, ring carols from house to house at Christmastime.

Martyn Wyndham-Read, Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick and Maggie Goodall sang Hark the Herald Angels Sing in 1986 on their Greenwich Village album Yuletracks.

Steve Tilston with Tony Hinnigan, Maggie Boyle and Tommy Keane played Hark! The Herald Angels Sing in 1989 on his, Peter Finger and Seth Austen’s Shanachie album of instrumental arrangements of Christmas carols and songs, Silently the Snow Falls.

Carollers from Foolow in the Peak District samg Hark, Hark, Hark on the 1994 Village Carols album. On This Delightful Morn. The Beeston Methodist Carol Choir sang Three Harks and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing on the 1997 Village Carols album Brightest and Best. Their Three Harks was also included in 1999 on the Smithsonian Folkways album of trraditional Christmas carolling from the Southern Pennines, English Village Carols. A 2002 recording of carollers from Coal Aston singing Little Hark was included in 2017 on the Village Carols album The Theme, the Song, the Joy on which the booklet noted:

This is one of two settings of Charles Wesley’s text (1707-1788: 1739), that they sing. The composer of the tune is not known. A copy is in the Bradley MS. It’s also sung at Thorpe Hesley in South Yorkshire, where it is known as Martin, and in Worsbrough, where it is called Herald Angels.

On the same CD is also a 2004 recording of carollers from Eyam singing Curly Hark, on which the booklet said:

The carol is in the Daniel and Gilbourne MSS, The words by Charles Wesley (1707-1788: 1739). The composer of the tune is not known. It’s locally attributed to George Dawson of Eyam, 1840-1898 (1880), who reputedly pricked it out in a moment of inspiration with his awl in the leather he was working on at the time. This is incorrect, as a version of the tune (Newton’ s St Paul’s) in the Martin MS, Poole, Dorset, is dated 1836 (see G. Ashman, 1998, pp. 76-77). The popularity of the carol has led to several other villages adopting it.

The Mellstock Band sang Newton’s, or St Paul’s in 1996 on their WildGoose album of music of rural England, Tenants of the Earth. They noted:

A setting of Hark the Herald Angels Sing from a manuscript from Poole dated 1836, which was also collected from oral tradition by Janet Blunt in 1917 in Addcrbury, Oxfordshire. Her informant, William Walton, had been in the choir from boyhood and had progressively learnt the treble, counter, tenor and bass parts of several carols.

Coope Boyes & Simpson sang The Three Harks in 1998 on their No Master album A Garland of Carols. This track was also included in 2006 on the Free Reed anthology celebrating the folk music and tradition of Christmas and the turning of the year, Midwinter. They noted on their album:

Elaborately harmonised hymns and carols, drawing inspiration from the oratorios of Handel and Bach became an accepted part of chapel services from the later eighteenth century. By the 1860s, however, they had become controversial, frowned on by reformers who favoured plain tunes or music created by reputable composers like Mendelssohn—there was no place for the four-part harmonies of local carol music written by blacksmiths, tailors and farm workers. But in spite of opposition, the old favourites continued to be remembered and performed in areas of Cornwall, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing was written by Charles Wesley in 1739. Today, his text is sung in a form edited to fit the tune known Berlin—an adaptation of one of Felix Mendelssohn’s Festival Songs written in 1840.

The Three Harks is an echo of earlier versions of Wesley’s carol—before it became associated with Mendelssohn’s music. It is believed to have been brought to the Methodist chapels of Gotham in Nottinghamshire by Yorkshire stocking makers in the eighteenth century. The music is from an old unsigned manuscript uncovered by the folklorist Peter Millington.

BACCApella, the singers of the BACCApipes Folk Club in Keighley including Maggie Boyle, Jim Ellison, Lynda Hardcastle, Fay Hield, and Mike and Helen Hockenhull, sang Harky Harky in 1999 on their privately released album The Haworth Set.

Cherish the Ladies sang Hark! The Herald Angels Sing in 2004 on their Rounder album On Christmas Night.

Maddy Prior sang the carol Hark! The Herald Angels Sing on Steeleye Span’s 2004 CD, Winter. She noted:

A slightly less robust singing of this commonly sung carol. But we’ve beefed up the backing.

Ian Giles, John Spiers, Jon Boden and Giles Lewin sang Hark! The Herald Angels Sing in 2006 on the Gift of Music album An English Folk Christmas.

The Albion Christmas Band sang Hark! The Herald Angels Sing in 2008 on their Talking Elephant album Snow on Snow; this track was also included in 2014 on their compilation The Carols. They recorded it again on their 2009 Talking Elephant album Traditional. A live recording from Kings Place Music Foundation on 12 December 2013 was released in 2014 on their Rooksmere album One for the Road.

Kate Rusby sang Hark the Herald on her 2008 olbum Sweet Bells and she sang the same lyrics under the title Little Bilberry on her 2015 album The Frost Is All Over.

GreenMatthews sang Hark! The Herald Angels Sing on their 2011 CD A Victorian Christmas.

Magpie Lane sang Newton’s Double in 2018 on their anniversary album The 25^th. They noted:

Newton‘s Double is from the repertoire of singer, morris dancer, and all-round village character William ‘Binx’ Walton, of Adderbury in North Oxfordshire. Walton was 80 years old in 1916 when he sang this, and a number of other West Gallery era carols to local song collector Janet Blunt. Having been a singer all his life, he had at some time sung all of the harmony lines, and was still able to remember them all. Because of the fuguing nature of the melody Miss Blunt had trouble piecing the parts together correctly. Fortunately Dave Townsend managed to do it, and included this arrangement in his book Oxfordshire Carols.

Seb Stone and Samuel Day sanng Hark, Hark, Hark on their 2025 album Foolow Carols. They noted:

Another familiar text set to an unfamiliar tune. This setting of Hark the Herald Angels Sing is a real favourite of ours to sing. It’s bold and direct, and with deep emotion. With so much of this music, it’s the rests that give it such impact. Maybe even better than Mendelssohn…

Lyrics

Maddy Prior sings Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

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

Christ by highest heav’n adoredm
Christ the everlasting Lord.
Late in time behold him come,
Offspring of the virgins womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail, th’incarnate deity:
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.
Hark the herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn king.

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace,
Hail the Son of Righteousness.
Light and life to all he brings,
Risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die:
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark the herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn king.

Kate Rusby sings Hark the Herald

Hark! the herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn king,
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled.

Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.

Joyful all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies,
With the angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem”.

Beautiful Zion heaven above,
Beautiful city that I love,
Beautiful gates of pearly white,
Beautiful city full of light.