#270: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Mar. 10th, 2019 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lutheranhymnsWhat's up with the harmonization?
There are some huge intervals in the bass clef. At a couple points, the tenors and basses (higher and lower mens' parts) are singing an octave plus a fifth apart, which is big. But during the start of the third line ("Joyful, all"), the basses, tenors, and altos (lower women's part) are all together on middle C, while the sopranos are an octave higher! Cool unison effect.
What about the lyrics?
It's a classic for a reason! I love "join the triumph of the skies," as if the stars have just won the big game, but the next couple verses are great too. Even my dad, who isn't really the music-reader in our family, listed this as one of his favorite Christmas hymns once.
Any translation issues?
No and yes. It's by Charles Wesley, who was a native English speaker, so there aren't too many divergent versions of the lyrics. But there have been a couple different arrangements/rearrangements, and I'm sometimes thrown for a loop when I hear it on the radio during Christmas song season. One because it's better than a lot of pop Christmas music, but two because it's often a more "masculine" text--"pleased as man with men to dwell," "born to raise the sons of Earth"--then this arrangement. This is one of those times where I'm very used to the way ours flows, including the PC adjustments.
What about the music composer?
That's Felix Mendelssohn, of general classical music fame. (Just me? Fine.)
There are some huge intervals in the bass clef. At a couple points, the tenors and basses (higher and lower mens' parts) are singing an octave plus a fifth apart, which is big. But during the start of the third line ("Joyful, all"), the basses, tenors, and altos (lower women's part) are all together on middle C, while the sopranos are an octave higher! Cool unison effect.
What about the lyrics?
It's a classic for a reason! I love "join the triumph of the skies," as if the stars have just won the big game, but the next couple verses are great too. Even my dad, who isn't really the music-reader in our family, listed this as one of his favorite Christmas hymns once.
Any translation issues?
No and yes. It's by Charles Wesley, who was a native English speaker, so there aren't too many divergent versions of the lyrics. But there have been a couple different arrangements/rearrangements, and I'm sometimes thrown for a loop when I hear it on the radio during Christmas song season. One because it's better than a lot of pop Christmas music, but two because it's often a more "masculine" text--"pleased as man with men to dwell," "born to raise the sons of Earth"--then this arrangement. This is one of those times where I'm very used to the way ours flows, including the PC adjustments.
What about the music composer?
That's Felix Mendelssohn, of general classical music fame. (Just me? Fine.)
