Hark! The Herald Angels ... Print?

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Christmas 2007 was the first one I celebrated in America. I spent it with a family of very Lutheran friends, who introduced me to a good number of Christmas songs I hadn't known before. One of them stood out for me: a hymn called "Hark! The Herald Angels sing". I loved the melody, rejoiced the harmonies, and immediately grew very fond of the whole thing. Obviously, in the two years since, America's malls have done their best to ruin the joy for me. Through endless replays of third-rate choirs singing the hymn, they did make a dent in my enthusiasm. But they never got their vicious work done completely.

I digress, though. What I wanted to get at is one thing about this hymn that made me wonder: Its music, which I was so enthusiastic about, was written by a well-known German composer, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. I am a German with a keen interest in classical music. So how come didn't I know a hymn that every American recognizes immediately? Yesterday I decided to look into this. Turns out I didn't even need to go past my first stop, Wikipedia, to get my answer: Mendelssohn's composition was a one-off throwaway he composed for the 400th anniversiary of book printing.

Then the Anglican Church came along, lifted the music from its original text, and grafted it onto an older one written by John Wesley. (This was still possible in the 19th century, when both Germany and England lacked copyright laws with any bite.) The full title of the original hymn is far from catchy: Festgesang zur Eröffnung der am ersten Tage der vierten Säkularfeier der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst: Rough translation: Ceremonial chant to open the celebration of the fourth centennial of the invention of book printing.

Summing up, then, one of the most popular Christian hymns in America is pirated from an utterly secular German throwaway song. How ironic is that?

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Type: Discussion • Score: 8 • Views: 2,115 • Replies: 13

[+3] - dyslexia - 12/16/2009I believe the tune you've been seeking is actually "Mark and Harold of Los Angles Sing" performed by ACDC the orginal only available on 8-track.

@Thomas,

Very cool! I didn't know that.

I like it too so I'm happy to learn of its secular origins.

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We tend to like to lift old throwaway tunes and rehash them for our own purposes.

Our very national anthem is based on an old English drinking song.

I did not know that Mendelssohn wrote the music to "Hark! . . ."

You learn something new everyday.

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On the track about musical origins, I didn't know that the music for "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" was so old until I came across some variations written by W. A. Mozart.

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@Thomas,

I was singing that in the car yesterday!

A lonely soprano line sans any harmony.....

It has lovely soaring bits.

And all this time I was praising printing!

Love it.

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@Thomas,

(Just briefly .. not wanting to derail your thread or anything, Thomas ...)

On the subject of religious music: I love Handel's Messiah! (I know it's not Christmas music. Wink

) Plus I have a fantastic CD of Buddhist monks chanting, which I play often. Plus a few other bits & pieces ...
The thing is (as I was thinking a couple of nights ago, as I was blasting the house with the Messiah) it's a sort of weird pleasure for a totally non-religious person, isn't it? You can love the music & have almost zilch empathy for what inspired it in the first place.

But I don't appreciate being blasted with religious music/Christmas carols in shopping malls, either!

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Thanks for the history, thomas.

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@InfraBlue,

InfraBlue wrote:

Our very national anthem is based on an old English drinking song.

Thanks! You just tought me something I didn't know.

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@Thomas,

I believe the tune you've been seeking is actually "Mark and Harold of Los Angles Sing" performed by ACDC the orginal only available on 8-track.

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@msolga,

msolga wrote:

It's a sort of weird pleasure for a totally non-religious person, isn't it? You can love the music & have almost zilch empathy for what inspired it in the first place.

I know what you mean -- Haendel's polyphony and orchestration probably do most of the job there. Have you tried Haendel's Music for the Royal Fireworks? Same kind of music, no words.

Nevertheless, I do enjoy some religious music for its texts. Bach's St Mathew's Passion, for example, is pure opera. And the beauty of some of its Chorals is enhanced by its spiritual meaning.

PS: Derail away! I just wanted to get the history out there. The thread's purpose is already achieved.

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@Thomas,

Quote:

I know what you mean -- Haendel's polyphony and orchestration probably do most of the job there. Have you tried Haendel's Music for the Royal Fireworks? Same kind of music, no words.

No, I hadn't, Thomas. But I just did! Thanks.

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@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

Mendelssohn's composition was a one-off throwaway he composed for the 400th anniversiary of book printing. [...]
(This was still possible in the 19th century, when both Germany and England lacked copyright laws with any bite.) The full title of the original hymn is far from catchy: Festgesang zur Eröffnung der am ersten Tage der vierten Säkularfeier der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst: Rough translation: Ceremonial chant to open the celebration of the fourth centennial of the invention of book printing.

It's played here in Germany as well - though not with the original text ( it's the 2nd mvt. of the cantata "Vaterland, in deinen Gauen brach der gold’ne Tag einst an Deutschland, deine Völker sahn seinen Schimmer niederthauen. Gutenberg, der deutsche Mann…)
It was played the first time in Leipzig (when the statue of Gutenberg was uncovered on Leipzig's marketplace, with a 200 person choir and a "grand orchestre").

I'm not sure, if the Gutenberg statue really is on this postcard - but the Thomas church fits better, I think Wink

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@Walter Hinteler,

A (Jugendstil) postcard showing the memorial is just being auctioned at ebay

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@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

It's played here in Germany as well - though not with the original text ( it's the 2nd mvt. of the cantata "Vaterland, in deinen Gauen brach der gold’ne Tag einst an Deutschland, deine Völker sahn seinen Schimmer niederthauen. Gutenberg, der deutsche Mann…)

It's funny -- if book printing had been invented by an American, Americans would sing this text loudly and proudly, and couldn't understand why on Earth anyone could find anything problematic about it.

Thanks for those pictures! I agree the Thomaskirche is the most important building in Leipzig. Razz

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Hark! The Herald Angels ... Print?

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