“Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” reverses a trend we’ve seen in these holiday songs. The lyrics we use today were written by a Methodist leader in the 1750s, adapting the form that a fellow minister composed about 20 years later.
But the melody came about a century later, when a cantana composed by Felix Mendelssohn was put to the existing lyrics.
It’s not a bad song. But I think we love it because it’s what’s playing when George Bailey finds out he’s actually the richest man in Bedford Falls and when the Peanuts gang realizes Charlie Brown picked out the perfect tree. It carries emotional weight in the holiday season.
The version I’ve picked for today is one introduced to me by my brother several years ago. It’s performed by a group called Cuba/L.A., an ensemble that sought to popularize Afro-Cuban music in the 1990s and 2000s.
Playing this version never fails to stir me. Hee haw and I hope you enjoy it.
SUBJECTISM 