Praise.com is thrilled to partner with Getty Music to bring you exclusive free content from preeminent modern hymn writers, Keith and Kristyn Getty. Keith and Kristyn have reinvented the traditional hymn and become global ambassadors for modern hymns in the USA and throughout the world. Best known for their instant classic “In Christ Alone,” their hymns are used increasingly in both traditional and contemporary circles.
Each month we will feature a different hymn from the Getty music catalogue. You will have access to a recording of the song and original sheet music.
The second selection this month is “Joy Has Dawned (Angels We Have Heard on High).” Here, Getty Music has joined a traditional French carol with original orchestration and lyrics.
“Joy Has Dawned (Angels We Have Heard on High)”: The Story Behind the Song
This is such a beautiful carol. It’s one of the most joyful and well-written choruses ever composed. The English version was written in 1862 by James Chadwick, a Roman Catholic Bishop in the north east of England, and is most often sung to the tune of a traditional French carol ‘Gloria.’
The lyrics are based on an original French song ‘Les Anges dans nos campagnes’ (literally ‘the Angels in our countryside’). It depicts the story of the nativity as told in Luke 2, where a whole company of Angelic hosts appear to a small group of unassuming shepherds in the countryside.
Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be?
Which inspire your heavenly songs?
Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be?
Which inspire your heavenly songs?
As the angels gather in the night sky, they proclaim: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests,” (Luke 2:14).
And this is where the song’s memorable refraincomes from; the line ‘Glory to God in the Highest heaven,’ translated into Latin becomes:
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
And it’s sung with that wonderfully prolonged ‘o’ of Gloria which is such a delight to sing and captures something of the joy and reverence of heaven.
My favourite verse is the fourth one:
Come to Bethlehem to see
him whose birth the angels sing
Come adore on bended knee
Christ the Lord the new-born King
him whose birth the angels sing
Come adore on bended knee
Christ the Lord the new-born King
What must it have been like for the shepherds to witness a sky full of worshipping angels 2,000 years ago? It must have been incredible. With this carol we are invited to join in with their worship and to add volume to the heavenly sound as we declare the birth of our King.
A great Christian life, or a great sermon, or a great song have a way of showing Christ to be so vast and glorious that our response can only be to humble ourselves, to bow down on bended knee and to acknowledge and be in awe of the greatness of our God. I think this carol enables us to do that really well.
To get tickets for Sing! An Irish Christmas tour head over to: https://www.gettymusic.com/christmas
Keith Getty
Free Mp3: HERE
Free sheet music: HERE
Listen to “Angels We Have Heard on High” on Spotify!