Glory to God ‎#113

113. Angels We Have Heard on High

1 Angels we have heard on high,
sweetly singing o’er the plains,
and the mountains in reply
echoing their joyous strains.
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Gloria in excelsis Deo!

2 Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be
which inspire your heavenly song?
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Gloria in excelsis Deo!

3 Come to Bethlehem and see
him whose birth the angels sing;
come, adore on bended knee
Christ, the Lord, the newborn King.
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Text Information

• First Line: Angels we have heard on high
• Title: Angels We Have Heard on High
• Translator: James Chadwick (1860, alt.)
• Refrain First Line: Gloria in excelsis Deo!
• Meter: 7.7.7.7 with refrain
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 2013
• Scripture:
  Luke 2:8-14
• Topic: Christian Year: Nativity/Christmas; Christian Year: Epiphany; Jesus Christ: Birth
• Source: French carol

Tune Information

• Name: GLORIA
• Arranger: Edward Shippen Barnes (1937)
• Meter: 7.7.7.7 with refrain
• Key: F Major
• Source: French carol
• Copyright: © 1937, ren. 1965 H. Augustine Smith Jr. (admin. Fleming H. Revell Company, a div. of Baker Publishing Group)

Text Information:

This French carol probably dates from the 1700s, though it was not printed until the following century. Because it uses a vernacular language for the narrative stanzas and Latin for the refrain, it belongs to a special category called “macaronic” or mixed-language texts.