Please turn to hymn number 25 and join with the clarinets in “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”.
Name: MENDELSSOHN
Meter: 7 7, 7 7, D.
Tempo: In moderate time
Music: Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy 1809-47
Text: Paul Gerhardt, 1607-76
Tr. Catherine Winkworth
Another oldie, but goodie.
First off, famous composer alert!
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (German: [ˈjaːkɔp ˈluːtvɪç ˈfeːlɪks ˈmɛndl̩szoːn baʁˈtɔldi]; 3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn,[n 1] was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period.
From the wikipedia article regarding “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”:
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is a Christmas carol that first appeared in 1739 in the collection Hymns and Sacred Poems, having been written by Charles Wesley. Wesley had requested and received slow and solemn music for his lyrics, not the joyful tune expected today.
In 1855, English musician William H. Cummings adapted Felix Mendelssohn‘s secular music from Festgesang to fit the lyrics of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” written by Charles Wesley.[12] Wesley envisioned the song being sung to the same tune as his Easter song “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today“,[13] and in some hymnals that tune is included for “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” along with the more popular Mendelssohn-Cummings tune.[14]
Also, from the wikipedia article on Mendelssohn:
The hymn tune Mendelssohn – an adaptation by William Hayman Cummings of a melody from Mendelssohn’s cantata Festgesang (Festive Hymn) – is the standard tune forCharles Wesley‘s popular hymn Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. This extract from an originally secular 1840s composition, which Mendelssohn felt unsuited to sacred music,[93]
Funny, so neither the text’s author nor the music’s composer liked what eventually became the most popular version of the song! There’s probably a lesson there about popular taste.
Here’s my arrangement for 5 clarinets: 025.ServiceBookAndHymnal
There were some alternate melodies, so I actually ended up with 1 Clarinet playing the “soprano” part, 2 Clarinets doing the “alto” parts, 1 Clarinet playing the “tenor” part, and 2 Bass clarinets doing the “bass” parts in the final recording. Total of 6 clarinet parts. I’ve been tweaking the Audacity “Church” Reverb effect presets so that it has less effect on the levels of the tune.
