Angels We Have Heard on High

"Angels We Have Heard on High" is generally sung to the hymn tune "Gloria", a traditional French carol as arranged by Edward Shippen Barnes. Its most memorable feature is its chorus, Gloria in excelsis Deo, where the "o" of "Gloria" is fluidly sustained through 16 notes of a rising and falling melismatic melodic sequence.

In England, the words of James Montgomery's "Angels from the Realms of Glory" are usually sung to this tune, with the "Gloria in excelsis Deo" refrain text replacing Montgomery's. It is from this usage that the tune sometimes is known as "Iris", the name of Montgomery's newspaper.[1]

The lyrics of "Angels We Have Heard on High" are inspired by, but not an exact translation of, the traditional French carol known as Les Anges dans nos campagnes (literally "the angels in our countryside"),[2] whose first known publication was in 1843.[3] "Angels We Have Heard On High" is the most-common English version, an 1862 paraphrase by James Chadwick, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, northeast England. Chadwick's lyrics are original in some sections, including the title, and loosely translated from the French in other sections. The carol quickly became popular in the West Country, where it was described as "Cornish" by R.R. Chope, and featured in Pickard-Cambridge's Collection of Dorset Carols.[4] It has since been translated into other languages,[5] and is widely sung and published. Modern hymnals usually include three verses.[6]

"Gloria in excelsis Deo", Latin for "Glory to God in the Highest", is the first line of the song of the angels in the Gospel of Luke.

• "Ding Dong Merrily on High" (similar Gloria refrain)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Les Anges dans nos campagnes.

• Free sheet music of Angels We Have Heard on High for SATB from Cantorion.org
• "Hört, der Engel helle Lieder" (German), in "Liederkunde zum Evangelischen Gesangbuch. Heft 12: Bd. 3/12, pp. 39–42. (ISBN 978-3525503355)