"Hark! The Herald Angel 'Stings'"

On this episode of Christmas Merry and Bright, Raymond Arroyo, an award-winning broadcaster, New York Times best-selling author and acclaimed vocalist, unveils the hidden backstory of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" by Charles Wesley and Felix Mendelssohn and how it originally was not meant to be tied to Christianity.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Raymond Arroyo, and this is a very special presentation
Christmas mery and bright played backstories. We are revealing the
origins of some of the most beloved Christmas songs ever
and for Christians, this season marks the birth of the
christ Child. Now, before I began this little musical adventure,

(00:20):
I have to admit I've always disliked how these venerable
and beautiful Christmas carols have been sapped of their urgency,
their passion. Today they're often sung by bored, off key choirs.
You know what I'm talking about? Do you hear what
I hear? You know? I hope not, but you know,
but you know what I'm talking about. So we wanted

(00:41):
to revive the thrill of these songs and restore the excitement.
I mean, what they really are about is the shock
and the awesome thrill of God coming to earth. Consider
the magnitude of that. Take a song like Hark the
Herald Angels sing. It is often so flat and lifeless.
I mean, every time an angel in the scriptures, what's
the first thing they say, be not afraid? Why? Probably

(01:04):
because they were a little fearsome and scary. So I
told our arranger Kevin Coska, I wanted swirling legions of
musical angels, swooping and flying the entire time. I told
him we needed to re energize the traditional carol and
kick it up a notch. And boy did he consider
me your musical emerald. Bam, look out for flying angels.

(01:25):
That song was penned by Charles Wesley, the English co
founder of the Methodist Communion. One Christmas morning, walking to church,
he was inspired by the London church bells and he
penned that poem. He wrote it a year after his
conversion in seventeen thirty nine, and the original opening line
was hark, how all the welkin rings glory to the

(01:46):
King of kings. Welkin is an archaic English term for heavens.
In seventeen fifty three, a friend adapted that song into
the lyrics we have today. Wesley was not pleased. Nearly
one hundred years later, it was attached to a melody
by German composer Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn originally wrote that melody

(02:08):
you heard for a song celebrating the four hundredth anniversary
of the Gutenberg printing press. Hark the printing press does
roll books. We're losing all control. I'm kidding, but it
gives you a new respect for what a lyricist does. Anyway.
Before Mendelssohn died, he wrote that he didn't mind anyone
adding new lyrics to his melodies, so long as they

(02:30):
were not religious. Well, both the lyricist and the composer
would probably not have liked their best known song, Hark
the Herald Angel Stings, I guess