Steve: Hi, this is Steve Webb, your OG Godcaster.
Steve: You're about to hear the Lifespring Advent Calendar, which was recorded in 2006.
Steve: It's a daily show which will run right up to Christmas Day,
Steve: so be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode.
Steve: Now, the story of Advent and Christmas is a timeless story, so it doesn't age.
Steve: However, the links and the phone numbers mentioned on the podcast have all changed but one.
Steve: WhyChristmas.com is still current and active,
Steve: and it's the best Christmas information website on the Internet.
Steve: LifeSpringPodcast.com now forwards you to LifeSpringMedia.com.
Steve: And the phone number you'll hear on the show is changed to plus 1-951-732-8511.
Steve: Hello and welcome to Day 15 of the LifeSpring Advent Calendar.
Steve: I'm Steve Webb.
Steve: Today's show is another double entry.
Steve: Day 15 of the LifeSpring Advent Calendar and episode number 23 of LifeSpring Hymn Stories,
Steve: or Carol Stories as we're calling them for now.
Steve: Let's see what's behind the door.
Steve: To be continued...
Steve: Today the carol is Hark the Herald Angels Sing, written by the great English hymn writer Charles Wesley.
Steve: Wesley was the youngest of 18 children and wrote over 3,000 hymns during his lifetime.
Steve: He was rather different than most English clergymen at the time,
Steve: often holding services out of doors and believing that Christian music and hymns
Steve: should have some energy and life to them.
Steve: That was very unusual at the time.
James: He wrote the words to this favourite carol in 1737,
James: although it originally had the different opening line,
James: which was, hark, how all the welkin rings.
James: Now what's a welkin, I hear you ask?
James: Well, it's an old term for the religious upper air, or in other words, heaven.
James: Also, his original version didn't have the first two lines of each verse repeated at the end of their verse,
James: and they certainly weren't sung to the tune that we know today.
James: Back in Wesley's day, hymns and carols were often published as just words,
James: and it was left to the individual choir masters to fit them to their tunes that the choir knew.
James: In fact, one tune it was commonly sung to when he first wrote it was the same tune as we use for Amazing Grace.
James: And if you think about it, you can just about do it, but I had a job not to sing Amazing Grace while I was trying to do it.
Steve: No one is really certain how the first line was changed to Hark the Herald Angels Sing,
Steve: although it may have been changed by the original publisher, George Whitefield,
Steve: who published it in the hymn book entitled Hymns in Sacred Poems in 1739.
Steve: Wesley was very upset at the change and is said to have never sung the new version.
Steve: The now commonly used tune was composed by Felix Mendelssohn over a century later in 1840,
Steve: but certainly not to go with this carol.
Steve: It was written as a part of a cantata called Festgesang, or Festival Song,
Steve: and it was about the first printing press invented by Johann Gutenberg.
Steve: The tune comes from the second chorus in the work and was entitled God is Light.
James: The words and music were first put together in 1855 by William Heyman Cummings,
James: who had been a teenage chorister and actually sung under the direction of Mendelssohn.
James: Cummings also altered the words so the first two lines of each verse were repeated
James: and published his work in a hymnal in 1857
James: as the carol we know and love.
James: And perhaps it's just as well that Mendelssohn never knew this
James: because he said that his tune should never be used for sacred music.
Steve: The third verse Descant only appeared in 1961
Steve: in a new and popular arrangement by David Wilcox.
James: So as you're singing this carol this Christmas,
James: remember Wesleyan Mendelssohn.
James: It might not have turned out how either of them imagined it,
James: but it's a great carol to sing.
Music: guitar solo
Music: See him
Music: Glory to
Music: Thy newborn
Music: King
Music: Peace on earth
Music: And mercy
Music: My
Music: God
Music: And sinners
Music: Reconcile
Music: For all ye nations rise
Music: Join the triumph of the sky
Music: With angelic hosts proclaiming
Music: Christ is born in Bethlehem
Music: High the hallowed angels sing
Music: Glory to thy new-born King
Music: I
Music: Hark the hero
Music: Angels sing
Music: Glory to
Music: The newborn king
Music: Peace on him
Music: Mercy
Music: God and sinners reconciled
Music: Joyful all ye nations rise
Music: Joyful triumph of the skies
Music: When angelic hosts proclaim
Music: Christ is born in Bethlehem
Music: While the herald angels sing
Music: Glory to the new morn king
Steve: This has been Day 15 of the LifeSpring Advent Calendar
Steve: and number 23 of LifeSpring Hymn or Carol Stories.
Steve: If this is your first time listening to one of the shows,
Steve: please visit LifeSpringPodcast.com to find out more.
Steve: To find out more about Christmas,
Steve: please visit James Cooper over at WhyChristmas.com.
Steve: Today's background music was the Pittsburgh Symphony Brass with Hark the Herald Angels Sing,
Steve: and Dean Crippane sang the song for us.
Steve: Of course, the background music, as always, is Brian Duncan and the Neil Soul Band with This Christmas.
Steve: Links to all of today's music and all the music we've used thus far
Steve: can be found on the show notes page at lifespringpodcast.com.
Steve: Thank you so much for listening to the Lifespring Advent Calendar and Lifespring Carol Stories.
Steve: We're really glad you're here.
Steve: For James Cooper, I'm Steve Webb, and we'll talk to you tomorrow.
Music: It never gets old
Music: It's the love I need
Music: And it's what I want
Music: It's Christmas
Music: And it's what I love