Hark! The Herald Angels Sing is the result of
alterations by various hands, notably by Charles
Wesley's co-worker George Whitefield who changed the
opening couplet to the familiar one, and by Felix
Mendelssohn. A hundred years after the publication of
Hymns and Sacred Poems, in 1840, Mendelssohn composed a
cantata to commemorate Johann Gutenberg's invention of
the printing press, and it is music from this cantata,
adapted by the English musician William H. Cummings to
fit the lyrics of “Hark! ...(+)
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing is the result of
alterations by various hands, notably by Charles
Wesley's co-worker George Whitefield who changed the
opening couplet to the familiar one, and by Felix
Mendelssohn. A hundred years after the publication of
Hymns and Sacred Poems, in 1840, Mendelssohn composed a
cantata to commemorate Johann Gutenberg's invention of
the printing press, and it is music from this cantata,
adapted by the English musician William H. Cummings to
fit the lyrics of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”,
that propels the carol known today.[2
SHEET MUSIC