Phillips Brooks, 1835-93
This carol was written for children, but it has become popular everywhere with adults as well.
Phillips Brooks, one of America’s greatest preachers, grew up in a musical home where memorizing and reciting of hymns was a part of the children’s education. By the time he was ready for college he had committed over 200 hymns to memory. He graduated from Harvard and from the Episcopal Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Virginia, and served as rector at the Church of the Advent, Philadelphia, and at Trinity Church, Boston, where his preaching powers came to full and fruitful fruition. In 1891, he became Bishop of Massachusetts. While in Philadelphia, he was given a year’s leave of absence to travel in Europe and the Near East. In Christmas Week in 1865, he rode on horseback from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The view of the little town is thought to have inspired this hymn which he wrote several years later for the Christmas service of the Sunday school in his church.
MUSIC. ST. LOUIS. Brooks asked his church organist, Lewis Redner, who was also Sunday school superintendent, to set the carol to music. This was done in great haste on the Saturday night before Christmas, 1868. The words and tune, printed on leaflets, were sung by six teachers and 36 Sunday school children, and then practically forgotten until 1892 when they were published in the Hymnal of the Episcopal Church. The hymn has become popular since, not only in America but also in England. The tune generally used in England, however, is not “St. Louis,” but “Forest Green.” (See [290].)
85. Hark the herald angels sing
Charles Wesley, 1707-88
One of the most popular English hymns. Julian listed four hymns as standing at the head of all in the English language: “When I survey” (105-6), “Rock of Ages” ([148]), “Awake my soul” ([25]), and this one.
It is taken from Wesley’s Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739. The original had 10 four-line stanzas and no refrain. The hymn has been altered in various ways and improved. For example, the lines,
With the angelic host proclaim,
Christ is born in Bethlehem,