Hark! I Hear Some Singing

When I married the first time I married a man with two small children.  I was barely 21 and the kids were 4 and 5.  J was 4 and E was 5.  E loved music....but was as tone deaf as they come.  This is hard for someone with a musical background....but he was so precious....and I loved to sing....so sing we did.  E had a favorite Christmas Carol that he loved to sing year round.  When he was five he actually thought the song was about our family.  It was too cute to hear this precious little blond headed doll come up and request "Hark The Harrell Angels Sing (that was our last name)."  Yep, I spelled it right....and if you try it out....it could actually be sung that way. No matter how hard I tried he would not buy that the word was actually Herald.  Even now I will slip and sing the familiar version of this wonderful old hymn and smile.  Whenever this song was played E would sing out with so much gusto.  But I think we all do that at Christmas time.  It seemed like yesterday everyone sang with a little more umph.  I love Christmas songs.  Don't you?  I especially love researching the stories behind them.  "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" has an interesting tale.  Did you know that  “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” first appeared in 1739 in the collection Hymns and Sacred Poems, was written by Charles Wesley.   His version is not the version widely known today. A sombre man, Wesley had requested and received slow and solemn music for his lyrics, not the joyful tune we now expect. What is more, Wesley's original opening couplet is "Hark! how all the welkin rings / Glory to the King of Kings".  I gave you a link to discover what a welkin ring is.  The popular version is the result of alterations by various hands, notably George Whitefield,  Wesley's co-worker, who changed the opening couplet to the familiar one, and Felix Mendelssohn who wrote the tune. Over the weekend I heard a wonderful rendition of this time old favorite that I thought I would share with you all today.  I hope you like it.  Click here to enjioy it.