Another carol that has gone through various iterations over the years is ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’. The lyric was originally written by Charles Wesley (1707–88) who, with his brother John, founded the Christian denomination of Methodism.
‘The original first two lines are, “Hark how all the welkin rings, Glorious the king of kings.” And quite obviously, this is pretty obscure,’ says Hutton. ‘Even in the early 18th century, “welkin” was a rather old-fashioned way of saying heaven or sky. And so quietly and tactfully, the Methodist preacher George Whitefield tidied the thing up and, in 1754, [added] the two opening lines that have remained ever since.’
However, the carol didn’t get the tune we know today until the composer Felix Mendelssohn (pictured) wrote it in 1840. More recently, a descant (an independent treble melody sung above the main tune) was added in the 1960s.
