s Thoughts from the Physics Chick: Christmas carols: Lo! he comes, with clouds descending

Friday, July 03, 2009

Christmas carols: Lo! he comes, with clouds descending

I don't yet have a new laptop, but I've managed to pull this together while borrowing a friend's.

The history of this carol begins with John Cennick, an 18th century convert to Methodism. John Cennick wrote the text for an Advent hymn, which in turn inspired John Wesley (one of the founders of the Methodist movement), to write more verses for it. (Cennick's original text became verses 3 and 4 of the current version. Wesley's contribution became verses 1, 2, and 5-7). The tune was written by Martin Madan, another Methodist convert.

I only liked one YouTube version of this enough to post it, and it doesn't include any voices, so I'm giving you the first verse of the song:

Lo! he comes with clouds descending,
Once for favoured sinners slain;
Thousand, thousand saints, attending,
Swell the triumph of his train.
Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah!
God appears on earth to reign.

Unknown organist, Stahlhuth organ, Friedenskirche (Meckenheim, Germany), 2007:

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