"How the Heavens Ring"

29 November, 2001

Humans, as a species, can be quite contrary. Tell us we can't do something, and we'll run out and do it, just to spite you.

In 1739 Rev. Charles Wesley (brother of John Wesley), a co-founder of the Methodist church, wrote a poem which began, "Hark! How all the welkin rings, glory to the king of kings" (welkin means "the vault of heaven," and was almost as uncommon in daily speech in Wesley's time as now). Wesley had written many hymns, and was struggling to find a proper melody for the song.

A colleague, George Whitefield, set it to music in 1753, publishing it in a collection of hymns. Whitefield changed the opening line to, "Hark! The herald angels sing, glory to the king of kings." Wesley was not happy. He didn't like the new opening line, and he thought the tune was not properly solemn and slow. The tune his friend had picked, by the way, was not the one with which we are familiar today.

Despite the author's objections, the altered lyric proved quite popular. Over the next several decades the song was performed in many church services to various tunes, as people tried to find one that would fit.

In 1840, some fifty years after Wesley's death, Felix Mendelsohnn wrote "Festgesang no. 7," a contata to commemorate Johann Gutenberg's influence on society through the invention of movable type. It was a soaring, uplifting piece of music. Shortly after its first performance, people began suggesting sacred texts which could be set to the music.

Mendelsohnn would have none of it. He insisted that the contata was meant as a secular piece, and should only be preformed as such.

In 1855, after Mendelsohnn's death, Dr. William Cummings, the organist at Waltham Abbey, set the words of Wesley's poem to the music of the second chorus of Mendelsohnn's contata. He made one slight change, "king of kings" became "newborn king," making the song clearly appropriate for an advent service.

It was a great hit, and is now sung, with great gusto and joy, in Christmas services and programs every year.

It took 116 years for the words to become the traditional christmas hymn we now know, and all contrary to the wishes of the lyricist and the composer. Some would argue that this perversion of the original artistic intent of the creators makes the piece somehow less real or less valid.

I disagree. I believe that works of art, whether they be paintings, songs, stories or something else, are meaningless until they are received by an audience. It is the interaction between artist and audience that makes the art. Without an audience, a painting is simply pigment on canvas. A song is nothing more than noise.

I have been annoyed when someone ascribes a specific message or meaning to something I wrote which is radically different than what I had in mind, so I understand why so many artists focus so much energy on controlling what they made. Certainly it is their right to do so, but when we forget our readers or viewers or listeners, we cease to be artists. We become hermits, creating something for our own use alone. I don't find the hermit's lifestyle very appealing.

So I share my thoughts and ideas with others. And look forward to hearing how they interpret what I create. Maybe they will have an insight into my work that I like. Maybe I won't agree with them.

I'm certain that I will learn something, in either case.

At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows.
--William Shakespeare

Previous Index Next Email