String Quartet String Quartet - Digital Download
SKU: A0.734335
Composed by Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn. Arranged by Dennis Ruello. Christian,Christmas,Jazz. Score and parts. 11 pages. Chicory Music #2946001. Published by Chicory Music (A0.734335).
HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING - String Orchestra / String Quartet - Intermediate
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing is a Christmas carol that first appeared in 1739 in the collection Hymns and Sacred Poems, having been written by Charles Wesley. Wesley had requested and received slow and solemn music for his lyrics, not the joyful tune expected today. Moreover, Wesley's original opening couplet is Hark! how all the welkin rings / Glory to the King of Kings.[1]
The popular version is the result of alterations by various hands, notably by Wesley's co-worker George Whitefield who changed the opening couplet to the familiar one, and by Felix Mendelssohn. In 1840, a hundred years after the publication of
Hymns and Sacred Poems, Mendelssohn composed a cantata to commemorate Johann Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, and it is music from this cantata, adapted by the English musician William H. Cummings to fit the lyrics of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, that propels the carol known today.
This arrangement, in the string friendly key of G concert, can be preformed as a quartet with or without the optional acoustic bass and drum set parts. It may be performed as a string orchestra with all the string parts plus or minus the drum set part. Your performers and audience will enjoy the modern harmonies used in this presentation.
Performance time approx. 2 minutes 6 seconds.