Joyful Christian Music of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Below follow the recordings of my renditions of four Christian songs from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, accompanied by brief histories of each. The first three pertain directly to joy; the last to a cause for joy.

Ode to Joy

https://drive.google.com/a/holyapostles.edu/file/d/0B4fNzFXCMy0hbWgzZkFDWUgybXlSenBUNFQzalI1TFVVNlh3/view?usp=sharing

“Ode to Joy” started out as a poem by Friedrich Schiller. Ca. 1822, Ludwig van Beethoven composed music for it and included it into his “Ninth Symphony.”[1] It was actually used as the entrance hymn in my parish just earlier today at the Vigil Mass. Interestingly, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Ode to Joy” is also based off of Schiller’s poem, written “as his graduation exercise,” but feared publishing it “as he did not wish to be compared unfavorably with Beethoven.”[2]

Joy to the World

https://drive.google.com/a/holyapostles.edu/file/d/0B4fNzFXCMy0hZV9sa2FWcDZpWDBBWkV4ZDF3YUhMdXdnMjRF/view?usp=sharing

“Joy to the World,” a common Christmas carol, is derived from “a translation based on five verses from Psalm 98.” Isaac Watts, in his 1719 Psalms of David, was the one to publish the verses in this form, and Lowell Mason transformed them into music (though he credited not himself but George Frederick Handel for doing so) in 1839.[3]

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring

https://drive.google.com/a/holyapostles.edu/file/d/0B4fNzFXCMy0hQzVwY3NQajluVzY5Tm96dUZXc0M2aHdmdjE0/view?usp=sharing

“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” published in 1723, is actually the tenth part of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben,” and “is one of Bach’s best-loved works.” It’s frequently used a weddings upon the arrival of the bridal party;[4] perhaps this is reminiscent of Christ’s betrothal to His Church. In light of the beauty of this song, it fits well with Bach’s desire that all of his compositions should primarily be “dedicated ‘To the Greater Glory of God.’”[5]

Away in a Manger

https://drive.google.com/a/holyapostles.edu/file/d/0B4fNzFXCMy0heFh6RlNxbXVvQkNZbFhlbzZwWkt6M2stbzNj/view?usp=sharing

The history behind “Away in a Manger,” today another common Christmas carol, makes very little sense. It was “published” by James R. Murray in 1887; however, it’s often attributed to Martin Luther—most likely because, for no apparent reason, Murray himself attributed it to Luther. In any case, the poem of the song actually comes from “a children’s Sunday school book,” and it’s only “possible” that Murray even composed the tune for it.[6]

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[1] see David Nelson, “The Unique Story of Beehoven’s Ninth Symphony,” at In Mozart’s Footsteps: Uncommon Musical Travel” (29 April 2017), at inmozartsfootsteps.com.

[2] “Guide to Records: Tchaikovsky,” American Record Guide 63, no. 2 (2000), at Academic Search Premier, web.a.ebscohost.com.

[3] William L. Simon and Dan Fox (eds), Merry Christmas Songbook: Over 100 Holiday Classics Plus Lyric Book (Pleasantville, NY: The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., 2003), 10.

[4] “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring by Johann Sebastian Bach,” at Songfacts (29 April 2017), at www.songfacts.com.

[5] “Johann Sebastian Bach,” 2011, 1, at History Reference Center (accessed through EBSCOhost, web.b.ebscohost.com).

[6] Simon and Fox (eds), Merry Christmas Songbook, 8.