Wednesday 14 October 2009
Tune of the Day: Joy to the World
Traditional Christmas carol
The music for this famous hymn was adapted and arranged by Lowell Mason from an older melody which was then believed to have originated from Handel, not least because the theme of the refrain (“And heaven and nature sing...”) appears in the orchestra opening and accompaniment of the recitative “Comfort Ye” from Handel's Messiah, and the first four notes match the beginning of the choruses “Lift up your heads and Glory to God” from the same oratorio. However, it can be stated with certainty that Handel did not compose the entire tune.
Even if today “Joy to the World” is commonly thought of as a Christmas song, its lyrics were originally written by Isaac Watts as a hymn glorifying Christ's triumphant return at the end of the age.