"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" by The Eagle and Child, Saturday, December 25, 2021

No, that riff is not "(Don't You) Forget About Me" by Simple Minds in some alternate, extended drumming version. Today, we're listening to a San Diego-based Worship band's rendition of the classic Christmas hymn, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." Formed with former members of indie/Christian Rock bands Reeve Oliver, Something Like Silas, and Future of Forestry and named after a pub near Oxford University where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met to discuss their writing and their ideas, The Eagle and Child have released several albums and EPs on Tooth & Nail's worship music imprint, Gospel Songs. "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" comes from their first Christmas EP, O Christmas.

BORN TO GIVE THEM SECOND BIRTH. Christmas covers have to be excellent in order to take my attention from a traditional arrangement. While I listened to several Christmas songs today, the moody saxophone and the drums on this version stuck out, even after listening to the beautiful 2021 recording of Kings College Choir's version, promoted in the podcast Hark! The Stories Behind Our Favorite Christmas Carols. The episode about "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" gives a fascinating history of this hymn. But if you want the cliff notes of the 39-minute episode: the melody originates from a secular Felix Mendelssohn cantata, written to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Johann Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. While Mendelssohn was a deeply religious Lutheran after his family converted from Judaism, Mendelssohn felt that the tune we now sing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" was too secular to be adapted to a religious context. Furthermore, the tune was intended to be sung by a choir, not a congregation. The notes reach beyond an octave, whereas communal worship tunes are often written for a more limited range. Meanwhile, Charles Wesley, the brother of the founder of Methodism, wrote a poem, which was revised by Charles Whitefield, making it less theologically esoteric. Other writers changed the lyrics here and there and finally, English musician William H. Cummings combined Mendelssohn's cantata with Wesley's poem. Originally, the song was sung to other tunes including a hymn tune from Handel's Judas Maccabees or Wesley's own melody "Christ the Lord Has Risen Today."

JESUS, OUR EMMANUEL. Christmas hit me this year as I was walking in the cold listening to a podcast about a story that has been reinterpreted for generations. The lyrics are based on Luke 2:14, a story passed down for nearly 2,000 years. It was sung in Methodist circles from the early 1700s and became a standard in many faith traditions including the Anglican, Catholic, and most Protestant denominations. It was the Adventist Hymnal and sung frequently around Christmas time. In the 20th century, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" remained a standard tune, being recorded in sacred and secular records from Sinatra to Mariah Carey. It appears in films and Christmas specials. Sometimes, it can be a filler track in the middle of a more dynamic Christmas album. But the old, dusty text always speaks to me. It makes me mediate on the nativity, despite the complications of my 21st century faith. It reminds me about the good news of God becoming flesh to deal with the hard times in our lives, so that he can empathize with us. It makes me think that someone out there cares for me, even if I were to somehow alienate all my human friends, and that someone is watching out for me despite how I fuck up my life. And somehow, when I hear this Christmas song, all judgment that has pushed me out of organized religion is gone, and I'm left with that just a sense of warmth in the cold, a voice I can hardly hear, a flickering candle just barely noticeable in the distance. The old, sacred words "God and sinners reconciled" guide me home.

The Eagle and Child version: