(This would be a wonderful video for morning time or family home evening.) The choir joins toward the end and sings verses interspersed with narrative.
This video is eight and a half minutes long and is mostly narrative with orchestral accompaniment. Then pealed the bells more loud and deep Įd Herrman joined the Orchestra at Temple Square and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to tell the story of the writing of this poem. It’s interesting to note the verses that we don’t sing very often and their allusion to the Civil War. Here are the words as Longfellow wrote them. Here is their version, with lyrics somewhat the same as the version we sing at church: This version has become very popular with church choirs in the greater Christian community (don’t hold your breath-you won’t hear it in sacrament meeting). This one was written in 2008 by the Christian band Casting Crowns. This is the Johnny Marks melody sung by Burl Ives:Ī search of YouTube provides far more hits for the poem set to a completely new tune. Here is a recording of the Calkin version (the one in our green Hymnbook): Calkin’s melody, however, remains predominant over the others.
Golden bells hymn book youtube plus#
These are the moderately popular wafting melody by Johnny Marks (1909-1985), who is most noted for “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” plus tunes by John Bishop (ca. Ironically, “Fling Out” was an old-fashioned militant missionary hymn which contrasted greatly in purpose and spirit from the more permanent partner of Calkin’s music, “I Heard the Bells.”Īlthough Calkin’s melody is a beautiful, gentle, and lofty rendition of the sounds of Christmas bells and is quite well received during the holidays, at least three alternative tunes have been tried. At first Calkin’s melody was published with the 1848 American hymn, “Fling Out the Banner! Let It Float” by George Washington Doane (1799-1859). The composer of the appropriate tune, John Baptiste Calkin (1827-1905), was the most famous of a family of accomplished English musicians. Some unknown person in some unknown year recognized that Longfellow’s stirring and optimistic interpretation of the bells of Christmas would make a magnificent mate for an 1872 processional which was strongly reminiscent of the ringing of bells. It was not until sometime after 1872 that the 1863 poem, which was originally titled “Christmas Bells,” was converted into a carol. On Christmas Day in 1863, Longfellow wrote the familiar lines in response to the horror of the bloody fratricidal conflict in general and to the personal tragedy of his son, Lieutenant Charles Appleton Longfellow, who was severely wounded in November 1862. The poetry of this renowned carol was crafted by the great American literary figure, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), in the midst of the American Civil War. In spite of the mentions of bells and Christmas in the title, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” is as much an antiwar song as it is a pro-Christmas song. William Studwell wrote a bit about the history of this hymn in his book The Christmas Carol Reader:
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