Advent hymns and songs
12 December 2017
We take a look at the history of some popular Advent hymns and songs:
O come, O come Emmanuel Latin, possibly 12th century, trans. John Mason Neale
The Latin text, beginning ‘Veni, veni Emmanuel’, has its origins in the Antiphons used at Vespers during Advent, beginning on 17 December...
Gabriel's Message Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924)
This is a free rendering of a Basque carol, ‘Birjina gaztettobat zegoen’, which Baring-Gould may have come across in his travels...
Now the heavens start to whisper Mary Louise Bringle (1953- )
Bringle’s Advent/Christmas Hymn was commissioned by GIA with a request she write an Advent text ‘with a Celtic flavor’...
Hark the glad sound! The Saviour comes Philip Doddridge* (1702-1751)
This is a hymn for Advent, but the text on which it is based concerns the preaching of Christ in the synagogue...
More hymns and carols featured in the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology