Him Again on Christmas Day Song
| I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day | |
|---|---|
| by John Baptiste Calkin (1848), Johnny Marks (1956), and others | |
| Genre | Hymn |
| Occasion | Christmas |
| Text | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1863) |
| Meter | 8.8.viii.8. (L.G.) |
"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Twenty-four hour period" is a Christmas carol based on the 1863 poem "Christmas Bells" past American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.[1] The vocal tells of the narrator hearing Christmas bells during the American Ceremonious War, but despairing that "detest is strong and mocks the vocal of peace on earth, good will to men". After much anguish and despondency the carol concludes with the bells ringing out with resolution that "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep" and that in that location will ultimately be "...peace on earth, good will to men".
Origin [edit]
In 1861, ii years before writing this verse form, Longfellow'south personal peace was shaken when his 2nd wife of eighteen years, to whom he was very devoted, was fatally burned in an adventitious fire. Then in 1863, during the American Ceremonious State of war, Longfellow's oldest son, Charles Appleton Longfellow, joined the Union Ground forces without his father'south approval. Longfellow was informed by a letter of the alphabet dated March 14, 1863, afterward Charles had left. "I accept tried hard to resist the temptation of going without your go out but I cannot any longer", he wrote. "I feel it to be my outset duty to do what I tin can for my land and I would willingly lay down my life for it if it would be of any proficient."[ii] Charles was presently appointed equally a lieutenant but, in November, he was severely wounded[three] in the Boxing of Mine Run. Charles somewhen recovered, only his time equally a soldier was finished.
Longfellow wrote the poem on Christmas Day in 1863.[4] "Christmas Bells" was first published in Feb 1865, in Our Young Folks, a juvenile mag published by Ticknor and Fields.[5] References to the Civil State of war are prevalent in some of the verses that are non commonly sung. The refrain "peace on World, goodwill to men" is a reference to the Male monarch James Version of Luke 2:xiv.
Lyrics [edit]
The post-obit are the original words of Longfellow's verse form:[6]
I heard the bells on Christmas Twenty-four hours
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-volition to men!
And thought how, as the twenty-four hour period had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken vocal
Of peace on globe, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its fashion,
The world revolved from night to solar day,
A voice, a chime,
A dirge sublime
Of peace on world, good-volition to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on world, proficient-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my caput;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
And then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not expressionless, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Correct prevail,
With peace on earth, skillful-volition to men."
Musical renditions [edit]
It was not until 1872 that the verse form is known to have been set up to music. The English organist, John Baptiste Calkin, used the poem in a processional accompanied with a melody "Waltham" that he previously used as early on as 1848.[3] The Calkin version of the carol was long the standard. Less commonly, the poem has also been ready to Joseph Mainzer'southward 1845 composition "Mainzer".[seven] Other melodies have been equanimous more recently, well-nigh notably in 1956 by Johnny Marks.
Bing Crosby recorded the song on October three, 1956, using Marks's melody and verses 1, 2, 6, 7. It was released as a single[8] and reached No. 55 in the Music Vendor survey.[ citation needed ] The tape was praised past both Billboard and Multifariousness. "Bing Crosby's workover of 'I Heard the Bells on Christmas Twenty-four hours' looks like a big one for the '56 Yule and a hit potential of enduring value."[ix] "At borderline time, not many of this yr's Christmas issues had shown much activeness. This new Crosby record, however, was off to a promising commencement. Every bit fast as it is communicable on early on in the calendar month, it is easy to projection the impressive book it volition rack up the final half of December."[10] Marks'south tune has since received more than than lx commercial recordings, with total sales exceeding v million copies.[xi]
In 2008, a gimmicky Christian music group, Casting Crowns, scored their eighth No. i Christian hit with "I Heard the Bells", from their album Peace on Earth.[12] The song is not an exact replica of the original poem or ballad, only an interpolation of verses 1, 6, vii and three (in that order), interposed with a new chorus.
In popular culture [edit]
In chapter five of his 1962 novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury describes this carol equally "immensely moving, overwhelming, no matter what day or what month it was sung." The carol provides an ironic dissimilarity to the evil that Mr. Night's carnival is about to bring to Greenish Boondocks, Illinois.[13] In the 1983 film adaptation of the novel, Mr. Dark (Jonathan Pryce) and Charles Halloway (Jason Robards) both quote passages from the carol when they run across in the town's library (though Dark ominously states that "it's a m years to Christmas").
See also [edit]
- Christmas in the American Ceremonious War
References [edit]
- ^ Carroon, Robert Girard (Fall 1998). "The Christmas Carol Soldier". Loyal Legion Historical Journal. 55 (3). Retrieved July 12, 2019.
- ^ Calhoun, Charles C. (2004). Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life . Boston: Buoy Printing. pp. 223–224. ISBN0-8070-7039-4.
- ^ a b Studwell, William (1995). The Christmas Carol Reader. Binghamton, New York: The Haworth Press. p. 166. ISBNi-56024-974-nine.
- ^ Gale, Robert L. (2003). A Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 28. ISBN0-313-32350-X.
- ^ Irmscher, Christoph (2006). Longfellow Redux. Urbana: University of Illinois Printing. p. 293. ISBN978-0-252-03063-5.
- ^ Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. "Christmas Bells". poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
- ^ "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day". The Cyber Hymnal . Retrieved March 15, 2017.
- ^ "A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Lodge Crosby. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
- ^ Variety, Nov seven, 1956.
- ^ Billboard, December xv, 1956.
- ^ "'Tis The Season For Marks". Billboard. December eleven, 1982. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
- ^ "Hot Christian Adult Contemporary". Billboard. January 3, 2009. Archived from the original on August five, 2012.
{{cite periodical}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Bradbury, Ray (1983) [1962]. Something Wicked This Way Comes . Bantam Books. pp. xviii–nineteen. ISBN0-553-23620-2.
External links [edit]
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Works related to I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day at Wikisource
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Heard_the_Bells_on_Christmas_Day
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