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Hark, How All the Welkin Rings

Bryony Griffith and Alice Jones sang Hark, How All the Welkin Rings in 2023 on their Selwyn album Wesselbobs. They noted:

This arrangement was originally created for the song Tarry Wool which we recorded for the Kirklees Year of Music 2023 HERD project, celebrating the textile heritage of Kirklees. We found it in Roy Palmer’s book Everyman’s Book of English Country Songs (1979) and it was collected from Mr John ‘Pop’ Mason in August 1904 at The Sun Inn in Dent, North Yorkshire by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Apparently, he was called Pop because he was a chimney sweep and his brushes would pop out of the chimney pots.

While researching Tarry Wool, we found that the tune is also used for Charles Wesley’s original version of Hark the Herald, Hark, How All the Welkin Rings, written in 1739, which appears as Dent Dale in The English Hymnal, edited by RVW in 1906. Welkin is an archaic word for the sky or heaven. Both Tarry Wool and Hark the Welkin are still sung in Dent by local singers. The fiddle tune is the A part of The Spinning Wheel, from the Joshua Jackson manuscript.

Lyrics

Bryony Griffith and Alice Jones sing Hark, How All the Welkin Rings

Chorus:
Hark, how all the welkin rings!
“Glory to the King of kings.
Peace on Earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”

Joyful, all ye nations rise.
Join the triumph of the skies.
Universal nature say,
“Christ the Lord is born today!”

Christ, by highest Heav’n adored.
Christ, the everlasting Lord.
Late in time behold Him come,
Offspring of a Virgin’s womb.

Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see.
Hail th’incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.

Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings.

Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of Earth,
Born to give them second birth.