Today I offer you a new setting of Angels from the Realms of Glory that I completed this morning. I absolutely love the words (see below) to this Christmas carol . . . but, and I hope I’m not offending anyone, I’ve never thought the traditional tune (though nice) is properly joyous. In re-setting the text, I hope what comes across is a feeling of joy and invitation. Here is the free sheet music and a midi realization:

• Angels from the Realms of Glory (PDF)
• Angels from the Realms of Glory (Sample/Practice MP3)

Click here to listen to samples of other versions of Angels from the Realms of Glory at Amazon.com. I think I might like the new version by Steven Curtis Chapman the best out of what I listened to (after finishing the above). In another version it has been squeezed into the tune of Angels we have Heard on High by Mack Willberg, performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but Angels we have Heard on High is a great carol as well . . . why borrow its tune? It is, however, a great arrangement of that tune, but I liked it better when I sang it in his choir at BYU with the original words (not that he needs my approval, as one of the great forces in the choral world right now).

Words by James Mont­gom­e­ry (published Christ­mas Eve, 1816)

Angels from the realms of glory,
Wing your flight o’er all the earth;
Ye who sang creation’s story
Now proclaim Messiah’s birth.

Refrain

Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.

Shepherds, in the field abiding,
Watching o’er your flocks by night,
God with us is now residing;
Yonder shines the infant light:

Refrain

Sages, leave your contemplations,
Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great Desire of nations;
Ye have seen His natal star.

Refrain

Saints, before the altar bending,
Watching long in hope and fear;
Suddenly the Lord, descending,
In His temple shall appear.

Refrain

Additional verses, not included on the above PDF:

Sinners, wrung with true repentance,
Doomed for guilt to endless pains,
Justice now revokes the sentence,
Mercy calls you; break your chains.

Refrain

Though an Infant now we view Him,
He shall fill His Father’s throne,
Gather all the nations to Him;
Every knee shall then bow down:

Refrain

All creation, join in praising
God, the Father, Spirit, Son,
Evermore your voices raising
To th’eternal Three in One.

Refrain

Enjoy! and have a very Merry Christmas!