The Story Behind The Song, pt. 11: Angels We Have Heard On High

Posted in: The Story Behind The Song by Paul Jacobsen on January 4, 2012 at 4:09 pm

TRACK ELEVEN // ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH

The eleventh installment of TSBTS, wherein we give a little glimpse behind either the song or the recording or both for our new album Come Let Us Adore Him. I don’t know if I’m gonna make it to 13. Lucky 13, take me home…

The first thing you hear, when “Angels We Have Heard On High” starts up, is Dominic percussively strumming a silver resonator guitar. Then Ryan Tanner comes in with some delicate fingerpicked guitar. Then comes the part that, to me, is most surprising.

I don’t know why it’s such a surprise to me because I love both of their voices, but the blend of Dominic and Cherie Call’s voices is unexpectedly perfect. Our producer Scott Wiley must have felt the same way the first people who ever put chocolate and peanut butter, or P-Diddy and Sting, or  syrup and bacon* together. It just works and we all instantly wondered why we hadn’t used that particular combination** before.

Then in come the bass, the fiddle, and the bell brigade. I love the texturey, droney stuff that Shupe plays on the fiddle. It’s not announcing itself or asking for a spotlight, just helping the boat down the river. Next, we get some great rolling banjo and harmonies that ease our vessel through the locks. And pretty soon, there’s the shore.

Can we go again, daddy?

Or at least that’s how I feel.

The song’s lyrics are based on Les Anges dans nos campagnes, a traditional French carol (author unknown) that literally means ”Angels in our countryside.” The French version has since been routinely tweaked and tailored, one common popular version of which was translated into English by a Roman Catholic Bishop named James Chadwick in 1862. There’s also a Scottish Gaelic translation known as Ainglean chuala sinn gu h-ard, which is a more literal translation for the title we have today, “Angels We Have Heard on High”. I said it was literal.

“Angels We Have Heard on High” is most widely sung to the hymn tune ”Gloria”, most memorable for its chorus (which matches up with the first line*** of the song the angels sang, according to the gospel of Luke”:

Gloria in Excelsis Deo! (which is Latin for “Glory to God in the highest,”**** which you surely know is in yet another Christmas carol “Far, Far Away On Judea’s Plains.”)

What/who you’re hearing
LEAD VOCALS: Dominic Moore, Cherie Call
BELLS: Brian Hardy, Scott Wiley, George Brunt, Daren Smith
PERCUSSION: Darin LeSueur
12- STRING ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Ryan Tanner
BANJO: Ryan Tilby
VIOLIN: Ryan Shupe
RESONATOR GUITAR: Dominic Moore
BACKGROUND VOCALS: Dustin Christensen, Debra Fotheringham, Paul Jacobsen

 

 

* Paging Sarah Sample.

** Ryan & Debra? Check. Sarah & Ryan? Check. Mindy & Debra? Check. Mark & Brooke? Check. Dominic & Paul? Check. Nate & Ryan? Check. Cherie & Debra & Sarah? Check. Debra & Dustin? Checkity check check .I mean, trust me, we have shuffled the Lower Lights singers deck like an OCD casino dealer.

*** “Then why is it not the first line in this song?” I don’t know. Maybe because this never professed to being the actual song the angels sang. Like Tenacious D (language alert, for anyone who is gonna google the band, it was on MTV without all the curses, I promise) sang, “this is not the greatest song in the world. this is a tribute.” “Angels We Have Heard On High” is just a tribute to the song the angels sang. Not the actual song. As far as I know. Also, because we are this far and you are actually reading this footnote, I have a tangent: why did they never make a Christmas sequel to Angels In The Outfield called Angels We Have Heard On High or Angels We Have Thrown Out At Home or Angels We Have Suicide Squeezed? Just wondering.

**** Not to be confused with the Pig Latin version, the writing of which would probably walk a little irreverence line that I’ll just let you all formulate in your head rather than documenting for posterity.