MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
Angels We Have Heard On High (Sixpence None The Richer)
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4:19
Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/music/angels-we-have-heard-on-high-sixpence-none-the-richer-5039
Description

A cute video animation for Sixpence's version of "Angels We Have Heard On High".

Transcript

Angels we have heard on high
Singing sweetly through the night
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their brave delight

Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why these songs of happy cheer?
What great brightness did you see?
What glad tiding did you hear?

Gloria in Excelsis Deo
Gloria in Excelsis Deo

Come to Bethlehem and see
Him Whose birth the angels sing
Come, adore on bended knee
Christ, the Lord, the newborn King

Gloria in Excelsis Deo
Gloria in Excelsis Deo

See Him in a manger laid
Who the angels praise above
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid
While we raise our hearts in love

Gloria in Excelsis Deo
Gloria in Excelsis Deo
In Excelsis Deo, in Excelsis Deo
In Excelsis Deo

Meaning

It's a Christmas carol that commemorates the story of the birth of Jesus Christ found in the Gospel of Luke, in which shepherds outside Bethlehem encounter a multitude of angels singing and praising the newborn child.

The lyrics are based on a traditional French carol known as 'Les Anges dans nos campagnes' composed by an unknown author in Languedoc, France. That song has received many adjustments or alignments including its most common English version that was translated in 1862 by James Chadwick, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, northeast England. The carol quickly became popular in the West Country, where it was described as 'Cornish' by R.R. Chope, and featured in Pickard-Cambridge's Collection of Dorset Carols.

Its most memorable feature is its chorus, "Gloria in Excelsis Deo", the first line of the song of the angels in the Gospel according to Luke. The hymn begins with the words that the angels sang when the birth of Christ was announced to shepherds in Luke 2:14.