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Sources :
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Words : Hark How All The Welkin Rings, Charles Wesley (1707-1788), in Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739.
The original opening couplet was Hark! how all the welkin rings, Glory to the King of Kings. The words sung nowadays are the result of alterations by various authors, among which George Whitfield (1714-1770), who modified the first verse to the familiar one we know today.
Music : Felix Mendelssohn, 1840, as part of the cantata entitled Festgesang an die Künstler [Festival Song] to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Johann Gutenberg's invention of the printing press.
The cantata was first presented at the great festival held at Leipzig. Festgesang's second chorus, Vaterland, in deinem Gauen, was adapted in 1855 by William Hayman Cummings.
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