An old favorite Christmas song, Adeste Fideles (1803); original in Latin.
English words by Frederick Oakeley, 1841
English words revised by James R. Murray, 1852
music Adeste Fideles attributed to John Francis Wade
My source for this sheet music and song description is Richard Jackson’s book Popular Songs of Nineteenth Century America, a Dover Publication. This song is thought to have originated in the 1740s probably in England. It is a favorite hymn on the nativity and a religious Christmas song. Some history: the original is attributed to John Francis Wade who lived from 1710-1786. He was an English music copyist and teacher. He wrote it in Latin between 1740 and 1743. It’s tune name is Adeste Fideles which is roughly translated “come all ye faithful”. It also contains the words Venite Adoremus which means “come let us adore Him”. Wade made a manuscript copy for the English college in Lisbon, Portugal. In 1782 it was published in London for the first time in a book: An Essay On the Church Plain Chant. In 1800 it was first printed in the U.S. by Benjamin Carr in his Musical Journal, vol. II, still in Latin. In 1803 the version shown here was published by John and Michael Paff at their music shop in Maiden Lane in New York, still in Latin. In 1841 Frederick Oakeley wrote the standard English translation O Come All Ye Faithful. It has all the same meanings of the Latin Adeste Fideles. In 1852 James R. Murray revised it to its current form. Musically it’s 2/4 meter makes it brisk and swinging. It should be played andante, at a slow walking tempo. Specifically it can be used for processional. The canonic treatment of the voices, building as they repeat, from solo to duo to coro, gives an ecstatic nature to the piece. This adds cumulative power. I can’t sing in foreign languages and I don’t know Latin, so I sing the English lyrics.
English lyrics
- O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem
Come and behold him, born the King of angels
Chorus:
O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him
O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord
O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him
O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord
- God from God, Light from Light eternal
Lo! He abhors not the Virgin’s womb
Only-begotten Son of the Father - Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning
Jesus, to thee be all glory given
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing - Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation
Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above
Glory to God, glory in the highest
Accompaniment track:
Sung here by Fred Feild: