Here we are! As we finally get started on new the new adventures mentioned in my last post and have had time to catch my breath, I am in a joyful mood. Naturally, this catalyzed my craving for creative composition.
You are getting the first look and listen of my newest arrangement, my solo or duet arrangement for handbell accompaniment to “Joy to the World.” As I did in my performances of “Evening Prayer” and “Auld Lang Syne,” it was a one-person effort to record all the audio and video.
The next tutorials in the #BuildBetterBrains educational series will focus on learning the bell tree portion of this arrangement, as soon as the sheet music is available from forzandoArts.
About The Music
Although Issac Watts' lyrics for “Joy to the World” were sung for more than a century to other tunes, It wasn't until noted hymn writer Lowell Mason published his first of several arrangements in 1836 that we hear the now familiar melody.
Lowell refined the music at least four times, and the version we hear most often today was published in his The National Psalmist in 1948 with the tune name “Antioch.”
In his tomes, Lowell credited the “Antioch” melody as being by George Frederic Handel, whom he very much admired. Lowell studied Handel's music closely, and elements of the “Antioch” tune resemble Handel's 1742 Messiah arioso, “Comfort ye.”
However, scholars have found other instances of melodies very similar to “Antioch” which appeared as early as 1832, years prior to Lowell's first publication of his arrangement. Musicologists who study Handel closely have dismissed Lowell's arrangement as “chance resemblance” to his idol's music.
The “Antioch” melody is used with other hymns, including Charles Wesley's “O For a Thousand Tongues” and Philip Doddridge's “Awake, Ye Saints.” Both of these examples are also commonly paired with hymntunes previously associated with “Joy To The World” prior to Lowell's arrangement was published.
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RING ON