Les Anges dans Nos Campagnes (Angels We Have Heard On High), from Family Christmas Online^TM

This 18th-century French carol has been sung in English since the 1800s, so most English-speakers don't even realize the French had it first. Most likely, the verse comes from one source but the chorus comes from another. One tradition holds that the chorus dates to the second century and has been sung by French shepherds almost ever since. The verse seems to have been joined to some version of the "Gloria" chorus in France by 1855 and in England by 1860. But the "Gloria" chorus we sing today was arranged in the 20th century by American organist Edward Shippen Barnes.

The English translation with which we are most familiar was written in 1860 by James Chadwick, an Irish-born clergyman serving as Bishop of Newcastle (although his fourth verse is often modified, so don't feel bad it the version below doesn't match up to what you're used to..

Today most English-speaking people consider this song in the same vein as "Hark the Herald Angels Sing;" often amateur carolers will start one song when they mean to start the other. But "Les Anges dans Nos Campagnes" is uniquely playful in that the second and third verse are a question and answer, in which the narrator asks the shepherds why they are singing, and the shepherds say, "Come to Bethlehem and see."

French Text

Les anges dans nos campagnes
Ont entonné l'hymne des cieux;
Et l'écho de nos montagnes
Redit ce chant mélodieux.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo,
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.

Bergers, pour qui cette fête?
Quel est l'objet de tous ces chants?
Quel vainqueur, quelle conquête
Mérite ces cris triomphants?
Gloria, in excelsis Deo,
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.

Ils annoncent la naissance
Du libérateur d'Israël,
Et pleins de reconnaissance
Chantent en ce jour solennel.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo,
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.

Bergers, loin de vos retraites
Unissez-vous à leurs concerts
Et que vos tendres musettes
Fassent retentir dans les airs:
Gloria, in excelsis Deo,
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.

Cherchons tous l'heureux village
Qui l'a vu naître sous ses toits,
Offrons-lui le tendre hommage
Et de nos coeurs et de nos voix!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo,
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.

English Text - Credited to James Chadwick, Bishop of Newcastle, 1860

Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o'er the plains,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo,
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.

Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be
Which inspire your heavenly song?
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,
Whom the choirs of angels praise;
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,
While our hearts in love we raise.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

If you have any corrections or comments you would like to make about this page, please contact me and I will be glad to hear from you. God bless - Paul