Charles Wesley and Felix Mendelssohn · Key of G · Public domain
This chart was made with the free Chord Sheet Maker: write your own charts, transpose in one click, print clean copies.
Opens in the Chord Sheet Maker in this key: change chords, add strumming patterns, and make it yours, with no account needed to start. A free account adds PDF downloads for printing.
Have your own songs? Start a blank chart from scratch, free →
This chart is written in G. Tap any key above the chart to see the whole song in that key, with every chord already worked out. To stay in G with different chord shapes, play it capo 3 with the E shapes, or capo 5 with the D shapes, or capo 7 with the C shapes. Singing with a group? Pick the key where the highest note is comfortable for everyone, then print that page.
Charles Wesley published this hymn in 1739, and his first line was not the one we sing. He wrote "Hark, how all the welkin rings, glory to the King of kings," welkin being an old word for the sky. It was his friend the preacher George Whitefield who rewrote the opening in 1753 as "Hark! the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King," and that edit made the carol.
The melody came a century later from an unlikely place. Felix Mendelssohn composed it in 1840 for a cantata celebrating the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg's printing press, and he remarked that the tune would suit almost any words except sacred ones. In 1855 the English musician William H. Cummings fitted it to Wesley's text anyway, and the two have never been separated since. Words and music are both in the public domain.
A bright, marching 4/4. Most of the verse is G, C, and D, with an A7 leading into D at the end of the fourth line. The lift comes in the seventh line, "With th'angelic host proclaim," where the harmony moves C, E7, Am: that E7 is the one chord borrowed from outside the key, and it is what makes the line soar. The changes come quickly in places, sometimes a chord per word, so strum once per chord there and save the fuller strumming for the long G lines. The last two lines of every verse repeat the same progression, so once you have one you have both.
Tap any chord for its diagram, other voicings, and the notes inside it.
Another big one for the whole room: Joy to the World chords and lyrics
All the Christmas carol chord sheets, each one in every key.
Further reading: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (Wikipedia)
