Isaac Watts and Lowell Mason · Key of D · Public domain
Opens in the Chord Sheet Maker: transpose to your key, change chords, add strumming patterns, or print a clean copy. No account needed to start.
Joy to the World was never meant to be a Christmas song. Isaac Watts published the words in 1719 in his Psalms of David Imitated, as a paraphrase of Psalm 98 looking toward Christ's return, with no manger, shepherds, or star anywhere in the text. The tune we all know, called Antioch, was arranged more than a century later by the Boston music educator Lowell Mason in 1836, who credited it "from Handel." Echoes of phrases from Messiah are easy to hear, though scholars believe the arrangement is mostly Mason's own craft.
However the pieces came together, the result became the most published Christmas hymn in North America. The whole opening line is simply a major scale sung straight down from the top, which makes it one of the most satisfying melodies in the repertoire to harmonize, and one of the easiest to teach. Words and tune are both centuries into the public domain.
Three chords carry the whole hymn: D, G, and A7. Play it as a bright, unhurried march, and notice the fun of the opening line: the melody walks straight down the D major scale one note per syllable, so the chords are really just escorting a scale to the bottom. The echoing "and heaven and nature sing" lines want a little build each time. Capo up or transpose in the Chord Sheet Maker if D does not suit your singers.
Keep the carols going: O Holy Night chords and lyrics
Further reading: Joy to the World at Hymnary.org (texts, tunes, and history)
