Angels We Have Heard On High

"Angels We Have Heard on High" is a well-known piece of music with English lyrics by James Chadwick. It is generally sung to the hymn tune "Gloria", a traditional French carol arranged by Edward Shippen Barnes. Its most memorable feature is its chorus, Gloria in excelsis Deo, where the "o" of "Gloria" is fluidly sustained through cascading notes of a rising and falling melismatic melodic sequence. Traditionally, carols have often been based on medieval chord patterns, and it is this that gives them their uniquely characteristic musical sound. Some carols like "Personent hodie", "Good King Wenceslas", and "The Holly and the Ivy" can be traced directly back to the Middle Ages, and are among the oldest musical compositions still regularly sung.