All This Night

Alternate Title: All This Night Bright Angels Sing

Carol For Christmas Eve, For Christmas Day

Words: Adapted from a poem by William Austin (1587-1634), ca. 1630
"All this Night, shrill Chauntecleare"
Devotionis Augustinianae Flamma (1635), p. 52.

Compare:  Sun Of Righteousness, First Line: "All this night shrill chanticleer"

Music: Arthur S. Sullivan, J. T. Field, F. Fruttchey

Carols 2, 236 and 257, Rev. Charles Lewis Hutchins, Carols Old and Carols New
(Boston: Parish Choir, 1916)

1. All this night bright angels sing
Never was such caroling
Hark! A voice which loudly cries
"Mortals, mortals, wake and rise
    Lo! To gladness,
    Turns your sadness
From the earth is ris'n a Son
Shines all all night though day be done

2. Wake, O earth! wake everything!
Wake! and hear the joy I bring:
Wake and joy! for all this night,
Heaven and every twinkling light,
    All amazing,
    Still stand gazing;
Angels, Powers, and all that be,
Wake, and joy this Son to see!

3. Hail! O Son! O blessed Light,
Sent into this world by night;
Let Thy Rays and heav'nly Pow'rs,
Shine in these dark souls of ours.,
    For most duly,
    Thou art truly
God and Man, we do confess:
Hail, O Son of Righteousness!

Sheet Music by Arthur S. Sullivan from Hutchins, Carols Old and Carols New (Boston: Parish Choir, 1916), # 2
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF / XML
For more information about Sir Arthur Sullivan's contributions to Christmas music, see A Sullivan Christmas, which includes another MIDI, plus a printable score, of this hymn.

Sheet Music by J. T. Field from Hutchins, # 236
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF / XML

Sheet Music by F. Fruttchey from Hutchins, # 257
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF / XML

Sheet Music from Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer, Christmas Carols New and Old (London: Novello, Ewer & Co., ca 1871)

Sheet Music by Louis Erhardt, 1878
Source: Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division,
America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets.
(American Memory, Performing Arts-Music)

Sheet Music by E. J. Fitzhugh, 1885
Source: Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division,
America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets.
(American Memory, Performing Arts-Music)

Sheet Music from Edgar Pettman, ed., Modern Christmas Carols (London: Weekes & Co., 1892), #9:

Pettman notes: "No. IX.—Not to be sung too legato, notes soft and slightly detached till the third score (5th line), which is forte and very legato, the one half contrasting with the other."

Sheet Music from Rev. Edgar Pettman, ed., The Westminster Carol Book (London: Houghton & Co., 1899), No. 27, p. 35.

Note.

This poem was written by William Austin and was published after his death in a collection created by his wife, Devotionis Augustinianae flamma (1635), which included three "Carrols for Christmas Day:"

• All this Night, shrill Chauntecleare, p. 52 (adapted by William Knapp as All This Night)

• Harke: heare you not a cheereful Noyse, p. 53 (adapted by William Knapp as Hark! Hear You Not A Cheerful, Cheerful Noise)

• My Soule; why art thou thus deject? p. 53-54

William Austin, "All this Night, shrill Chauntecleare," from Devotionis Augustinianae flamma, or, Certaine devout, godly, and learned meditations written, by the excellently-accomplisht gentleman, William Austin, of Lincolnes-Inne, Esquire. (London : Printed [by John Legat] for I[ohn] L[egat] and Ralph Mab, 1635), p. 52.

Another musical setting for this poem was written by acclaimed composer Dr. David L. Brunner of the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Chauntecleer was published by Boosey and Hawkes in Choral Music Experience: Holiday Lights by Doreen Rao.

Notes:
1. In some versions, the last line of the stanza is repeated.
2. In some versions the appearance of Son is represented as Sun.

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