Shepherds, in the field abiding

Words: Quem vidistis, pastores, from Sarum Antiphoner
Translation by Rev. George R. Woodward

Music: "Gloria," old French carol.
Music: "Gloria," Edward Shippen Barnes
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF / XML
A slightly different arrangement is used by Angels We Have Heard On High
Meter: 87 87 with Refrain

George Ratcliffe Woodward, The Cowley Carol Book, Second Series (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd., ca. 1919), Carol #68, and
George Radcliffe Woodward, ed., Songs of Syon (London: Schott & Co., Third Edition, 1908), #422

1. Shepherds in the field abiding,
tell us, when the seraph bright
greeted you with wondrous tiding
what you saw and heard that night.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.

2. We beheld it (it is no fable),
God incarnate, King of bliss,
swathed and cradled in a stable,
and the angel strain was this:
Gloria in excelsis Deo.

3. Choristers on high were singing,
Jesus and his Virgin birth
heavenly bells the while a-ring,
"Peace, good will to men on earth."
Gloria in excelsis Deo.

4. Thanks, good herdmen, true your story,
have with you to Bethlehem;
angels hymn the King of glory,
carol we with you and them.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.

Sheet Music from George Ratcliffe Woodward, The Cowley Carol Book, Second Series (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd., ca. 1919), Carol #68
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF / XML

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