When Christ Was Born of Mary Free

Versions:
When Christ Was Born of Mary Free
When Cryst Was Born of Mary Fre
In Excelsis Gloria - Version 1
In Excelsis Gloria - Version 2
In Excelsis Gloria - Version 3
Similar: When Christ Was Born Of Pure Marie
Also: When Cryst Was Born of Mary Fre (Sandys, 1833)
When Cryst was born of Mary fre - Thomas Wright (1841)

1. When Christ was born of Mary free¹
In Bethlehem that fair city.
Angels sang with mirth and glee,
In excelsis Gloria.

Chorus
"In excelsis gloria!
In excelsis gloria!
In excelsis gloria!
in excelsis gloria!^1a

2. Herdsmen beheld these angels bright
To them appeared² with great light,
Who said, "God's son is born this night."
In excelsis Gloria. Chorus

3. The King is come to save mankind
As in the scripture we will find;^2a
And this song we have in mind,^2b
In excelsis Gloria. Chorus

4. Then, dear Lord, for thy great grace,
Grant us in^2c bliss to see Thy Face,
That^2d we may sing to thy Solace.
In excelsis Gloria. Chorus³

Notes:

1. Or: When Christ was born of pure Marie. Return

1a. Alt. Chorus
In excelsis gloria!
In excelsis gloria!
In excelsis gloria!
Angels sang with mirth and glee,
in excelsis gloria!

Or:
In excelsis gloria!
In excelsis gloria! Return

2. Or: appearing

 2a. Or: In Scripture truths we find; or: As in Scripture we do find, Return

2b. Or:
In Scripture promised, as we find.
Therefore this song have we in mind. Return

2c. Or: Grant us the bliss to see Thy face, Return

2d. Or: where Return

3. Alternate Verses:
4. Grant us, O Lord, for Thy great grace,
In heaven in bliss to see thy face,
Where we may sing to Thy solace:
In excelsis Gloria.

Or:

4. Lord, out of Thy Great grace
Let us, in bliss, look on thy face,
There we may sing to thy solace —
In excelsis Gloria.

Return

Joshua Sylvestre, Christmas Carols - Ancient and Modern (circa 1861, reprinted A. Wessels Company, New York, 1901):

Bishop Taylor was of the opinion that the "Gloria in Excelsis," the hymn sung by the angels to the Shepherds at our Lord's Nativity, was the earliest Christmas carol. It is preserved in an old MS. among the Harleian collection in the British Museum, supposed to have been written about the year 1500. In English carols of this antiquity Latin words and even whole lines are freely interlaced. They are composite or macaronic in their language; and the refrain of their curious piece, "In Excelsis Gloria" -- Glory in the highest -- is retained in its original form, doubtless from its analogy to the "gloria" which the priests were accustomed to intone at the alter.

The "Gloria In Excelsis" is sung in Roman Catholic chapels on the Holy Thursday, Holy Saturday, and at midnight on Christmas Even, and then again at eleven o'clock on Christmas Morning.

Note: Hugh Keyte, an editor of The New Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992) believes that "Joshua Sylvestre" is a pseudonym for a collaboration between William Sandys (1792-1874) and William Henry Husk (1814-1887). See Appendix 4.

William Henry Husk, Songs of the Nativity (London: John Camden Hotten, 1868):

This Carol is of the time of Henry VI. This carol is preserved in a manuscript written early in the sixteenth century, and now in the British Museum.

Note that the Husk version omits the chorus.

Also found in Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1914), pp. 46-7 under the title Christo paremus canticam, excelsis gloria. She gives the date as "about 1500." Her version also omits the chorus.

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

Note that an introduction is added, and the chorus is omitted, in this version.

Sheet Music: Richard R. Terry, Twelve Christmas Carols. London: J. Curwen & Sons, Ltd., 1912

Sheet Music by J. F. Ohl from The Parish School Hymnal. Philadelphia: Board of Publication of the United Lutheran Church in America, 1926, #37.