Here Is Joy For Every Age

For Christmas

Latin Text: Ecce, novum gaudium from Dreves and Blume, with sheet music

Words: 13th century, freely translated by Rev. John Mason Neale.

Music: Rev. Thomas Helmore, Piae Cantiones, 1582.
Carol 633 and Carol 669 from Charles L. Hutchins

Source: Collected Hymns, Sequences and Carols (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914), from John Mason Neale and Thomas Helmore, Carols for Christmas-tide (London: Novello, 1853).

Also found as Carol 633 and Carol 669, Rev. Charles Lewis Hutchins, Carols Old and Carols New (Boston: Parish Choir, 1916)

1. Here is joy for every age,
    Every generation:
Prince and peasant, chief and sage
    Ev'ry tongue and nation:
    Ev'ry tongue and nation,
    Ev'ry rank and station
    Hath to-day salvation:
            Alleluia! [1]

2. When the world drew near its close.
    Came out Lord and Leader;
From the Lily sprang the Rose,
    From the Bush the Cedar:
    From the Bush the Cedar,
    From the judg'd the Pleader,
    From the faint the Feeder:
            Alleluia!

3. God, that came on earth this morn,
    In a manger lying,
Hallow'd birth by being born,
    Vanquish'd death by dying:
    Vanquish'd death by dying,
    Rallied back the flying,
    Ended sin and sighing:
            Alleluia!

1. The chorus in Hutchins' Carol 633 is 'Alle Alleluia.' In Carol 669, the chorus is 'Alleluia.' Return

Note From Rev. Neale.

A translation, or free imitation, as are most of the following.

Editor's Note:

This was the first of the 12 carols in this collection. In the Preface to the First Edition, Rev. Neale wrote that only Good King Wenceslas and Toll! Toll! are original.

Sheet Music by Rev. Thomas Helmore from John Mason Neale and Thomas Helmore, Carols for Christmas-tide: The Condensed Vocal Parts (London: Novello, 1854), pp. 5-6

Sheet Music by Rev. Thomas Helmore from George Ratcliffe Woodward, The Cowley Carol Book, First Series Table Of Contents. (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd., 1902, Revised and Expanded Edition 1929), Carol #30
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF / XML

Sheet Music from Piae Cantiones from Charles L. Hutchins, Carol 633
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF / XML

Sheet Music by Rev. T. Helmore from Charles L. Hutchins, Carol 669
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF / XML

Sheet Music from Rev. J. Freeman Young, ed., Carols for Christmas Tide (New York: Daniel Dana, Jr., 1859), #4

Sheet Music from Richard R. Terry, Old Christmas Carols. Part One. (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne Ltd., n.d., ca. 1923), Carol 18, p. 22.

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