“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is a Christmas carol based on the 1863 poem "Christmas Bells" by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The song tells of the narrator's despair, upon hearing Christmas bells during the American Civil War, that "hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men". The carol concludes with the bells carrying renewed hope for peace among men.
Longfellow wrote the poem on Christmas Day in 1863. “Christmas Bells" was first published in February 1865, in Our Young Folks, a juvenile magazine published by Ticknor and Fields. References to the Civil War are prevalent in some of the verses that are not commonly sung. The refrain "peace on Earth, goodwill to men" is a reference to the King James Version of Luke 2:14.
I have always loved this song and the words. It’s kind of hard to believe that the lines were written 157 years ago. The relevancy of them seem fitting for 2020. The feelings of despair and the unrest of the past year are just as evoking as in Longfellows day. When I sat down to record the song I got to that word PEACE and like a bolt out of the blue the words of Warren Cornell came to me and I added that melody to this and the result I think has become one of my favorite songs I’ve ever recorded.
So in a year of tumult, unrest, disease, and a lot of despair. The bells continue to ring with the same words “Peace on Earth goodwill to men”
“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”
Words: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1863
Music: John Baptiste Calkin, 1848
“Wonderful Peace”
Words: Warren D. Cornell, 1889
Music: William Cooper, 1889
“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (w/ Wonderful Peace)”
Arr: Shane Sparks, 2020
Db/D/F/F#/B/C/Eb/E
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