"O Come, All Ye Faithful" (originally written in Latin
as "Adeste Fideles") is a Christmas carol that has been
attributed to various authors, including John Francis
Wade (1711–1786), John Reading (1645–1692), King
John IV of Portugal (1604–1656), and anonymous
Cistercian monks. The earliest printed version is in a
book published by Wade. A manuscript by Wade, dating
to 1751, is held by Stonyhurst College in
Lancashire.
The original text of the hymn has been from time to
time at...(+)
"O Come, All Ye Faithful" (originally written in Latin
as "Adeste Fideles") is a Christmas carol that has been
attributed to various authors, including John Francis
Wade (1711–1786), John Reading (1645–1692), King
John IV of Portugal (1604–1656), and anonymous
Cistercian monks. The earliest printed version is in a
book published by Wade. A manuscript by Wade, dating
to 1751, is held by Stonyhurst College in
Lancashire.
The original text of the hymn has been from time to
time attributed to various groups and individuals,
including St. Bonaventure in the 13th century or King
John IV of Portugal in the 17th, though it was more
commonly believed that the text was written by
Cistercian monks – the German, Portuguese or Spanish
provinces of that order having at various times been
credited.
In modern English hymnals, the text is usually credited
to John Francis Wade, whose name appears on the
earliest printed versions. Wade, an English Catholic,
lived in exile in France and made a living as a copyist
of musical manuscripts which he found in libraries. He
often signed his copies, possibly because his
calligraphy was so beautiful that his clients requested
this. In 1751 he published a printed compilation of his
manuscript copies, Cantus Diversi pro Dominicis et
Festis per annum. This is the first printed source for
Adeste Fideles.
The version published by Wade consisted of four Latin
verses. Later in the 18th century, the French Catholic
priest Jean-François-Étienne Borderies wrote an
additional three verses in Latin. Another anonymous
Latin verse is rarely printed.
The text has been translated innumerable times into
English. The most common version today is a combination
of one of Frederick Oakeley's translations of the
original four verses, and William Thomas Brooke's
translation of the three additional verses. It was
first published in Murray's Hymnal in 1852. Oakeley
originally titled the song "Ye Faithful, approach ye"
when it was sung at his Margaret Chapel in Marylebone
(London), before it was altered to its current form.
The song was sometimes referred to as the "Portuguese
Hymn" after the Duke of Leeds, in 1795, heard a version
of it sung at the Portuguese embassy in London. McKim
and Randell nonetheless argue for Wade's authorship of
the version people are now familiar with.), as does
Bennett Zon in what may be the only article in a
scholarly journal on the question (though Zon thinks it
equally plausible that the author was someone else
known to Wade).
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Come,_All_Ye_Faithful)
.
I created this Arrangement of "O Come, All Ye Faithful"
in F Major for Pipe Organ (2 Manuals w/Pedals).
