Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent

Subject: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: GUEST,AlanG at work
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 06:24 AM

Does anyone know the origin of the tune to the Hymn "The Angel Gabriel was sent...."? It's not the well known "The Angel Gabriel from heaven....." but the one from William Sandys Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833). It's given as a traditional tune from Devonshire but I can't think of any song that it has been used for.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 12:13 PM

Just in case some are not familiar with the tune, there is a midi HERE.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 02:34 PM

The site, hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com, linked by katlaughing, contains a link to the original 13th-14th Latin original, "Angelus ad Virginem," words and midi.

Subject: Lyr. Add: The Angel Gabriel from God Was Sent
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 04:16 PM

Lyr. Add: THE ANGEL GABRIEL FROM GOD WAS SENT
(Version of Wm. Sandys, 1833)

1
The Angel Gabriel from God
Was sent to Galilee,
Unto a Virgin fair and free,
Whose name was called Mary.
And when the Angel thither came,
He fell down on his knee,
And looking up in the Virgin's face,
He said, "All hail, Mary."

Chorus-
Then sing we all, both great and small,
Nowell, Nowell, Nowell;
We may rejoice to hear the voice
Of the Angel Gabriel.

2
Mary anon looked him upon,
And said, "Sir, what are ye?
I marvel much at these tidings
Which thou has brought to me.
Married I am unto an old man,
And the lot fell unto me;
Therefore, I pray depart away,
For I stand in doubt of thee."

Chorus-

3
"Mary," he said, "Be not afraid
But do believe in me:
The power of the Holy Ghost
Shall overshadow thee;
Thou shall conceive without any grief,
As the Lord told unto me;
God's own dear Son from Heaven shall come,
And shall be born of thee."

Chorus-

4
This came to pass as God's will was,
Even as the Angel told.
About midnight an Angel bright
Came to the Shepherd's fold,
And told them both where and when
Born was the child our Lord,
And all along this was their song,
"All glory be given to God."

Chorus-

5
Good people all, both great and small,
The which do hear my voice,
With one accord let's praise the Lord,
And in our hearts rejoice;
Like sister and brother, let's love one another
Whilst we our lives do spend,
While we have space let's pray for grace,
And so let me carol end.

Some alternate words and lines provided. With midi and sheet music.

A similar carol is The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came, thread 3360, also based on the Latin hymn, Angelus ad virginem

Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came

www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 05:38 PM

I looked at the Sandys book on Google Books, and it has no music notation, only poetry.

Too bad. I was hoping to add some new tunes to my Christmas collection.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 06:20 PM

The sheet music for Sandys words is no. 37, in The Oxford Book of Carols, Percy Dearmer, R. Vaughan Williams, and Martin Shaw, Oxford University Press.

PM your email, I will send a scan.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 08:48 PM

Norman and Nancy Blake recorded a delightfully jaunty piece entitled 'Angel Gabriel' on their 'Hobo's Last Ride' album [Shanachie CD 6020]. Unfortunately, there are no notes to indicate its provenance. The following web page has a set of lyrics that are similar to the Blakes' version and a note indicating that it is traditional 'camp meeting' song: Angel Gabriel. Apart from that page, I am unable to find any reference to a Doc Watson recording of it. Can any 'catter confirm the accuracy of the claim that it is a 'camp meeting' song?

There's a video by a duo called Among the Oak & Ash here: Angel Gabriel.

Closer to the Blakes' treatment is this one, but the singing is a bit underwhelming: Angel Gabriel.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 10:39 PM

Hello, Q. Thanks for your kind offer, but I have that book and can look up the music.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 02:01 PM

Camp meetings still exist (an inlaw attends one in north Florida) and new songs or variations are being composed (?) all the time.

The lyrics you link are a little on the cornpone side, but could be sung at one of those affairs. They strike me as not being old enough for pd.

Stewie, maybe Jim Dixon could help.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: Stewie
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 06:38 PM

Thanks, Q. I was thinking the lyrics were a little too domestic and corny; it may well be a relatively recent composition as you imply. The brio of the tune, however, covers a multitude of sins. In respect of the homely lyrics, I am reminded of what Walt Whitman wrote somewhere: 'No one will get at my verses who views them as an artistic performance - the word of my book nothing, the drift of it everything'.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: Arcane Lag
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 04:56 PM

The link that Katlaughing gives earlier has two sets of sheet music. The first set of sheet music is the "Devonshire Traditional" tune but it gives no origin of the music.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 05:55 PM

Stainer (Bramley and Stainer) in the link by Katlaughing gave the tune's source as Devonshire, but I don't know if he gave any details.
The melody in the Oxford Book of Carols is an arrangement by Martin Shaw, no other information.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 06:10 PM

I looked for an ebook of Bramley and Stainer, and found the first edition, which has 42 carols and lacks this one from the third edition(?) of c. 1878.
I don't know if Stainer gave source information other than "Devonshire."

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 06:25 PM

Several sites call it a Basque carol, and quote Baring-Gould as source.
I dunno.

Subject: Lyr. Add: GABRIEL'S MESSAGE
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 08:19 PM

GABRIEL'S MESSAGE
Basque carol paraphrased by S. Baring-Gould

1
The angel Gabriel from heaven came
His wings as drifted snow his eyes as flame
"All hail" said he "thou lowly maiden Mary,
Most highly favored lady," Gloria!
2
"For know a blessed mother thou shalt be,
All generations laud and honor thee,
Thy Son shall be Emanuel, by seers foretold
Most highly favored lady, "Gloria!
3
Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head
"To me be as it pleaseth God," she said,
"My soul shall laud and magnify his holy name."
Most highly favored lady. Gloria!
4
Of her, Emanuel, the Christ was born
In Bethlehem, all on a Christmas morn
And Christian folk throughout the world will ever say:
"Most highly favored lady, "Gloria."

Based on Angelus ad Virginem, Latin 13-14th c.
Alternate titles: "The Angel Gabriel," "The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came."
Compare with The Angel Gabriel from God Was Sent, The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came.

From www.hymnsandcarolsof christmas.com

Performed by Sting on "A Very Special Christmas."

Subject: Lyr. Add: Gabriel from Heaven King
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Dec 11 - 05:31 PM

Lyr. Add: GABRIEL FROM HEAVEN KING
Anon. Middle English

1
Gabriel, from Heaven-King
Sent to the Maide sweete,
Brout hir blisful tidings
And flar he gan he greete:
'Heil be thu, gull of grace aright!
Gor Goddes Son, this Heaven-Light
For mannes love
Will man become
And take Fles of thee,
Maide Bright,
Manken free for to make
Of sen and devies might.
2
Mildelich him gan andswere
The milde Maid thanne:
'Wichewise sold ich bere
A child withute manne?'
Th'angel hir seid: 'Ne dred tee nout;
Thurw th'Oligast sal bewen iwrout
This ilche thing
Warof tiding
Ich bringe;
Al manken wurth ibout
Thurw thing sweet childinge
And Ut of pine ibrout.'
3
Wan the Maiden understood
And th'angels wordes herde,
Mildelich, with milde mood,
To th'angel hie andswerde:"
'Ure Lords thewe maid iwis
Ich am, that heer aboven is;
Anentis me
Fulfurthed be
Thi sawe
That ich, sith his will is,
A maid, withute lawe,
Of moder have the blis.'
4
The angel went awei mid than
Al ut of hire sighte;
Hire womb arise gan
Thurw th'Oligastes mighte,
In hir wes Crist bilok anon,
Sooth God, sooth man in fles and bon,
And of hir fles
Ibore wes
At time,
Warthurw us kam good won;
He bout us ut of pine,
And let him for us sion.
5
Maiden-Moder makeles,
Of milce ful ibunde,
Bid for us him that tee ches,
At wam thu grace funde,
That he forgive us sen and wrake,
And clene of evri gelt us make,
And heven-blis,
Wan ur time is
To sterve,
Us give, for thine sake,
Him so here for to sere
That heus to him take.

Modern versions based on this 13th-14th c. carol.

www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Dec 11 - 05:49 PM

For those interested in the Latin "Angelus ad Virginem," words and sheet music at http://www.oxfordgirlschoir.co.uk/downloads/angelus.pdf

It may be heard on youtube, Kings College Choir, Cambridge:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNBdoj2oTqA

(and several others on youtube)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: Artful Codger
Date: 10 Dec 11 - 11:12 PM

Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrot, in The New Oxford Book of Carols, say that the oldest preserved tune, from the Arundel MS, late 13th c. is possibly of French origin, but that the song was particularly popular in Britain. It's mentioned in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, in the miller's tale. According to a tale in the 13th c. collection Speculum Laicorum, "Odo [of Cheriton] tells of a certain great cleric, Chancellor of Paris, who, among many other blessed things which he uttered, composed that sweetest song about the Virgin that begins: Angelus ad virginem."

This is suggestive that the original writer of the text and possibly of the preserved tune was Philip (Phillippe) the Chancellor. He often wrote texts for pre-existing tunes, particularly those of the monk Pérotin/Perotinus, but was also reputed to be a composer himself.

Keyte and Parrot reproduce (as song #144) the text from Sandys set to an arrangement of the tune Sandys printed for "When righteous Joseph wedded was", noting:

We take the melody and most of the bass (transposed down a tone) from Sandys's setting of 'When righteous Joseph wedded was'. He gives no music for 'The angel Gabriel' in his music section but prints it next to 'When righteous Joseph' in the body of his collection (a sign in broadsides, etc., that two texts share a melody): they have identical refrains and complementary themes, one the doubts of Mary, the other those of Joseph. There is no separate music for the refrain printed in Sandys's setting, though a double bar indicates the repeat point. (See also Gilbert's setting of 'When righteous Joseph', 129.)

Regarding this latter song, after some discussion of Gilbert's tune notation they write:

The tune appears in Bramley and Stainer's Christmas Carols New and Old (1871) as the 'Devonshire; tune for 'The angel Gabriel from God was sent' (144). Both carols were sung to either melody. (See also 'The Lord at first did Adam make', 141: II, which has a related melody.)

The authors constrast the style of Gilbert's setting of "The Lord at first" with Sandys's--the tunes themselves don't appear directly related. The Gilbert setting

with its speech-rhythm melody and splendidly free-ranging instrumental bass, represents a style of performance which one might not have imagined but for this example. Yet there can be no doubt as to its authenticity. There is no evidence that Gilbert, or those that assisted him, ever tampered with their musical sources; if they had, it is scarcely conceivable that they would have produced anything so outrageous, and performance confirms what the printed page suggests--that there is a rough, peasant musicality about the setting as a whole to which a middle-class Georgian editor could hardly aspire. Sandys's bass line is less surprising, though still undoubtedly instrumental.

Later, they add:

Sandys's tune is related to that which Gilbert gives for 'When righteous Joseph' (129); Sandys calls it 'a specimen of the old minor key, with a flat seventh at the close ... It appears harsh to modern ears, which expect G#' (D# in our transposition).

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Angel Gabriel From God Was Sent
From: Artful Codger
Date: 10 Dec 11 - 11:50 PM

And to clarify, as I mentioned in another thread on "The Angel Gabriel", Baring-Gould's tune--the one now most familiar for the "highly favored lady" text--comes from the Basque carol "Birjina gaztettobat zegoen", first published in a collection compiled by Charles Bordes in 1895. The Basque and Baring-Gould versions may also be found in The New Oxford Book of Carols, #196. The Basque text, as for all the English variants, derives from the 13th c. "Angelus ad virginem", but the tune is unrelated to the earlier tunes.

In short, Baring-Gould's remark about Basque origin has no bearing on the text of "The angel Gabriel from God was sent" nor on the Devonshire tune printed in Sandys, Gilbert, and The Oxford Book of Carols (Dearmer/RVW).

Subject: Lyr. Add: Angelus ad Virginem
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 04:31 PM

Lyr. Add: ANGELUS AD VIRGINEM
Franciscan? 13th or 14th C.

1
Angelus ad virginem
Subintrans in conclave.
Virginis formidinum
Demulcens inquit "Ave."
Ave regina virginum,
Coeliteraeque dominum
Concipes
Et paries
Intacta,
Salutem hominum.
Tu porta coeli facta
Medella criminum.
2
Quomodo conciperem,
quae virum non cognovi?
Qualiter infringerem,
quae firma mente vovi?
'Spiritus sancti gratia
Perficiet haec omnia;
Ne timaes,
sed gaudeas,
secura,
quod castimonia
Manebit in te pura
Dei potentia.'
3
Ad haec virgo nobilis
Respondens inquit ei;
Ancilla sum humilis
Omnipotentis Dei.
Tibi coelesti nuntio,
Tanta secreti conscio,
Consentiens
Et cupiens
Videre
factum quod audio,
Parata quod parere
Dei consilio.
4
Angelus disparuit
Etstatim puellaris
Uterus intumuit
Vi partus salutaris.
Qui, circumdatus utero
Novem mensium numero,
Hinc Exiit
Et iniit
Conflictum,
Affigens humero
Crucem, qua dedit ictum
Hosti mortifero.
5
Eia Mater Domini
Quae pacem reddidisti
Angelis et homini,
Cum Christum genuisti;
Tuem exora filium
Ut se nobis propitium
Exhibeat,
Et deleat
Peccata;
Praestans auxilium
Vita frui beta
Post hoc exsilium.

www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com
With midi.