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The popular French Christmas carol "Les anges dans nos campagnes" has long delighted singers and listeners with its exuberant runs of "Gloria in excelsis Deo!" It has been called a "triumphant and vibrant hosanna of confidence, joy, and love."1 But its origin is poorly understood and its early textual variants insufficiently explored. Its relationship to the similar English carol "Angels from the realms of glory" is controversial. The carol "Angels we have heard on high" is certainly a translation, but of which variants of the original? This essay will show that the publication history of the French carol extends earlier than previously known, demonstrate the wide variety of its expression in its first century, and explore the implications of this new information on its English adaptations.
Earliest Known Publication
The French carol first appeared with the incipit "Les anges dans nos campagnes" in 1842 in Choix de cantiques sur des airs nouveaux by Louis Lambillotte (1797-1855), and this is often considered its earliest publication.2 But new research shows that the carol was published in various forms at least nine times before 1842.
The earliest known appearance of the carol is as "J'Entends, là sur ces collines/Noël du Gloria in Excelsis" in Noëls français et provençaux by Révérend Père Roche, published 1805 in Marseille (see Figure I).3 Although its first stanza differs greatly from what is sung today, the rest of the carol (excepting deleted stanzas) has remained largely unchanged. Roche's was not a one-off publication. Later editions in 1810, 1829, 1853, and 1877 have only slight emendations ("pleins" instead of "plein" in 4-3, "d'allégresse" instead of "d'alégresse" in 12.1, and, in 1877, "là-haut" instead of just "là" in 1.1)Л This version also appeared in a compilation in 1875 with further slight changes.5 The 1805 edition predates the earliest known publication of the carol as "Les anges dans nos campagnes" by 37 years. The discovery in Roche's books thus extends the proven history of the carol by a generation.
The carol may not be much older than 1805. A similar carol compilation by Roche issued in 1771 does not include it.6 The title pages of his 1810 and subsequent editions carry (and that of the 1805 edition reportedly carried) the indication "Auxquels on en a joint...