Sorry Handel Fans, No Contribution to Joy to the World

Sorry Handel Fans, No Contribution to Joy to the World

by R. Rojas

In many books and hymnals, one will often find the music of “Joy to the World” attributed to George Frederick Handel. 

English clergyman Isaac Watts, who is known as the “Godfather of English Hymnody,” wrote the carol. The text draws some from Psalm 98 especially in the carol’s verse 2. Of course, Watts and his carols, soon became very popular.

Moreover, there are many settings including one by William Billings. The favorite setting of "Joy to the World" remains “Antioch” often attributed to Handel or sometimes “arranged from Handel” with credit given to American Lowell Mason. Mason included it in his Occasional Psalm and Hymn Tunes, No. 3 (Boston, 1836). The editors of the New Oxford Book of Carols (“the editors”) cite John Wilson’s article “The Origins of the Tune Antioch” as a good source for history of that tune. Mason, we know what the first to join tune and text together in a publication.

The editors state that the first settings for “Joy to the World” were from the 1830s.

However, before that, concerning the tune “Antioch,” the editors describe how William Holford of Manchester attributed the “Antioch” to Handel in a publication c. 1834. Note, we are not talking about “Joy to the World” here but the tune “Antioch.”

The editors presume that the attribution to Handel comes from “the resemblance of the opening phrase to the choruses ‘Glory to God’ and ‘Lift up your heads’ in Messiah (1741). They even accuse Holford of “rewriting the fifth and sixth strains with staggered upper and lower voices to bring out what was at best a faint echo of the string ritonello introducing the recitative ‘Comfort ye, my people’ in Messiah.”(1).

"Glory to God"

"Lift up Your Heads"

 As early as 1833, some texts had the music of “Antioch” described under the name “Comfort.” 

The editors suggest Halford “may have been influenced…by the name of the tune….” from the text of Messiah. They say “Comfort” was a “typical Dissenting tune-name of the time.” (2).

Further, they say the opening of the carol “is by no means unique in melodies of its type, and any resemblance to Handel was probably coincidental or, that  least, unconscious, since Handel’s idiom in general, and the music of Messiah in particular was Holy Writ to Dissenting musicians.”(3)

Even if the attribution to Handel has been disproven, it does not mean we cannot have fun. John Rutter does exactly this in The John Rutter Christmas (Collegium Records 2002) by the Cambridge Singers and the City of London Sinfonia. The liner notes state that Rutter was commissioned to write his 1981 arrangement of the carol in a Handelian style “as a tribute to the tunes presumed Handelian parentage.” (4).

"Joy to the World" arr. John Rutter using Handel

However, Handel does not take being ejected from Christmas carols lightly and even before "Joy to the World, Handel had already established himself in another carol.

As we noted in our article about “While Shepherds Watched,” we describe how the soprano aria ‘Non vi piaque ingiusti dei” in Handel’s Siroe, Re die Persia, was used as a setting for “While Shepherds Watched.” (5)

"Non vi piaque ingiusti dei” in Handel’s Siroe, Re die Persia

The editors of the NOBC say that this music as a companion to the carol “is widely sung in the US.” (6). Handel’s opera came out in 1728 so the tune had to be attached to “While Shepherds Watched” sometime after that year. The editors suspect it was Lowell Mason who attached “Siroe” to the carol.

"While Shepherds Watched" using "Non vi piaque ingiusti dei” 

in Handel’s Siroe, Re die Persia

Is there a connection here? Mason lived from 1792-1872, so use of “Siroe” at least started in the early 1800s. Though we do not know for sure how “Antioch” was misattributed to Handel and we can only theorize, we know for sure that Mason and Halford were Handel fans.

1.       Keyte, Hugh and Parrott, Andrew.  New Oxford Book of Carols, Oxford University Press, 1992. Entry on “Joy to the World.”

2.       Ibid.

3.       Ibid.

4.       The John Rutter Christmas (Collegium Records 2002). Liner notes.

5.       Rojas, Ray. “The most popular Christmas Song: While Shepherds Watched.” https://christmascarolsblog.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-most-popular-christmas-song-while.html. Accessed Nov. 2, 2021.

6.       Keyte, Hugh. Ibid.

Further reading: 

Fenner, Chris. "Psalm 98: Joy to the world with ANTIOCH,(COMFORT)." Joy to the world — Hymnology Archive, accessed Nov. 2, 2021.

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