It’s hard to imagine this tune as anything other than a celebration of Jesus’ birth. But when Felix Mendelssohn wrote the music in 1840, it was to honor Johannes Gutenberg on the 400th anniversary of his invention of the printing press. Fifteen years later, in 1855, a church organist, William Hayman Cummings, tookMendelssohn’s secular music and baptized it with words written more than a hundred years before by Charles Wesley and adapted by George Whitefield (both of whom were founders of the Methodist Church and among the many spiritual ancestors of the Adventist movement).
Wesley had intended his words to be sung to the tune of “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” That combination never caught on, yet Wesley’s words, adapted and improved by Whitefield and set to Mendelssohn’s tune by Cummings became a Christmas classic: a group project 116 years in the making.
We love a good group project. It’s why we’re called Union: we’re better together.
In this year’s Christmas video, we’ve added our own spin to this long history of collaboration. Mayah Evans lends her luxurious voice to this soulful arrangement by Steven Hutchison, assistant professor of music.
- Music direction and sound editing – Professor Steven Hutchison
- Vocals – Mayah Evans, nursing major
- Guitar and vocals – Andy Obregon, business administration major
- Piano – Ahchen Edwards, music major
- Percussion – Liam Liversidge, international rescue and relief major
- Base – Stephen Cantarero, adjunct professor of music
- Videography and video editing – Matthew Toews, business administration major
- Videography – Cid Coto