Angels from the Realms of Glory for String Quartet
Angels from the Realms of Glory for String Quartet – ‘Angels from the Realms of Glory’ is featured on the first CD of string quartet Christmas carol arrangements by the Manor House String Quartet, called ‘I Saw Three Ships and other carols’ and was arranged by violinist Vaughan Jones.
Today we received two lovely emails from Classic FM listeners who had enjoyed hearing the track played on the Simon Bates show yesterday. One gentleman said that the piece reminded him of a skilled 18th century church ensemble playing to the squire at Christmas time and another listener said that whilst driving he’d heard the piece played in such a sprightly way that he’d pulled over in his car to write down the name of the ensemble and order the disc! It’s wonderful to hear such positive feedback and we are now particularly looking forward to playing this piece in our local village church at our concert on Friday.
The words to the carol were written by the English poet James Montgomery and first published in 1816. Since that time, the carol has been sung to a variety of melodies but the most famous one we know today is French in origin,’Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes’.
When I began the string quartet arrangement of this carol, I felt that the tune had an optimistic, jaunty feel to it and this is reflected in the opening bars where all four instruments are in rhythmic unison before the latter part of the theme which memorably descends and all the parts weave around the main theme.
You can also purchase the sheet music of Vaughan’s arrangement for the combinations of string quartet and string orchestra here: