4,** LVD I 
 
 XOTES ON THE "ADESTE FI DELES." 
 
 NOTES ON THE ORIGIN OF THE MELODY OF THE " ADESTE 
 
 FIDELES." 
 
 WITH the exception of the Dies Irae and the Stabat Mater, 
 it is doubtful if there is a more popular hymn in our 
 churches than the Adeste Fideies. For close on two hundred 
 years this cento — for the entire hymn is hardly ever sung — has 
 been inseparably associated with the Christmas season, and yet 
 both words and music cannot be traced farther back than 1720- 
 It is extraordinary what a romantic halo encircles some of our 
 best known hymns and folk tunes. Frequently on the prin- 
 ciple of omne ignotum* pro mirifico, the most widely differing 
 accounts of many popular sacred melodies are to be met with, 
 and in several cases any attempt to trace either the author or com- 
 poser has proved elusive. 
 
 Until a few years back the more generally received account 
 of the origin of the Adeste Fideies was that the music was due to 
 John Reading, organist of Winchester College, about the year 
 1680. This account was first circulated by Vincent Novello, 
 organist of the Portuguese Chapel, London, from 1797 to 1822, 
 and of the pro-Cathedral, Moorfields, from 1840 to 1843, 1 wno 
 printed the melody in his Home Music (1843), set to Psalm 106, 
 with the heading : " Air by Reading, 1680." The following is an 
 extract from Novello's note as to the air : 
 
 " John Reading was a pupil of Dr. Blow (the master of Purcell) 
 and was first employed at Lincoln Cathedral. He afterwards became 
 organist to St. John's Hackney, and finally of St. Dunstan's in the 
 West and St. Mary's, Woolnoth, London. He published toward the 
 end of the seventeenth century a collection of anthems of his own 
 composition, and his productions are generally esteemed for their 
 tastefully simple melodies and appropriately natural harmonies. This 
 piece obtained its name of ' The Portuguese Hymn ' from the acci- 
 dental circumstance of the Duke of Leeds, who was a director of the 
 Concert of Ancient Music, many years since (about the year 1785), 
 having heard the hymn first performed at the Portuguese Chapel, and 
 who, supposing it to be peculiar to the service in Portugal, intro- 
 duced the melody at the Ancient Concerts, giving it the title of the 
 ' Portuguese Hymn,' by which appellation this very favorite and 
 
 1 His daughter Clara, Countess of Gigliucci, born in 1818, is still living in 
 Rome. She was the leading English soprano from 1839 till her retirement in i860. 
 
 Sc 
 
708 THE DOLPHIN. 
 
 popular tune has ever since been distinguished ; but it is by no means 
 confined to the choir of the Portuguese Chapel, being the regular 
 Christmas hymn, Adeste Fideles, that is sung in every Catholic chapel 
 throughout England." 
 
 Let me now briefly examine Novello's historical note. The 
 melody is said to be the composition of John Reading in 1680, 
 a pupil of Dr. Blow, etc. The fact is that this John Reading, 
 whose organ appointments are quoted, was not born till 1677, 
 and consequently was only three years old in 1680, which date is 
 assigned for the publication of a collection of anthems including 
 the Adeste Fideles ! His birth took place in 1677, and his Book 
 of Anthems was published in 17 16. He died in London, on Sep- 
 tember 25, 1764. Almost needless to add, the Adeste Fideles 
 does not appear among the Anthems. 
 
 But there were three John Readings. I have disposed of one, 
 leaving the other two to be dealt with. John Reading (No. 2), 
 organist of Winchester Cathedral, is by some accredited as the 
 composer of the Christmas hymn. He was lay vicar of Lincoln 
 Cathedral in 1667, and Master of the Choristers there in 1670. In 
 1675 he succeeded Randall Jewitt at Winchester, which position 
 he held till 1681, when he was replaced by Daniel Roseingrave. 
 
 From 1 68 1 to his death in 1692, he was organist and music 
 master of Winchester College, and is said to have composed the 
 College " Graces " including the celebrated Dulce domum, printed 
 in Harmonia Wykehamica, in 1808. His claim to the Adeste 
 Fideles rests on no evidence, and indeed it is very doubtful if he 
 composed Dulce domum, which I may remark smacks strongly 
 of the flavor of " Papa " Haydn. 
 
 Just a word as to the claim of John Reading (No. 3). This 
 composer was organist of Chichester Cathedral from 1674 to 1720, 
 and the only evidence yet brought forward in support of his 
 alleged composition of the Adeste Fideles is the similarity of name 
 with the other two above mentioned. 
 
 Let us now come to the actual manuscripts and printed copies 
 of the hymn from 1745 to 1845, a f ter which latter year the setting 
 as at present used came into general vogue. But first I must dis- 
 miss a recent legend to the effect that the air is to be found in a 
 sixteenth century Gradual of the Cistercian Order. I have ex- 
 amined the Cistercian Gradual of various dates within the six- 
 
NOTES ON THE "ADESTE FIDELESr 709 
 
 teenth century, and nothing approaching a modernly constructed 
 tune, such as is the Adeste Fideles, is to be found therein. An 
 esteemed member of the Cistercian community at Mount Mel- 
 leray corroborates this statement, but internal evidence alone 
 would be tolerably conclusive as pointing to the first quarter of 
 the eighteenth century. I may further state that no tune even 
 remotely resembling the Christmas hymn is to be found in the 
 printed composition of John Reading (No. 1), or yet in his ten 
 autograph manuscript volumes at present belonging to Dr. W. 
 H. Cummings, of London. 
 
 The oldest existing manuscript of the melody so far discovered 
 is in a volume of Masses and motets formerly belonging to 
 Father Peter Kenny, S.J., the founder of Clongowes Wood Col- 
 lege, Co. Kildare (Ireland), containing autograph musical scores 
 of various dates between the years 1 740 and 1 749. In this volume 
 is an extraordinary musical tour de force, namely a 48-part Mass, 
 arranged for twelve choirs of four voices each. I frequently 
 examined this old folio during the years that I was master at 
 Clongowes Wood College, some twenty years ago. 
 
 Of somewhat later date is another precious musical manu- 
 script, now belonging to the Jesuit Fathers of the English 
 Province, at Stonyhurst College, near Blackburn, in Lancashire. 
 This manuscript is beautifully penned throughout by Father John 
 Francis Wade, and the date 175 1 is clearly given in the book, 
 being written for a certain Nicholas King. The title-page runs 
 as follows : " Cantus diversi pro Dominicis et Festis per annum : 
 Gloria Patri, post Introitum, Kyrie, Gloria in excelsis, Credo, 
 Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. Cum Hymnis et Antiphonis ad Eleva- 
 tionem et Benedictionem. Et ex praecordiis sonent praeconia. 
 Nicolaus King, ejus Cantus. Joannes Franciscus Wade, scriptor. 
 Anno Domini MDCCLI." 
 
 Whilst the Clongowes manuscript has merely the tune, the 
 Stonyhurst volume has words and music. 2 In the latter manu- 
 script there are only four verses, — the first, second, seventh, and 
 eighth of the full text ; and the music is given for each stanza, 
 the hymn being headed u In Nativitate Domini Hymnus," or, as 
 it was more generally termed, " Christmas Hymn." Thus in 
 
 2 A third MS. containing the words and music of the Adeste Fideles is now in 
 St. Edmund's College, Ware (England). It is dated 1760, and does not materially 
 differ from the Stonyhurst MS. 
 
7IO THE D0LPH1X. 
 
 1750 the original eight verses had been reduced to the present 
 cento, but it is of interest to state that the Latin verses generally 
 sung at the same period in France were the first, third, fifth, and 
 sixth. 3 
 
 The first printed version of the tune is in an extremely rare 
 volume of Hymns for Catholic Service, published in 1766 by 
 Charles Barbandt, organist of the Bavarian Chapel in London. 
 Sixteen years later, in 1782, the hymn-tune appeared in a little 
 book entitled An Essay on the Church Plain Chant, published 
 by an Irish Catholic in London. This small volume, also very 
 rare, is in three parts, and the Adeste Fideles was printed in Part II, 
 which is described as " containing several Anthems, Litanies, 
 Proses, and Hymns, as they are sung in the Public Chapels at 
 London." 
 
 It has been suggested that Samuel Webbe, senior, arranged the 
 music for Coghlan's volume, and he certainly composed many of 
 the pieces contained in the second part ; but his claim as composer 
 of the Adeste Fideles cannot at all be entertained inasmuch as the 
 air is to be met with in 1745, when Webbe was but five years of 
 age. Moreover the tune was simply taken from Barbandt's 
 volume, printed in 1766, doubtless with the permission of Bar- 
 bandt, who was Webbe's teacher, and we have no evidence that 
 Webbe composed anything prior to the year 1761, when he be- 
 came Barbandt's deputy at the chapel of the Bavarian embassy. 
 
 We next find the air included in Webbe's Collection of Motets 
 or Antiphons published in London in 1792, and thenceforward it 
 was included in almost every collection of sacred music. The 
 first copy I have met with as printed in Ireland is in a small col- 
 lection issued by P. Wogan of Dublin in 1805, just a hundred 
 years ago. I give this setting on the opposite page. 
 
 The earliest known copy of the Latin words of the hymn is 
 in Father Wade's manuscript (175 1), but their first appearance in 
 print cannot be traced farther back than the year 1760 when the 
 Christmas Hymn was included in " the evening office of the 
 Church." In this work, of which three previous editions — none 
 of which contained the hymn — had appeared respectively in 1710, 
 
 3 In December, 1901, an interesting setting of the Adeste Fideles with the full 
 text of eight verses was published by Dom Samuel Gregory Ould,O.S.B. Each 
 of the eight verses had an accompaniment by eight modern composers, including 
 Sir Walter Parrott and Sir Hubert Parry. 
 
NOTES ON THE "ADESTE FIDELES. 
 
 711 
 
 1725, and 1748, the Adeste Fideles is prefaced as follows : " From 
 the Nativity of our Lord to the Purification exclusively ; whilst 
 the Benediction is giving is sung Adeste Fideles!' 
 
 Adeste Fideles. 
 from christmas to the octave of epiphany. [1805] 
 
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 Ades - te fideles laeti triumphantes, Ve - ni - te 
 
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 ve - ni - te in Beth-le-hem. 
 
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 videte, etc. 
 
 English words were adapted to the hymn about the year 1825, 
 and another version was given by Father William Young, of 
 Dublin in 1840, printed with the music in the Catholic Choralist 
 (Dublin), in 1842. As Father Young was regarded as a saint 
 equally with his brother, Father Charles Young (whose life has 
 been charmingly written by Lady Georgiana Fullerton), many 
 readers may be glad to see this specimen by his translation, given 
 with the music on page 712. 
 
 At length in 1841, Canon Oakley, then Rector of St. Mar- 
 garet's, London, wrote a new translation of the hymn, which was 
 published in 1844. The year following, he became a convert. It 
 is this translation which has ever since been sung in Anglican 
 churches, commencing : " O come all ye faithful." It was included 
 in Hymns Ancient and Modern. The English words, however, 
 do not go so smoothly with the music as the original Latin. It 
 
712 
 
 THE DOLPHIN. 
 
 is almost unnecessary to add that the Latin words are universally 
 sung in our Catholic churches, and the tune is generally played as 
 a prelude and postlude on Christmas morning. 
 
 Adeste Fideles. [1842] 
 
 sung each day from christmas till the octave of the 
 epiphany at mass, vespers, and benediction. 
 
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 With hearts tru - ly grate - ful, come, all ye 
 
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 Beth - le - hem. See Christ, your Sav - iour, 
 
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 heav - 'n's great -est fa - vor, Let's hast - en to 
 
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 To sum up. It may be taken as tolerably certain that the 
 words and music of this tuneful Christmas hymn go back to the 
 first quarter of the eighteenth century, and are to be attributed to 
 a Catholic source and for Catholic worship. 
 
 Wm. H. Grattan Flood. 
 
 Enniscorthy, Ireland,