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		Ding Dong Merrily on high
Arranger		R. Mather
		SATB
		French 16th Century melody adapted by G.R. Woodward.

Text		Ding dong! merrily on high, in heav'n the bells are ringing: Ding dong! verily the sky is riv'n with angel singing. Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis! Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis! E'en so here below, below, let steeple bells be swungen, and "io, io, io!" by priest and people sungen. Pray you, dutifully prime your matin chime, ye ringers; May you beautifully rime your evetime song, ye singers. NB the "I" of "io, io, io," is pronounced "e" ("eo, eo, eo").
Download		Ding Dong 1 - arr Mather Downloads
		Ding Dong 2 - arr Mather Downloads
		Ding Dong 1 - arr Mather Downloads
		Ding Dong 2 - arr Mather Downloads

		Created 15/09/2008 Revised 16/04/2009

"Ding Dong! Merrily On High", harmonized by Charles Wood

"Ding Dong Merrily on High" is a secular dance tune that evolved into a Christmas song. The tune first appeared as Bransle l'Officiale in the Orchésographie, a dance book written by Jehan Tabourot (1519-1593). The text was composed by George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934), and it was first published in 1924 in his The Cambridge Carol-Book: Being Fifty-two Songs for Christmas, Easter, And Other Seasons. Woodward took an interest in church bell ringing, which no doubt aided him in writing it. Woodward was the author of several carol books, including 'Songs of Syon' and 'The Cowley carol Book'. The macaronic style is characteristic of Woodward’s delight in archaic poetry.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Metasyntactic variable".

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Come all you worthy gentlemen (Come all you worthy people) (Somerset Carol) - R. Mather	From heaven above to earth I come - Martin Luther

Ding Dong Merrily on high