Angels We Have Heard on High

Before it was an English-language Christmas carol, this was a French one--“Les anges dans nos campagnes,” or “The angels in our countryside,” believed to date back to 18th-century France. The soaring “Gloria” refrain is the part everyone remembers, and it's every bit as much fun to play as it is to sing. The English words we use today came from an 1862 translation, so by the time this tune reached America it had already been sung in French villages for a hundred years or more.