Which composer's work was adapted for the melody of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"?

The melody of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” was adapted from the work of Felix Mendelssohn.

The tune comes from Mendelssohn’s *Festgesang*, a secular festival cantata written in 1840 for celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of movable-type printing in Europe. The melody was not originally composed for a Christmas hymn, which is why the carol’s words and tune have different historical origins.

British musician William Hayman Cummings adapted a movement from *Festgesang* in 1855 to fit the Christmas text. Charles Wesley had written the original hymn in 1739 under the title “Hymn for Christmas-Day,” decades before Mendelssohn’s composition existed. Wesley initially intended his words to use the tune of his Easter hymn “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today.”

Another common mix-up is associating the tune with Handel or Bach. Handel’s melody from *Judas Maccabaeus* has occasionally been used for an alternative arrangement, but Mendelssohn’s tune is the standard setting most listeners recognize.