King Jesus Hath a Garden is an English translation of the traditional Dutch carol, "Heer Jezus heeft een Hofken." In the first video we have the Wells Cathedral Choir singing John Rutter' arrangement of the carol. In the second video we hear the song as it was originally written .
The YouTube notes are written in Dutch. Since I don't speak Dutch, I had Google translate for me:
"Sing along with 'Lord Jesus has a courtship', performed by choir Capella during the recordings of the Netherlands Zingt in the Westerkerk of Amsterdam."
The beloved carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” was written
by the Rev. Phillips Brooks for his Sunday School in 1868. He had spent
Christmas in Bethlehem two years
before. Brooks was born in Boston in 1835, graduated at Harvard College 1855,
and was ordained in 1859. He served as rector at the Church of the Advent, Philadelphia,
and later at Trinity Church,
Boston.
Most congregations that sing this carol use the tune ST LOUIS, composed by Lewis Redner. Here we hear FOREST GREEN which
is an English folk tune associated with the ballad "The Ploughboy's
Dream." Ralph Vaughan Williams turned FOREST GREEN into a hymn tune for The
English Hymnal (1906), using it as a setting for "O Little Town of
Bethlehem." Vaughan Williams played a primary role in establishing English
sacred music in the 20th century. Himself an agnostic, he took on the task of
revising the English Hymnal and the result was both solid and magical. He had
long collected English folk tunes and incorporated many of those tunes in hymns
he composed for the hymnal.
