Angels come, on joyous pinion

Translator: Isaac Williams

Isaac Williams was born in London, in 1802. His father was a barrister. The son studied at Trinity College, Oxford, where he gained the prize for Latin verse. He graduated B.A. 1826, M.A. 1831, and B.D. 1839. He was ordained Deacon in 1829, and Priest in 1831. His clerical appointments were Windrush (1829), S. Mary the Virgin's, Oxford (1832), and Bisley (1842-1845). He was Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, from 1832 to 1842. During the last twenty years of his life his health was so poor as to permit but occasional ministerial services. He died in 1865. He was the author of some prose writings, amongst which are Nos. 80, 86 and 87 of the "Oxford Tracts." His commentaries are favourably known. He also published quite a large num… Go to person page >

Author: Nicolas Le Tourneux

Le Tourneux, Nicolas, was born of poor parents at Rouen, April 30, 1640. The uncommon ability he displayed at an early age attracted the notice of M. du Fosset, Maître des Comptes at Rouen, who sent him to the Jesuits' college at Paris, where he made remarkable progress in his studies. He then retired to Touraine, where he passed some time with a pious ecclesiastic in the practice of prayer and penitential exercises. His friend, observing that he had a gift for preaching, advised him to return to Rouen. This he did, and adopted the clerical profession, and was in 1662 admitted to priests' orders by special dispensation, though still under canonical age. He subsequently removed to Paris, where he employed his time in study, and in 1675 obta… Go to person page >

Adeste, Coelitum chori. Nicholas le Tourneaux. [Easter.] In the revised Paris Breviary, 1736, this hymn was for the Ferial Office at Matins (Sundays included) in Eastertide, beginning on Low Sunday and continuing to the Feast of the Ascension, and is marked with the initials "N. T." It is also used in like manner in the Lyons and other modern French Breviaries. The Paris Breviary text was reprinted in Card. Newman's Hymni Ecclesiae, 1838 and 1865, and J. Chandler's Hymns of the Primitive Church, 1837, No, 68. [Rev. W. A. Shoults, B. D.]
Translations in common use:—
#1. Angels, come on joyous pinion. By I. Williams, first published in his Hymns translated from the Paris Breviary, 1839, p. 128, in 6 stanzas of 6 lines. In 1851 it was given, somewhat altered, by Dr. Rorison in his Hymns and Anthems, No. 81. In the Anglican Hymn Book, 2nd edition, 1871, No. 152, it is altered to "Come, once more with songs descending."

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)