The tune HELMSLEY, though usually attributed to mid-1700's figures Augustine Arne or Thomas Olivers, was actually in established use prior to either writer, already with one of several variants of the hymn "Lo, he comes with clouds descending." Martin Madan, the chaplain of Lock Hospital, published it with this text in Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes Never Published Before (1763). It circulated in nonconformist (ie, non-liturgical) use until the setting was 'discovered' and reharmonized by Ralph Vaughan Williams for the 1906 English Hymnal, which has become the canonical pairing of this tune and text, providing it with the majesty the text demands.

In its current form, the text is an ideal Advent hymn as it recalls Christ's incarnation and passion, before turning to the second coming. The text originates in a 1750 hymn/poem by John Cennick, a land surveyor who became a Moravian preacher. The text was adapted (and largely rewritten) by Charles Wesley and subsumed into the Methodist movement, the first Wesleyan version appearing in 1758. Several revisions and iterations of the text were undertaken, some by Wesley, some by others which have merged back in some of Cennick's original language. The exact phrase "Lo he comes with clouds descending" comes from a poem by Olivers, as Cennick's original began, in a different meter, "Lo! He cometh, countless trumpets blow." Because it was not an observed season in reformation churches, it would not have been seen in its time as an Advent hymn.

Updated Jan 2023 with ossia for an alternate rhythm, lower tessitura at cadence

Version 9.4.5 Pre-order

• First audition

1 Instrumental
Lo! he comes with clouds descending,
once for our salvation slain;
thousand, thousand saints attending
swell the triumph of his train:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Christ the Lord returns to reign.

2 Organ
Every eye shall now behold him,
robed in dreadful majesty;
those who set at nought and sold him,
pierced, and nailed him to the tree,
deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
shall the true Messiah see.

3 SATB alt harmony
Those dear tokens of his passion
still his dazzling body bears,
cause of endless exultation
to his ransomed worshipers;
with what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture,
gaze we on those glorious scars!

4 Instrumental
Yea, amen! let all adore thee,
high on thine eternal throne;
Savior, take the power and glory;
claim the kingdom for thine own:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou shalt reign, and thou alone.

a letter-size coil bound score of 15 pages will cost less than $10 at Staples. You can order online and upload the files with out an account - check out as guest. Paper handling for the included eight-page choir part pictured further below.

The eight-page signature version of the choir part is laid out ready to print in duplex mode short edge priority on 11x17 Ledger paper. This is a common feature of most office-grade printer copiers, but Staples can also do this for you as well.