The tune first appeared as a secular dance tune known under the title "Branle de l'Official"[1][2] in Orchésographie, a dance book written by the French cleric, composer and writer Thoinot Arbeau, pen name of Jehan Tabourot (1519–1593).
The words are by the English composer George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848–1934), and the carol was first published in 1924 in his The Cambridge Carol-Book: Being Fifty-two Songs for Christmas, Easter, And Other Seasons.
Charles Wood harmonised the tune when it was published with Woodward's text in The Cambridge Carol Book.
More recently, Sir David Willcocks made an arrangement for the second book of Carols for Choirs.
verily the sky Is riv'n with angel singing Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis