"Joy to the World"
Though the triumphant words "Joy to the world" exemplify the Christmas feeling, this familiar text is actually a translation based on five verses from Psalm 98 in the Old Testament. Isaac Watts, the Engish hymnist and cleric, published his Psalms of David, which contains these verses in 1719. More than a century later, in 1839, American composer and music educator Lowell Mason decided to set them to music, modestly including the phrase "From George Frederick Handel," apparently to honor his idol, the composer of Messiah and many other masterpieces. For nearly 100 years, the world accepted this ascription, until musicologists pointed out that not a single phrase in the music can be said to have come straight from any work of Handel's.
(from Reader's Digest Christmas Songbook)
Even though no phrase comes straight from Handel's work, I can see how this song could be a tribute to Handel. It is very Handelesque.
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