O Holy Night

About this arrangement

Adolphe Adam’s Cantique de Noël in C major, from “O holy night” to the final “O night divine”. Count four slow beats a bar, each a dotted crotchet. The left hand keeps up Adam’s accompaniment throughout: a bass note and two repeated chords on every beat. In the first half the right hand has the tune with a third or sixth below the long notes; “A thrill of hope” drops to pianissimo over G7 with B in the bass. From “Fall on your knees” the left hand moves to octaves and the right hand plays the tune on top of three- and four-note chords, climbing through D7, C and G7 to the high E on “night”. Bar 7 has a diminished chord with A sharp and C sharp; bar 8 has B7 with D sharp.

Practice tip: Keep the repeated left-hand chords soft and even, a little lighter than each bass note, so the tune sings over them. Pedal once per bass note and change cleanly. Save your fullest sound for bars 18 and 22, and take a little time over the last line before the held C chord.

The words

O holy night the stars are brightly shining, it is the night of the dear Saviour's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born O night divine, O night, O night divine.

A short history

The parish priest of Roquemaure, a small town in the south of France, asked a local poet, Placide Cappeau, to write a new text for Christmas midnight mass. Cappeau wrote “Minuit, chrétiens” (Midnight, Christians) on 3 December 1847 during a stagecoach journey from Mâcon to Dijon, and Adolphe Adam, the Paris composer of the ballet Giselle, set it to music within days. It was first sung at midnight mass in Roquemaure that Christmas.

By the 1860s the Cantique de Noël was being sung all over France. The English words most people know were written in 1855 by John Sullivan Dwight, a Boston music critic and minister. They are an adaptation rather than a translation: lines such as “O hear the angel voices” and “O night divine” are Dwight’s own.

This arrangement follows Adam’s melody from his voice-and-piano score, with Dwight’s first verse.

Quick facts

Tune

Adolphe Adam, 1847

Words

John Sullivan Dwight, 1855 (after Placide Cappeau, 1847)

Level

Advanced (concert arrangements, full texture)

Key

C major

Time signature

12/8

Length

25 bars and a pickup

Tempo

Andante maestoso, dotted crotchet = 52

Hands

Both hands on the grand staff: right hand on the treble staff, left hand on the bass staff

Copyright

Public domain tune and words; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal, church and classroom use

Questions and answers