Introduction to “O Holy Night” » Evangel

Today I kicked off a devotional commentary series through the song “O Holy Night” over at The A-Team Blog. I’m not sure if it really fits with Evangel or not, but I’ll cross-post the first few entries here to see how it goes.

“O Holy Night” is one of those traditional “Christmas” songs that I play all year round because it’s about so much more than a mere holiday. Almost every line of the song has something to do with the gospel. So I’ve broken up the three verses of the song into a twelve post series, making this post the first of thirteen. They’ll be posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday ending with Christmas. 20080820_nightsky_wc_corr_1000x374ss_sh2-150_wc

The original “O Holy Night” was composed in French in 1847 by Adolphe Adam. He used the words from a French poem called “Minuit, chrétiens” (Midnight, Christians) by Placide Cappeau. It was translated into English 1855 and in 1906 became the first piece of music known to be broadcast on the radio.

Wikipedia lists two English versions on the carol, along with the original French and a more direct translation. I’ll be going through the first version since this is the one I’m most familiar with. Here’s the blog schedule:

Nov 30 (M)- Introduction to O Holy Night
Dec 2 (W)- The Stars Are Brightly Shining
Dec 4 (F)- Long Lay the World in Sin
Dec 7 (M)- Yonder Breaks A New and Glorious Morn
Dec 9 (W)- Fall On Your Knees!
Dec 11 (F)- Led By the Light of Faith
Dec 14 (M)- Here Come the Wise Men
Dec 16 (W)- Born To Be Our Friend
Dec 18 (F)- Behold Your King!
Dec 21 (M)- His Law Is Love
Dec 23 (W)- The Slave Is Our Brother
Dec 24 (Th)- Let All Within Us Praise His Holy Name
Dec 25 (F)- Christ Is the Lord!

Lastly, I thought it would be good to link to some of the performances of the song that are available. Interestingly, I couldn’t find anyone who sings the second verse. Some only sing the first verse and repeat it. Some change the last lines and simply sing noel. What strikes me is that many of the performers are not Christians (to my knowledge), yet they are proclaiming the good news. I wonder if any of them have given serious thought to the words they sing.

Seven Day Jesus ***my favorite rendition

Nsync (acapella)

Comments (13)

Hashman
November 30th, 2009 | 10:16 am | #1

Sounds interesting.

I’d add Martina McBride (acappella) to essential O Holy Night, listening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2UMFTsV0Bs

Sam
November 30th, 2009 | 11:59 am | #2

Harry Connick Jr has all three verses on his When My Heart Finds Christmas album. listen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdRjuE01dGk

BTW, he made his collection more “Christian” than many overtly-so Christians make their holiday albums.

Coyle
November 30th, 2009 | 12:52 pm | #3

The Celtic Women do a fantastic version as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ-8jYpa1-o

Jeremy Pierce
November 30th, 2009 | 1:00 pm | #4

I’m pretty sure Michael Card, Twila Paris, and Steven Curtis Chapman’s versions have more than one verse. I think the Trans-Siberian Orchestra did it, and if they included vocals they would have likely done more than one verse, but it might have been instrumental.

Roger Overton
November 30th, 2009 | 3:25 pm | #5

It’s great to see your favorite version as well. I look forward to checking them out :)

Jeremy,

I should clarify- Lots of people sing two verses: the first and third verses. I can’t find any performance that has all three verse including the second verse.

Sam
November 30th, 2009 | 4:18 pm | #6

All three verses:

Sean Patterson
November 30th, 2009 | 4:40 pm | #7

Don’t forget the Point of Grace rendering done on the WOW CD (2002) It is by far my favorite rendering of the song and I believe they have the second verse in there, but I could be wrong:

http://www.amazon.com/WOW-Christmas-Christian-Artists-Holiday/dp/B00006JOG8/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt

I’m tuning into this blog series. O Holy Night is my favorite hymn of the season.

As a sidenote, Barlowgirl does a rendition of it too on the Absolute Favorite Christmas album:

http://www.amazon.com/Absolute-Favorite-Christmas-Various-Artists/dp/B0002XED1M

I’m not the biggest fan of this rendition, but I really like the group and they put kind of an interesting rock/orchestra spin on it.

Roger Overton
November 30th, 2009 | 9:38 pm | #8

Thanks Sam!

I also completely forgot about one of my other favorite vocalists: Leigh Nash. Some how her version is the first and second verse, but not the third.

http://www.last.fm/music/Leigh+Nash/_/O+Holy+Night

Roger Overton
December 1st, 2009 | 1:24 am | #9

Here’s a good video to go with the Barlowgirl version Sean mentioned:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PfiG1spvmM