SUBSCRIBER LOGIN

Search
First Things

Loading

RSS

Masthead

Recent Comments

  • teleologist: Thanks you for the opportunity to express our opinions with the time that we had. Tongues will cease,...
  • Orthodoxdj: As Tolkien said to Lewis as they parted on that fateful night in Oxford, “Goodbye.”
  • Livingston Dell: I didn’t always comment as frequently as I had liked to on these articles, but I always...
  • Nikolai Volk: You know, we had a hell of a run in these comment sections. I’ve had many a great discussion with...
  • David Strunk: Hey Joe, I also appreciated what you guys did here, and always had this blog on my RSS feed to see the...
  • Amy K. Hall: Thanks for starting the blog, Joe. It was an honor to be included.
  • Archives

    Categories

    Monthly


    « Previous  |Home|  Next »         

    Monday, November 30, 2009, 10:00 AM

    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

    Third Day

    Celine Dion

    Josh Groban

    David Phelps

    Nsync (acapella)

    Mariah Carey

    Luciano Pavarotti

    Carrie Underwood

    Kelly Clarkson

    13 Comments

      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
      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

      Sam
      December 9th, 2009 | 11:38 am | #10

      yet another with all three verses:

      http://music.aol.com/holiday-and-christmas-cds#/34

      Eric MacLeod
      December 11th, 2009 | 5:58 pm | #11

      Future of Forestry has a great version to close out their Advent EP: http://new.music.yahoo.com/future-of-forestry/tracks/o-holy-night–207287895

      Roger Overton
      December 11th, 2009 | 8:40 pm | #12

      Thanks Eric- I used to know FoF when they were Something Like Silas. I didn’t realize any of those tracks were available online. Good find!

      Amy M
      December 20th, 2009 | 9:04 pm | #13

      Travis Cottrell has a beautiful rendition of this song. All verses and is SO pure and clear.

    Links

    Blogs

    Find Us

    Contact