Carols & Context: O Holy Night

 

One of the finest Christmas carols has to be ‘O Holy Night.’ It’s also one we don’t sing or play often enough, as it’s musically quite challenging – maybe because the tune was written by a French composer of operas.  The English version of the song is hugely popular, written by John Sullivan Dwight in 1855.  But this was based on his translation of the French ‘Minuit, Chretiens’, penned 12 years previous by Placide Cappeau.

  Cappeau was a French wine merchant, injured in a freak shooting accident as a child (the compensation for which funded his literary education).  His passion and skill was for literature, and so he was asked by the local priest to write a poem to mark the renovation of the church organ.  He agreed, and the result was the lyric of ‘Minuit, Chretiens’, also known as ‘Cantique de Noel’.

  It wasn’t without controversy, however.  Some in the Church at large discredited the composition, and its writers: Cappeau was not particularly religious, and (perhaps worse?) was a well-known socialist.  Adolphe Adam, the composer, was not a writer of music for ecclesiastical, but theatrical, use.  And yet, Cappeau got it.  He may not have been classically religious, but he understood Jesus, Christmas and the significance of it all – perhaps better than many who were.

  One thing I was struck by a few years ago, having sung this song in choirs and in religious settings, was that we only sing or hear 2 verses of ‘O Holy Night’ most of the time.  But there are 3 verses.  And the third verse is incredibly poignant:

 

                “Truly he taught us to love one another,

His law is love and his gospel is peace.

Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,

And in his name all oppression shall cease…”

 

This was a popular sentiment for Dwight (who published the English version) and many of his colleagues in the north of 1850s America – as Abolitionists.  Dwight was a Unitarian minister, committed to peace and justice.  A century later, he might have been persecuted as a ‘communist’, politically, and a liberal theologically.

  I sometimes wonder if there’s a reason that this verse is so often cut.  Perhaps it’s too ‘political’ for Christmas.  Maybe it’s uncomfortable, reminding us of a painful past, and persistent problems around race – and other forms of oppression, like the misogyny so rife today.

  But I think we need this song as a whole, with it “thrill of hope,” because “in his name all oppression shall cease.”  Christmas, for me, is about love and peace, joy and hope.  It’s about people coming together as family – a shared humanity, under the same starry sky.  In his birth, Jesus demonstrated solidarity with all people, and invites us to do the same.