…O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth…
Long ago in the 19th century a parish priest in France asked his friend to write a poem for Christmas. The friend, a wine merchant (not musician) by profession named Placide Cappeau, obliged and drafted a wonderful verse that turned into a Christian hymn in a way. The words desperately needed a no less beautiful music accompaniment and that’s where Adolphe Adam was turned to for help. What we have now is a bright and tender Christmas song that is well-recognized today.
The original always sounds better but the English versions are charming too. Though dedicated to telling the story of Jesus’ birth, this piece has something secular about it, something far from the church that reaches anyone beyond religion. No wonder that such well-known singers as Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and may others have recorded their versions of the song. It still is recorded, by the way, last one being this year by Ladywell Primary School in honor of a pupil who died from meningitis.
Adolphe Adam did a great job, no doubt. But music is so multifaceted and diverse that the same work can be rendered with a different shade with every performance. I quite liked the arrangement for a brass quintet by David Burndrett. The nice thing that it can go perfectly well as a concert piece and be played as a fun piece too.
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