Music Monday: "O Holy Night"

I admit that I have a lot of hobbies and many of my interests come and go through the seasons of my life. I believe a hobby becomes a passion when it weathers all seasons of life and maintains a high level of importance throughout. One of the few things that I have continued to show passion for and through is music. I love music! I love to listen to it, read it, sing it, talk about it, and experience it. I have decided that I will show this passion by beginning a weekly blog spot for music. It will be called Music Monday.

Music Monday will bring about songs I like and would love for you to listen to, stories behind songs, personal articles about different artists or worship songs, etc. We'll try this out for a few weeks and see if you people like it or think it is a dumb idea!

Since it is Christmas, I would like to share my favorite arrangement and performance of one of the most well known Christmas carols: "O Holy Night" by Shane Barnard & Shane Everett.

"O Holy Night" was originally written in France by a poet named Placide Cappeau in 1847 when he was asked to write a poem for Christmas mass by a priest. Cappeau was moved by his own work, then known as "Cantique de Noel," and asked a musician friend to put it to music. This song rang through cathedrals in France for years and quickly became a favorite Christmas song. It turns out, however, that clergy learned of the fact that Cappeau had left the church to join a socialist movement and his musician was in fact, Jewish, not Christian. The heads of the French Catholic church of the time deemed "Cantique de Noel" as unfit for church services because of its lack of musical taste and "total absence of the spirit of religion." Yet even as the church tried to bury the Christmas song, the French people continued to sing it, and a decade later a reclusive American writer brought it to a whole new audience halfway around the world.

Not only did this American writer--John Sullivan Dwight--feel that this wonderful Christmas song needed to be introduced to America, he saw something else in the song that moved him beyond the story of the birth of Christ. An ardent abolitionist, Dwight strongly identified with the lines of the third verse: "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." The text supported Dwight's own view of slavery in the South. Published in his magazine, Dwight's English translation of "O Holy Night" quickly found favor in America, especially in the North during the Civil War.

Back in France, even though the song had been banned from the church for almost two decades, many commoners still sang "Cantique de Noel" at home. Legend has it that on Christmas Eve 1871, in the midst of fierce fighting between the armies of Germany and France, during the Franco-Prussian War, a French soldier suddenly jumped out of his muddy trench. Both sides stared at the seemingly crazed man. Boldly standing with no weapon in his hand or at his side, he lifted his eyes to the heavens and sang, "Minuit, Chretiens, c'est l'heure solennelle ou L'Homme Dieu descendit jusqu'a nous," the beginning of "Cantique de Noel."

After completing all three verses, a German infantryman climbed out of his hiding place and answered with, "Vom Himmel noch, da komm' ich her. Ich bring' euch gute neue Mar, Der guten Mar bring' ich so viel, Davon ich sing'n und sagen will," the beginning of Martin Luther's robust "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come."

The story goes that the fighting stopped for the next twenty-four hours while the men on both sides observed a temporary peace in honor of Christmas day. Perhaps this story had a part in the French church once again embracing "Cantique de Noel" in holiday services.

The song has become one of the most familiar sounds during the month of December and has weathered much adversity to bring joy to the listener on earth and the One who listens to the world sing about Him. I hope you enjoy Shane & Shane's performance of the song.

Recognition: The story behind the song came from memory, but many of the details came from this article - The Amazing Story of "O Holy Night" by Ace Collins.