O Holy Night!
Performed by The Tabernacle Choir & Orchestra at Temple Square, with Kristin Chenoweth
In the fall of 1847, a French merchant, Placide Cappeau, was asked by his local priest to write a Christmas poem. Cappeau showed this poem, “Minuit, chrétiens,” to the famed French composer Adolphe Adam, and within a few days Adam had composed a musical setting for it. Cappeau took the new song back to his hometown of Roquemaure, where it was first performed at a midnight mass on Christmas Eve, 1847. The American music critic John Sullivan Dwight translated the lyrics of this carol, one of the most dramatically beautiful Christmas songs ever penned, into English in 1855. In this arrangement by the Grammy-winning American composer and arranger David T. Clydesdale, Ms. Chenoweth pays homage to the great Sandi Patty, who performed this same arrangement on the Conference Center stage with The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square in 2006.
Music: Adolphe Adam
Text: Placide Cappeau
Arrangement: David T. Clydesdale
English Translation: John Sullivan Dwight
Listen to the Full Song
Lyrics
O holy night!
The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt it’s worth!
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees!
O hear the angel voices!
O night divine,
O night when Christ was born.
O night divine!
O night, O night divine!
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Bonds shall we make until we all are brothers,
and in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
let all within us praise His holy name.
Fall on your knees!
O hear the angel voices!
O night divine,
O night when Christ was born.
O night divine!
O night, O night divine!
O HOLY NIGHT!
