O Holy Night

One of the most popular carols of the Christmas season is unquestionably O Holy Night.

The words are from a poem, Minuit, chrétiens, written by Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure. Placide was born in 1808 in Roquemaure. His father was a wine producer and merchant. Some sources indicate that his hand was badly injured at the age of 8 while he was playing with some friends and a firearm, and a few sources say that his hand had to be amputated. The father of the boy with whom he had been playing apparently donated half of the needed tuition for Placide to attend the Royal College of Avignon, where he did very well. In 1831 he graduated from law school. Various sources have him as Commissioner of Wines and as mayor, all have him involved in the wine industry. He was also a dabbler in poetry.

In 1847, when Placide Cappeau was apparently better known for his wine, poetry and local politics then for his church attendance, legend has it that his parish priest asked him to write a poem for Christmas. Legend goes on to state that he wrote his work, basing it on the gospel of Luke, while on a trip to Paris.

The translation that we hear in English is a good one, but not a literal one. The opening phrases of the original French poem more literally translate as Midnight, Christians, is the solemn hour, When God as Man descended to us, To erase the original stain,And end the wrath of His Father.

The music for O Holy Night was written by Adolphe Adams, who was a friend of Placide. A strange irony surfaces when researching this composer, for nearly every biographer claims that Mr. Adams is best known for his wonderful ballet Giselle. The ballet is truly wonderful, and, in ballet circles, very well known, but it would be hard to imagine that the music from any ballet is better known then is the music for O Holy Night. Adolphe Adams wrote the music in just a few days, and the work premiered at the midnight mass of Placide's village church in 1847.

The song was well-received, and became popular at churches throughout France.

But Placide later joined the socialist movement, which denounced the church, and the church then discovered that Adams was Jewish. They quickly banned the song. In the statement the heads of the French church decried the song as lacking in musical taste and absent in religious spirit. They didn't completely stop the song from being sung, however, as it was eventually heard by John Sullivan Dwight.

John Sullivan Dwight was an interesting American music critic, transcendentalist and abolitionist. Born in 1813 in Boston, he graduated from Harvard in 1831. He went to Divinity School, but studied music and German philosophy and poetry almost as much as he studied the Unitarian theology. In 1840 Dwight took a ministerial position at a Unitarian Church, but a year later left to join the Brook Farm Commune. In addition to farming, Brook Farm had a day school and a newspaper, both of which generated income and helped spread the social theories which were the foundation of the commune.

Dwight served as director and as a teacher at the school, and taught music there, and wrote a music column for the newspaper. In that position Dwight did much to establish Beethoven's reputation and popularity in America. Dwight loved Beethoven, and thought his ninth symphony "the music of the high hour of Human Brotherhood; the triumph of the grand unitary sentiment, into which all the passions and interests of all human hearts are destined finally to blend."

The commune died in bankruptcy in 1847. Dwight worked in Boston and New York at a number of magazines writing about music. In 1852, with help from the Harvard Music Association, he created Dwight's Music Review.

His timing was wonderful, and he was well qualified for the job. In the next 3 decades his Review served as the authoritative voice on music in Boston, as the Music Hall in Boston was built, the Boston Conservatory of Music was founded, the New England Conservatory of Music was founded, and the Harvard Music Association began its sponsorship of regular concerts.

In 1860 Dwight made his only trip to Europe. But it was not there that he first heard O Holy Night. He translated the words and made the song available to an American audience in 1855. An active abolitionist, the words of the third stanza had particular meaning to him: Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother, And in His Name all oppression shall cease.

The original French, of course, is slightly different. To make poems flow in another language usually requires some freedom in the translation. Here is a more literal translation of the French: The Liberator has broken every shackle The earth is free, and heaven is open. He sees a brother who there was nothing but a slave Love now unites those who had been chained together by iron.

O Holy Night was, understandably, popular and growing ever more popular throughout America and throughout the world. Though difficult to sing, it is beautiful to hear.

Enter Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, born in 1866, an inventor who sometimes worked with Thomas Edison. He eventually got General Electric to let him work with them to build a high frequency continuous wave alternator-transmitter. On December 21^st, 1906 he made the first demonstration to a small audience. On December 24^th, 1906, Fessenden made the first ever general broadcast on A.M. radio. Until now voice and music had not been heard on the radio. The transmission was picked up mainly by very surprised ship radio operators along the Atlantic Seaboard. He read a passage from Luke Chapter 2, appropriate for Christmas Eve. Fessenden also played his violin. A very few sources say he played Handel's Largo. Most sources say he played O Holy Night. That would mean O Holy Night was the first music ever broadcast on the radio.