The following song could put you in the Christmas spirit in June.
Written in 1847 at the request of his priest by a small town French Catholic “commissionaire du vin,” the words of “O Holy Night” inspired a well-known popular composer of the time to add the music. The song’s then-controversial third verse (reproduced in its entirety below the video) helped inspire the “war of northern aggression” in America.
I cannot listen to any well-sung version of it without holding back tears (because the song is true) and this is a well-sung version, to say the very least. Mariah Carey has several other versions on Youtube, as well, but none I could find are embed-able without sitting through a few seconds of advertising. They are well worth it. My daughter quipped “Only dogs can hear the whole song,” because of Carey’s phenomenal range and her artistic choice to raise an entire octave for most of one verse.
Donna
I wanted, originally, to instead present a version by the great Donna Cori Gibson (part of whose rendition of “Ave Maria” is in the background of the famous Washington Life Coalition “Little Emily” ad defending human life), but I could find no complete online version of this song. Donna, too, has tremendous range, but adds a spiritual focus of an entirely higher magnitude. By the end of Carey’s videos it sort of seems this is all about Mariah’s vocal skills but when Donna does it, the power flows from the meaning. Donna Cori Gibson once brought me to tears with the first six words of a song. (The six words were “Mine eyes have seen the glory…”)
For a Christian believer this is a worship experience.
That a French soldier on the front lines literally instigated a 24-hour Christmas cease-fire in WWI by climbing, weaponless, out of his trench and singing it at the top of his blessed vocal power (before being reciprocated by a German who did the same with a carol by Martin Luther) is a matter of history slowly becoming myth.
The third verse is as follows:
Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
STRAT
