O HOLY NIGHT

The words of O HOLY NIGHT were written in 1847 by a French wine merchant named Placide Clappeau who was also the mayor of his town in the south of France.  He enjoyed writing poetry as a hobby.

Further information about the author is scarce.  We know a little more about the man who composed the music, a Parisian named Adolphe Charles Adam.  The son of a concert pianist, Adams trained from infancy in music and piano.  He wrote his first opera in his mid-twenties and thereafter wrote two operas per year until his death at the age of fifty-two.  He lost his life savings in a failed business deal near the end of his life.

It was John Dwight who discovered this French Carol, called ‘Christian Midnight’ and translated it into the English hymn we know today.  Although he was trained and ordained as a minister, his pastoring experience was not a happy one.  He ended up becoming quite liberal in his theology and later a music journalist.

How odd that a wine merchant, a penniless Parisian and a liberal clergyman should give us one of the holiest hymns about the birth of Jesus Christ.  O HOLY NIGHT, also has the distinction of being the first hymn and music broadcast on radio waves.