Sheet Music: O Holy Night

TitleO Holy Night
Alternate titlesCantique de Noël
Mi­nuit, chré­tiens, c’est l’heure so­len­nelle
Oh Holy Night
ComposerAdolphe Adam (1803–1856)
InstrumentationFlute and Piano
KeyE-flat major
RangeEb4–G5
Time signature4/4
Tempo60 BPM
Performance time2:10
Difficulty levelintermediate
Download printable scorePDF Sheet Music (100 kB) (preview)
Download audio tracksMIDI (change tempo/key) MP3 (1.8 MB)
Play-along accompanimentMIDI (change tempo/key) MP3 (1.8 MB)
Date added2009-11-05
Last updated2009-11-05
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Categories
Christmas carols, Hymn tunes, Romantic

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Thursday 5 November 2009

Tune of the Day: O Holy Night

A favorite Christmas carol, set to music by Adolphe Adam

This beautiful Christmas carol, whose original title is “Cantique de Noël”, was composed by French composer Adolphe Charles Adam in 1847 to the poem “Minuit, chrétiens” (“Midnight, Christians”) by Placide Cappeau, a wine merchant and occasional writer of poetry. It is said that Cappeau was about to embark upon a business trip to Paris when the local parish priest asked him to write a Christmas poem. About halfway to Paris, Cappeau received the inspiration for “Minuit, chrétiens”, and wrote the poem down. When he arrived in Paris, he took the poem to the composer Adolphe Adam, who was then at the peak of his career, having written his masterpiece, the ballet Giselle, only a few years before. Adam wrote the tune in a few days, and the song received its premier at the midnight mass on Christmas Eve 1847.