woensdag 28 december 2016

Cantique de Noël/ Minuit Chretien (1847) / O Holy Night (1855) / O Helga Natt (1899) / Kerstnacht (1921)


Placide Cappeau wrote the words to "Cantique de Noël" (or "O Holy Night") while on a train to Paris for a business trip.
Cappeau was a French poet and wine merchant living in Roquemaure, a small town in the south of France. He was well known as the man with one hand, having been shot by his friend in a childhood accident and had his right hand amputated.

At the beginning of 1843, Abbé Maurice Gilles, the parish priest of Roquemaure, the native village of Placide Cappeau, decided to restore the stained glass windows of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste collegiate church. Knowing Cappeau, he asked him to compose a Christmas song in order to celebrate the end of the work with dignity.At the same time, the Parisian engineer Pierre Laurey, who had been in charge since September 1842 to complete the construction of the suspension bridge over the Rhone designed by his colleague Marc Seguin, stayed in Roquemaure with his wife, Emily.
Emily Laurey, a former opera singer, is an intimate friend of Adolphe Adam's wife. It is Emily who solicits the collaboration of the famous musician Adolphe Adam for the setting in music of the poem of Placide Cappeau; She promised to interpret this "Cantique de Noël" in the collegiate church on December 25, 1843.
But in July 1843, Emily Laurey gives birth to a little girl named Adeline and her doctors advised her to cancel the trip to Roquemaure, as they will discourage her to do so the following years.On the 18th of October, 1846, at nine o'clock in the morning, the Abbe Gilles died; The abbot Eugene Nicolas Petitjean succeeded him at the head of the cure of Roquemaure the 10 of January of 1847.Finally, Emily Laurey will sing "Minuit Chretien" for the first time, on December 24, 1847, four years after the promise she had made to Adolphe Adam.



Or on the next link sheetmusic from 1852 (click on view)




In 1855, John Sullivan Dwight, a Unitarian minister, wrote the English version we are most familiar with as "O Holy Night". Dwight's version guts the political strength of Cappeau's lyrics. Only in the last verse, which is often omitted in performance, does Dwight stay close to the power of the French original:
 ...Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease....





The oldest version I found was recorded in London.

(o) J. Thomas (1899) (as "Minuit Chretien")
Recorded on January 20, 1899 in London
Released on Berliner's Gramophone 32321



Or here:




(c) Mr. Bru (1899) (as "Noël (Minuit Chretien)")
Recorded July 1899
Released on Berliner's Gramophone 32586 
Matrix 3299


SEE PAGE 72 on the next link: Gramophone Record Catalogue 1899



And here's is a Swedish version from the same year

(c) Gustav Sjöberg (1899) (as "Julsång (Noël)" / "O Helga Natt")
Recorded on December 3/4, 1899 in Stockholm.
Released on Berliner 82589




Listen here:





(c) E. Francisco (=Emilio De Gogorza) (1900) (as "Cantique de Noël")
Recorded April 28, 1900
Released on Berliner 01275.





(c) Henri Dons (1902) (as "Noël")
Recorded early 1902 in Paris
Matrix # 781F
Released on Gramophone # 2-32508





(c) Alexis Boyer (1902) (as "Cantique de Noël")
Released on Pathe 1034




(c) Jean Noté (1902) (as "Cantique de Noël")
Relaesed on Pathe 2711




(c) Max Bouvet (1904) (as "Cantique de Noël")
Released on Pathe 2591.




(c) Rene Fournets (1901/1902) (as "Noël")
Released on Brown Wax Cylinder Pathe 3649
 



Also released on Monarch 81023


Or here:




(c) Jean Noté (1904)  (as "Noël (Minuit Chretien)")
Recorded in Paris in 1904
Released on Zonophone X-82466
 






(c) Betsy Schot (1906) (as "Weihnachtsgesang")
Recorded in Berlin
Matrix 1056-3
Released on Anker Records # 5600
 






(c) Henri Albers (1906) (as "Noël")
Henri Albers was a Dutchman, who lived in Paris most of the time.
Released on Pathe # 3527
 


Listen here:




In 1907 he also sang it in Dutch

(c) Henri Albers (1907) (as "Kerstlied")



Listen to a sample here:





(c) Evan Williams (1908)  (as "Christmas Song")
Recorded on August 28, 1908 in Camden, New Jersey
Released on Gramophone Record # 3-2987
 





(c) Evan Williams (1908)  (as "Holy Night")
Recorded on November 20, 1908 in Camden, New Jersey
Released on Victor 64106

Recorded around 1909 in New York
Released on Columbia A5135






And here's a Russian version from 1913

(c) Nikolay Shevelev (1913) (as "ГИМНЪ РОЖДЕСТВУ")
Recorded April 3, 1913 in St. Petersburg
Released in 1913 on Gramophone 022323





(c) Albert Quesnel (1914) (as "Cantique de Noël")
Recorded January 1914 in New York
Released on Edison Amberol #2285





(c) Enrico Caruso (1916) (as "Cantique De Noël")
Recorded February 23, 1916 in Camden, New Jersey
Released on Victrola 88561 and Victrola 6029
 




(c) Frieda Hempel (1919) (as "O Holy Night")
Recorded summer 1919 in New York
Released on Edison 82171


Also released on Edison Royal Purple Amberol #29040


Or here:




(c) Mlle. Calvet and Messieus Dutreix and Joachim Cerden (1919)
 (as "Noël (Minuit Chretiens)")
Recorded October 31, 1919
Released on Gramophone W 350



Listen here


Or here:





(c) Marek Weber Trio (1921) (as "Weihnachtsgesang")
Recorded September 20, 1921 in Berlin
Matrix 2-5505
Released on Parlophon P 1223






(c) Albert Heineman (1921)  (as "Kerstnacht")
Recorded September 21, 1921
Released on Homochord 5462

Listen here:




(c) André Baugé (1926) (as "Noël")
Recorded end 1925
Matrix 200135
Released on Pathe X-3312

 


Listen here:




(c) Tino Rossi (1939) (as "Noël (Minuit Chretiens)")
Released on Columbia BF 44



Listen here:




(c) Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians (1942) (as "Cantique De Noël (O Holy Night)")
Recorded July 15, 1942 in New York
Released on Decca 18501




Or here:




(c) Orioles (1950) (as "O Holy Night")


Listen here:




(c) Four Aces featuring Al Alberts (1955) (as "O Holy Night (Cantique De Noël)")


Listen here:




(c) Jerry Butler (1960) (as "O Holy Night (Cantique De Noël)")


Listen here: 




(c) Danny and the Juniors (1960)  (as "O Holy Night")


Listen here:




(c) Bing Crosby (1962) (as "O Holy Night")


Listen here: 




(c) Jackie Wilson (1963) (as "O Holy Night (Cantique De Noël)")


Listen here:




(c) Miracles (1963) (as "O Holy Night")


Listen here:




(c) Bobby Vinton (1963) (as "O Holy Night")


Listen here:




(c) Petula Clark (1963)  (as "Minuit Chretien")


Listen here: (at 5 min and 15 sec in the YT below)




(c) Billy Ward and his Dominoes (1965) (as "O Holy Night")



Listen here




(c) Joan Baez (1966) (as "Cantique de Noël")


Listen here:




(c) Mahalia Jackson (1968) (as "O Holy Night")


Listen here:




(c) Mireille Mathieu (1968) (as "Minuit Chretiens")
avec son papa Roger Mathieu


Listen here:




(c) Edwin Hawkins Singers (1970) (as "O Holy Night")


Listen here:




(c) Nana Mouskouri (1972) (as "Minuit Chretien")


But Nana already performed the song on TV in 1968:




(c) John Denver (1975) (as "O Holy Night")


Listen here: 




(c) Kenny Rogers (1981) (as "O Holy Night")


Listen here:




(c) Carpenters (1978) (as "O Holy Night")


Listen here:




(c) Kitaro (1996) (as "O Holy Night")






(c) Mariah Carey (1996) (as "O Holy Night")


Listen here




(c) Celine Dion (1997) (as "O Holy Night")


Listen here





(c) Eric Cartman (1998) (as "O Holy Night") 
(in an episode of South Park) 





(c) Röyksopp (2010) (as "Cantique de Noël")


Listen here:






More versions here:


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