Free carol of the month – October
October 13, 2023We are keen to encourage people to explore our new carol collection, Christmas Praise! As part of our promotion, we are making piano scores of three carols available here in the run up to Christmas as our ‘Free carol of the month.’
These three pieces are exclusive to the Christmas Praise! book, each will be available free for a month only on the website to give you a flavour of what you can find in the book. Why not share the link with a friend who might be interested in running a carol service at their church?
The first of these is the full piano score of O holy night. The original carol was written in French by Placide Cappeau (1808-1877), to a tune by Adolphe Adam, and published in 1843. A few years later it was discovered by the American pastor, John Sullivan Dwight who produced an English version to Adam’s tune, placing a strong emphasis on human solidarity in the light of the anti-slavery movement and the looming American civil war. It has been hugely popular ever since.
In reworking the lyrics for publication, we wanted to recapture the strong redemptive language of the original, with its strong ‘Voici le Rédempteur! The language of redemption and ransom is much more strongly emphasised in all three verses, while we have endeavoured to keep as much of the Dwight phraseology as we can. We were particularly keen to explain that slaves become brothers in Christ (Philemon 16), that all of us are slaves to sin until he redeems us (Gal. 3:13), and that Christmas is about the birth of saving grace in Christ (John 1:14).
Download your free piano score here:
O Holy Night
This link expires on Monday 13 November, when it will be replaced by our new carol of the month, and a third will be posted on Monday 11 December.