As I was writing this, it occurred to me that some may not realize that there was a system to song writing back in the 16, 17, and 1800s that is totally different from today. I should have included this back in the first blog, but I never thought about it. First, you had the poet. This was the person wrote the words. Sometimes they were paid to write a poem on some subject and that would be all they would make from that poem. Sometimes they wrote a number of poems and then put them in a book of poetry and sold the book. But, once the poem was out there it was there for anyone to use. Copyrights on poetry just didn’t normally exist. Second, you had the music writer. They might be paid to write the music to a poem, thus making it a song. That was the end of their contribution to the process. Sometimes, particularly in Christian circles, the poet received no money for the poem because it was inspired in his or her mind. In the same way, the music writer of Christian music usually received no money for their work. In our hymnals it usually says WORDS BY and then gives a name, and then MUSIC BY and then gives another name. Many times the two did not know each other and even lived in different eras. If I were to ask who wrote the Star Spangled Banner, you might right away say Francis Scott Key. However, Key wrote the poem. Someone else wrote the music. Fanny Crosby has been called the greatest female hymn writer of all time, but she wrote the poems and someone else wrote the music. Sometimes you would have collaboration between poet and music writer. Fanny Crosby and Phillip Bliss in the US. In Germany, A priest named Mohr and a musician named Gruber sat in a musty, old church and wrote “Silent Night.” But it didn’t usually work that way. And sometimes, there was a third person involved. A translator. Someone who knew the original language that the song was written in and who had some training in poetry and music and could take a work written elsewhere and translate to their own mother tongue. “Silent Night” is an example of inspired translation into dozens of languages.

         So, that was your lesson for the day, given free of charge. Our next song has the poet, the music writer and the translator.  

         Does someone have to be inspired to write something inspiring? So far, we would have to say yes. Inspired by grief, by war, by necessity. Something has to stir the soul!

         Except…..not always. Sometimes God will use someone who has little interest in the things of the Spirit to bring about something that causes our spirits to soar. And so it is with this installment of the origins of Christmas songs.

            Three men, all non-believers and not all known to each other, managed to put together one of the most beautiful of our Christmas hymns.

         The first of these three was a Frenchman by the name of Placide Cappeau. He was born in the French town of Roquemaure in October 1808. His father’s business was making wine barrels, and like most boys, it was accepted that he would follow in his father’s profession. However, when he was eight years old, he was playing with a friend. The friend had slipped one of his father’s guns away unseen and somehow he managed to shoot young Placide in the right hand. Because of the damage, his hand had to be amputated, which ended the possibility of becoming a barrel maker. However, the playmate’s father was grieved by the whole thing and paid for the entirety of Placide’s education. As it turned out, he had a gift for writing poetry. This was just after the Napoleonic Wars had devastated Europe. France had lost millions of young men and was now, as a nation, impoverished. Placide’s writing skills in poetry helped take his fellow country men’s minds off of their misery.

         In 1843 the grand organ at the church in Roquemaure had been repaired after a long period of silence. This was an exciting thing in the small town. A celebration was planned very close to Christmas so that the organ could be played for the holiday. The parish priest contacted the town’s most famous character, Placide Cappeau, to write a special Christmas poem. However, Placide would have none of it. Karl Marx was just getting started with his doctrines on socialism and Placide had heard of it. He had always questioned why God would allow him to lose a hand, and with socialism in its infancy, he felt he had found something that gave him a belief system. He wasn’t an atheist, but he didn’t believe in traditional Christianity.

         However, the parish priest was persistent and finally convinced Placide to write the poem for a fee. Placide might have been a socialist, but money was money. The first line, translated to English, reads “Midnight, Christians, is the solemn hour.” Hardly a joyous start. Religion in France, at that time, was dreary as a whole since they were trying to pick themselves up after decades of war. Add to that the fact that Christmas was not the joyous time it is now. It was solemn and serious and, well, dreary. Particularly in Europe. So, Placide’s poem fit right into the mood.

         Four years later, a music writer named Adolphe Adam sat down and wrote the music to Placides poem, which had actually become somewhat well known. Adam was a famous writer of operas, and when he wrote the music to Placide’s poem, he wrote it in the opera style. Adolphe wrote the music to Placide’s poem, and to scores of other poems, to try and put together money to pay his debts.

         So, you had the poet who had no real religious belief and wrote a poem for a small fee and you had a composer who set it to music in the attempt to pay off debts. So far, it is all about the money. And then the song made its way to the United States of America.

         John Sullivan Dwight is the third person involved in the creation of this song.

         Dwight started out as a Unitarian minister. OK, everyone out there who knows what a Unitarian believes, raise your hand. Yes, just as I thought. None of you know. That is because Unitarians don’t believe much. Jesus was a prophet, but not God, nor God’s son. The Holy Spirit was not part of God, or the Trinity, but was a Godly attitude. The Bible was open to self interpretation. Whatever you wanted to believe, you believed.

         Born in Boston in 1813, Dwight was the son of physician. He had some interest in helping people and believed that the ministry was the way to go. He enrolled in the Harvard Divinity School and graduated in 1836, standing for ordination in 1840. But while at Harvard he had developed a love for classical music and for languages. He decided that ministry was not for him and instead began to follow a musical path. In this he became quite famous among the intellectuals of the day.

         As America moved closer and closer to civil war, Dwight’s work also changed. Greatly opposed to slavery, in his translations of music from Europe he fit his own ideas into the translation. This was easily done because Dwight used the original as a starting point only. The finished product sometimes bore little resemblance to the original. He translated Placide’s poem and Adam’s music into English in 1855. None of these men were believers. All three had socialist leanings. All three were willing to set aside socialism when it came to making a buck (or a franc, as the case might be). If you had brought these men together in, say, Paris and introduced them, they would have been likely to have spent the night in one form of debauchery or another.

         And yet, God has the ability to use unregenerate people to accomplish His will. Would Israel ever have been revived as a nation if Hitler had not launched the Holocaust and shamed the world into giving Palestine back to the Jews? God has His own plans. And one of His plans was to bring these three together, although it is likely they never actually met. And from this grouping came the song;

1.   Oh, holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees, oh, hear the angel voices!
Oh, night divine, oh, night when Christ was born!
Oh, night divine, oh, night, oh, night divine!

2.   Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here came the wise men from Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,
In all our trials born to be our Friend!
He knows our need—to our weakness is no stranger.
Behold your King; before Him lowly bend!
Behold your King; before Him lowly bend!

3.   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.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy Name!
Christ is the Lord! Oh, praise His name forever!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!

         Amazing how the Lord works, isn’t it?