Description

Chorale Song – ‘O HOLY NIGHT’ (Cantique de Noël)

– Adolphe Charles ADAMS

arranged for FOUR Cellos or Larger Cello Ensemble by DAVID JOHNSTONE

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PDF 1 – General Score
PDF 2 – All Individual Cello Parts

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EXAMPLE from the Score:

Notes:

“O Holy Night” (original title: Cantique de Noël) is a well-known sacred song for Christmas performance. Originally based on a French-language poem by poet Placide Cappeau, written in 1843, with the first line “Minuit, Chrétien, c’est l’heure solennelle” (Midnight, Christian, is the solemn hour) that composer Adolphe Adam set to music in 1847. Adolphe-Charles Adam (1803-1856), born in Paris, France, is best known for his ballet Giselle (1841) and many other operatic and theatrical works.

The wide vocal range of the song makes it one of the more difficult Christmas songs to execute properly. In French-language churches, it is commonly used at the beginning of the Midnight Mass.

The English version (with small changes to the initial melody) is by John Sullivan Dwight. The carol reflects on the birth of Jesus as humanity’s redemption. He adapted the song into English in 1855. This version became very popular in the United States, especially in the North, where the third verse (including “Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, And in his name all oppression shall cease”) resonated with abolitionists.

It has been well recorded in history; just three mentions are:

1971: Tommy Drennan and the Monarchs

1994: Mariah Carey

1998: Celine Dion

David Johnstone has transposed the four voices for cello ensemble into G Major. This ensemble can be a solo quartet or (much) larger cello group or orchestra. He has also added many indications (bowings, dynamics etc.) that well help the rehearsal time. It may be classed as ‘medium’ level – true that the first two parts are often in tenor clef and the first part uses a little left-hand thumb position, but these are placed comfortably for the musicians!

Welcome to Johnstone-Music! A big Anglo-Spanish web for MUSICIANS and especially CELLISTS – original music scores for orchestral instruments and keyboard. Plus articles, audios, videos, resources, catalogues, news etc. Official web of the professional cellist David Johnstone, principal cello Navarre Symphony Orchestra (Spain), chamber musician and soloist in many premieres. Hundreds of cello arrangements in the web for a symbolic charge per download or for free.

The following have taken his work onboard, sometimes with special collaborations as composer-arranger-performer: the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi, Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela, Orchestre Nouvelle Generation de Montreal, the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon), Orchestra da Camera del Locarnese (Suiza), The Zagreb Soloists, the Saint Petersburg Musical Theatre “Zazerkalye” Chamber Orchestra, the Wroclaw Chamber Orchestra Leopoldinum (Poland), Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra (New Zealand), Camerata Cambrensis (Basque country), Ensemble Metamorphosis of Belgrade (Serbia), with Ara Malikian (Non Profit Music Chamber Orchestra – Madrid), and a long etc.. Currently, many courses, conservatoires and music schools, university String departments etc. use his repertoire; there are dozens of his arrangements on ‘You Tube’ …

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