• O Holy Night -- Celtic Woman

    This music is included in the album A Christmas Celebration. The main vocalists are the same five women who were first featured on the PBS music special of the same name: Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, Órla Fallon, Lisa Kelly, Chloë Agnew and Máiréad Nesbitt. (Wikipedia)

    Click HERE to view the performance in concert at Helix Center in Dublin, Ireland. .

    Celtic Woman

    The group has undertaken a number of world concert tours.  Albums by Celtic Woman have sold over six million copies. To visit the Celtic Woman web site, click HERE!

     

    "O Holy Night" ("Cantique de Noël") is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" (Midnight, Christians) by Placide Cappeau (1808–1877), a wine merchant and poet, who had been asked by a parish priest to write a Christmas poem. Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, editor of Dwight's Journal of Music, created a singing edition based on Cappeau's French text in 1855. In both the French original and in the two familiar English versions of the carol, the text reflects on the birth of Jesus and of mankind's redemption.

    The carol was the second piece of music to be broadcast on radio; Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian inventor, broadcast the first AM radio program on 24 December 1906, which started with a phonograph record of 'Ombra mai fu' followed by him playing "O Holy Night" on the violin and singing the final verse. (Wikipedia)

     

    O Holy Night

     
    O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
    It is the night of our dear Savior's birth.
    Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
    'Til He appear'd and the soul felt its worth.
    A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
    For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
    Fall on your knees! O hear the angels' voices!
    O night divine, O night when Christ was born;
    O night divine, O night, O night Divine.
    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! And ever, ever praise we.
    Noël, Noël, O Night, O Night Divine.
              Noël, Noël, O Night, O Night Divine.
    Noël, Noël, O Night, O Night Divine.