“O Holy Night” is one of those carols that is unavoidable in the run up to Christmas, and it certainly is one of the most beautiful of the most popular carols. My own favourite for many years has been “In The Bleak Midwinter” – Both different settings, by Gustav Holst and by Harold Darke, have their own beauty, but Darke’s is definitely a nicer setting of that text in my opinion. Just listen to it:
But, the potential to show off vocally seems to draw singers to “O Holy Night”. When I was in university, there was fierce competition to get chosen as one of the soloists for that carol at the annual carol services. These carol services were one of the highlights of the university calendar, and while I was there a CD was recorded of the choral performances which I still pull out every year to listen to. For my final year in uni, I was one of the tenors chosen to sing the solo, though I’ve never trained as a classical singer. I’ve loved that carol since I was a child, and I’ve been hearing it every year in the local church choir that my dad sings with.
Perhaps it’s this early exposure that has defined my taste around this piece of music, as that soprano has a beautifully clear, baroque-style soprano voice, and to this day I prefer to hear “O Holy Night” sung by such a soprano voice, or by a young soprano chorister. There’s something about that melody being sung by such a clear voice that makes the carol even more effective than 5 minutes of bombastic vocal virtuosity. This version from the King College Choir of Cambridge, arranged by John Rutter is as lovely as you’d imagine, but just makes me wish there was a soloist along with that gorgeous choir. The second soloist in this video has a particularly gorgeous tone:
One year around this time, myself and some friends spent a very long evening youtubing loads of different versions of this carol – something we’ve also done with The Star-Spangled Banner. Try it some time, and you’ll pass through bewilderment, admiration, and sheer hilarity as you journey through the multiple different versions you can find. It was on one such youtube crawl that we came across the most bombastic version of “O Holy Night” that I’ve heard yet. If Disney did fervent christian christmas carols and got Celine Dion to sing the solos, it would still pale in terms of just how over-the-top this arrangement gets. It’s also oddly one of my favourites as a result – if you’re going for bombast, you really have to go full throttle.
Trust me, if you listen to no other video I post, you should listen to this. It’s like each line was arranged individually, separate from the rest. The opening sounds like the most epic film score ever, and then it just gets more overblown. It makes me so happy that someone managed to this overwrought a version of this carol. It’s alternately astounds me, and makes me laugh uncontrollably. The musical arrangement is astonishing. There’s even a mid-verse key change. Beat that X-Factor. I just have no words. It’s either the greatest, or the worst version of this carol ever recorded. But it’s definitely the most bombastic.
Some honourable mentions: Aled Jones duetting with himself as a child. No, seriously. The adult Aled sings with a recording of Aled as a Boy Soprano singing O Holy Night. Beautifully sung too.
Avril Lavigne. Destiny’s Child. Yes, everyone does a version of this song. I’m torn over which of these I dislike more. Avril just sounds bored, but what’s going on with the Destiny’s Child version? Just. Not good. I won’t embed either of them.
Mariah Carey has a stunning voice, but sometimes you gotta know when to let the music do the talking, and maybe not hit for the whistle-tone high note just because you can. Sheesh. Which leads us to Christina Aguilera trying to fit as many notes as possible into every phrase. Jennifer Hudson does a much better version if you’re looking for a less-classical, more gospel influenced version of this carol.
No video version of “O Holy Night” (or Cantique de Noël) is complete without a walk through a garden while singing it. Thank you Juan Diego Florez for providing that particular joy. Gorgeous tenor voice though. And let’s just leave the version from South Park as the last one.
