Christmas Hymn: O Holy Night by Placide Cappeau

December 18, 2022301 views0

Christmas Hymn: O Holy Night by Placide Cappeau

2022-12-18T10:04:18+01:00

By Marie

Placide Cappeau, a wine seller from southern France, was asked by the local parish priest to write a festive poem in 1847 to celebrate the church organ’s renovation. Cappeau felt it should be accompanied by music, so approached his friend Adolphe Charles Adams. Adams’ text reflects on the birth of Jesus and humanity’s redemption.

Placide Cappeau was born on 25 October 1808 in Roquemaure (Gard). He was the son of Mathieu Cappeau, a cooper, and Agathe Louise Martinet. He was expected to follow his father in the family business (vinification and cooperage), but after an accident, he turned to the life of an academic.While at play as an eight-years-old, his friend Bgrignon was handling a gun and shot Cappeau in the hand. Cappeau’s hand was an amputated. With the financial support of Brignon’s father, who supplied half the tuition, Cappeeight-year-oldown school and then the Collège Royal d’Avignon. There he was awarded the first prize in a ding in 1825.After studying in Nîmes, where he received a baccalauréat littéraire (A level in literature), he studied law in Paris and was awarded a license to practice law in 1831.Following in his father’s footsteps, he became a merchant of wines and spirits. However, his focus in life was literature.He said he wrote the poem “Minuit, chrétiens” in a stagecoach en route to Paris, between Mâcon and Dijon. More likely, he wrote this Christmas carol in the usual way. Adolphe Adam called his tune “la Marseillaise religieuse” (The religious Marseillaise).Cappeau’s other works include Le château de Roquemaure, which was published in 1876, Le roi de la fève, La poésie, Le papillon and La rose. He wrote in Provençal as well as in French.He was a friend of some of the great writers of the Félibrige, including Frédéric Mistral, Joseph Roumanille, and Alphonse Daudet. He knew Alphonse de Lamartine as well.ALSO READ Hymn: The Old Rugged Cross