O Holy Night

Adolphe Adam, 1847 · France · also known as Cantique de Noël, Minuit, chrétiens. The melody in letter notes, what it asks of an instrument, and the 21 instruments on this site that can play it — each with its own tabs or fingerings and the song ready to play.

Rangeoctave and a major third
Notes95, 11 different
ScaleMajor, plus F♯
Time6/8
Length hereabout 2 min
Source editionD major

About O Holy Night

Adolphe Adam, the composer of the ballet Giselle, wrote it in 1847 as “Cantique de Noël” for a poem by Placide Cappeau, a wine merchant in the southern French town of Roquemaure. It is a solo song rather than a congregational carol, and it is written like an aria.

It unfolds slowly in six-eight over a wide range, with one note outside the scale — a raised fourth, in the phrase that turns briefly toward the relative minor — and a long climb to its highest note near the end.

Play O Holy Night on your instrument

21 of the 27 playable instruments here have every note it needs. 20 play it where the library writes it; the rest move it to another key or octave, and each page says which. Every page has the instrument itself, with the song loaded, above the notes.

Instruments that cannot play it

Kalimba — it would need F♯4, which it does not have in any size or key here.
Mbira — it would need F♯4, which it does not have in any size or key here.
Guzheng — it would need G4, G♯4, C♯5, which it does not have in any size or key here.
Handpan — it would need F♯4, B4, D5, E5, which it does not have in any size or key here.
Harp — it would need F♯4, which it does not have in any size or key here.
Lyre — it would need F♯4, which it does not have in any size or key here.

O Holy Night letter notes

Written in C major, from C4 to E5, with each note’s number in the scale under it — the form that transfers to any instrument. A dash holds a note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and each line is one phrase.

O Holy Night — letter notes · tonalics.com

E3––E3–E3G5–×5G5A6–

A6F4–A6C1–×6G5–G5E3–

D2C1––E3–F4G5––F4–

D2C1–×12E3––E3–E3G5–×5

G5A6–A6F4–A6C1–×6

G5–G5F♯♯4–E3B7––G5–

A6B7––C1–B7E3–×11G5G5––A6––D2––G5––

A6–G5C1–E3A6––G5–

G5G5––A6––D2––G5––A6–

G5C1–E3G5–×6C1–×9B7–

A6B7–×9B7––D2–×8A6A6–

A6C1–×11C1E3–×6D2–×5G5C1–×9

B7–A6G5–×8G5A6–G5G5–×9

C1––D2–×9G5––E3–×9D2––C1–×6B7––C1–D2C1–×12

Where these notes come from

Adolphe Adam, “Cantique de Noël”, 1847. Public domain.

The melody was not written down from memory. It is derived from a published transcription and compared, note for note, with independent ones:

Followed: Paul Hardy’s Xmas Tunebook, 2019 (2024)
Checked against: Sudbury Ancient Fyfe & Drum Companie carol book, transcribed by John Chambers — 4 of 98 notes differ, as variants of a traditional tune do

One raised fourth, in the eighth line — Adam wrote it, both transcriptions keep it, and it is why a diatonic instrument cannot play this carol as written.

About O Holy Night

Play O Holy Night on your instrument

Instruments that cannot play it

O Holy Night letter notes

Where these notes come from

More christmas songs & carols