Last summer, James Hughes was one of the musicians at the Aber conference. He’s been playing the piano since he was six years old but in his forties began writing hymns and church music including five carols. With Christmas coming we thought we’d ask him about writing carols and why it’s helpful to include modern carols in the mix.
Why did you start writing hymns and poetry?
I started writing limericks in primary school but in my first year of secondary school a student teacher was dismissive of my efforts and it put me off writing until my early forties. Then in the middle of an August night, I felt compelled to look up a well-known carol by Placide Cappeau, O Holy Night. It surprised me that the original French words were much more theologically aligned than the American translation and I set about writing a more accurate translation. Since then I’ve written about a hundred hymns and poems, some of which are used by the Heath Church and Llanelli Free Church. O Holy Night is recorded and available online and I have a tune called ‘Christine’ on the Christian Hymns app.
You’ve written five Christmas carols. What makes a good carol?
A focus on the incarnation. Without that it isn’t a Christmas carol! The best Christmas carols are not simply referencing the birth of Christ but also make reference to the work he has come to do; the perfect life and atoning death. Some of the best carols focus on a particular aspect of the story, like Mary or the shepherds, and the gospel is woven into that part of the Christmas story.
Sadly, some hymns touch on the incarnation and get pigeonholed as a Christmas carol which means they don’t get sung any other time of year, but because they’re not well known as a traditional Christmas carol they also don’t get sung very much at Christmas. From The Squalor Of A Borrowed Stable by Stuart Townend is a good example of this.
What are your favourite Christmas carols?
My favourite classic carol is probably O Holy Night which is awkward because I’ve re-written it! However, the original French words are very theologically orientated. The tune is an important aspect of a hymn or carol too, and Alphonse Adam’s tune is one of the most phenomenal tunes that has been written.
There seems to be a reluctance among some church leaders today to adopt modern carols into our services. The argument goes that people want to sing the classics but all traditional carols were ‘modern’ once! I can’t imagine church leaders 200 years ago saying, ‘I think we’ll leave this one out because we just want to sing what people know!’
If we take that argument further, we don’t sing Calon Lan and Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah every week so that people coming to church have something that they know how to sing. The purpose of singing carols is the worship of God so we need to be careful we don’t let popular secular culture dictate to us how to worship God.
Thou Who Wast Rich would probably be classed as a classic carol but it was written in the 20th century, whereas O Holy Night was written 170 years ago but because most people first heard it in Home Alone they assume it’s a modern carol.
My favourite modern carol is Timothy Dudley Smith’s carol Holy Child, How Still You Lie. It’s 40 years old now and a wonderfully poetic carol with great theology and a lovely tune, yet the vast majority of people in Wales don’t know it.
I believe passionately that we need to introduce modern carols into our repertoire. If we continue wheeling out the same songs from a particular era, we play into the hands of the modern secular atheists and underline their belief that what we do is just a quaint part of our ancient history. There are plenty of modern atheists who love singing Christmas carols because it’s part of our heritage, so if we ignore modern songs we are in danger of doing the same.
How can modern Christmas carols speak into our generation?
I think the Bible passages about darkness and light resonate with today’s generation. Society recognises that there is great darkness and there might be differing views on where that darkness is coming from but we need to get the Bible message across that there is a darkness that we are in today and Christ is the light of the world.
There are other themes such as humility. We live in an age where there is very little humility amongst our leaders and society can view humility as a sign of weakness. Yet the great concept of the Christmas story is the humility of the creator of the universe becoming a tiny baby, being born not in a palace but where the animals were kept.
In the end, it’s the most wonderful story of God’s intervention into a world that is broken. Hopefully these modern carols will make their way into the tradition but that will only happen if churches sing them with a lot more prominence. Here are a few modern carols that I would encourage you to sing this year, though there are many more!
O What A Mystery I See by Graham Kendrick. In my view this is the new ‘Hark The Herald Angels Sing’ in terms of theology.
From The Squalor Of A Borrowed Stable by Stuart Townend.
Holy Child by Timothy Dudley-Smith.
Glorious Light by Keith and Kristyn Getty and Ian Hannah.
Joy Has Dawned by Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend.
Holy Child by Keith and Kristyn Getty.
New translation by James Hughes, based on Placide Cappeau’s Minuit, chrétiens (Midnight, Christians) retaining a number of phrases from John Sullivan Dwight’s (1812-1893) English version where appropriate.
O HOLY NIGHT, incarnate he appears
To cleanse the world from each sin and each stain
God’s sacrifice, the saviour of creation
Amongst the straw in the stable is lain.
A thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices
The Father’s wrath at last will be appeased.
Fall on your knees and see now your deliverer.
O night divine, O night when Christ was born.
O night divine, O night, O holy night.
Long, long ago, the wise men sought and found him
As they were led by the light of a star.
And now today, those searching can still find him
As they are guided by faith from afar.
The King of kings, born in a humble manger
To crush your pride and touch your heart with grace.
Come, bow your head and hail him your redeemer.
O night divine, O night when Christ was born.
O night divine, O night, O holy night.
Now earth is free, the way to Heaven opened
For our redeemer has burst every bond.
Once we were slaves, but now he calls us brothers
And love unites those that once stood in chains.
How shall we thank him for such love and kindness?
For us the Christ was born and lived and died.
Rise to your feet and sing of your deliverance.
O night divine, O night, when Christ was born.
O night divine, O night, O holy night.