French composer Charles Gounod (1818-1893) regained great successes as a composer of operas, oratorios, masses and as an organist soon after graduating at the Paris Conservatory. When Gounod’s Opera ‘Faust’ was premiered in Paris in 1859 he also had earned a reputation as a master of the French song, or ‘mélodie’. One of these songs is ‘Noël’, a virtual Christmas ‘aria’ with a text of Jules Barbier, one of his librettists. Dutch arranger Jos van de Braak transcribed this song for soprano or tenor with accompaniment of a Symphonic Band.