This sheet music can be performed by mixed voice ensemble as well as equal voice ensemble. The most famous Provençal Christmas carols were written by Nicolas Saboly. They are also those which were the most translated in French. Nicolas Saboly was a poet and a musician who was born in 1614 and died in 1675 in Avignon. He became famous by writing more than a hundred carols. He wrote the melody as well as the lyrics in Provençal which is unusual because the origins of many French and Christian carols are very difficult to define. Which one of melody or lyrics was created first? Nicolas Saboly had some common points with Adam Michna, former Czechoslovakia, who wrote countless carols which became so famous that people think they are traditional carols. Sometimes, an artist’s recognition is to be forgotten! Nicolas Saboly mixed the naïve and metaphorical story of Nativity with daily life of Provençal shepherds in a very literary style. His melodies are always similar to the Grand Siècle de Versailles and precisely thought. They are similar to André Campra, Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Guillaume Bouzignac and express much warmth and joy by thanking the Creator. Nicolas Saboly was born on January 30, 1614, in Monteux, near Carpentras. He studied at Jesuit College in Avignon and in School of Carpentras.
