It Was Truly a Silent Night!

Our Christmas program was today.  We sang one of my most favorite Christmas songs (though truly I love them all.)  The song is Silent Night.  When I was in Frankenmuth, MI this summer we went to Bronners Christmas Store (this was the 5 hour Christmas shopping hell I experienced)......but somewhere in the middle of this shopping frenzy we stopped and took some time to visit the chapel there...which is a replica of the one where Silent Night was first played.  Do you know the story behind the song?  I love songs with stories and since this is the Christmas season I had to take a few moments and tell you about the birth of Silent Night.  You see the words of Silent Night were written by a Priest called Fr. Joseph Mohr in Mariapfarr, Austria, in 1816 and the music was added by his school teacher friend, Franz Xaver Gruber, in 1818 for the Christmas service at St. Nicholas church in Oberndorf, Austria.  Fr. Mohr asked Franz Gruber to compose the melody with a guitar arrangement. It was several years later that Franz Gruber wrote an arrangement for the organ. Historians who have conducted research in recent years believe that Fr. Mohr wanted a new carol that he could play on his guitar.
There is a legend associated with the carol that says, Fr. Mohr wanted the carol to be sung by the children of the village at the midnight Christmas Eve service, as a surprise for their parents. But in the middle of practising, the organ broke and not a note would come from it! So the children had to learn the carol only accompanied by a guitar. They learned the carol so well that they could sing it on its own without accompaniment.  Have you ever heard it sung acapella by children's voices....it is one of the most heavenly sounds that exists.  The first time I heard it done this way I knew I had heard the angels singing on that Bethlehem night so long ago.  But back to the story,  there are no records to indicate that a children's choir was involved or that the organ was broken! I personally like to believe the legend...it makes the story a better one....and those of you who write blogs....understand that it is all in the telling of a story.  Anyways, at Midnight Mass in 1818, Fr. Mohr and Franz Gruber sang each of the six verses with the church choir repeating the last two lines of each verse. Mohr set down the guitar arrangement on paper around 1820 and that is the earliest manuscript that still exists. It is displayed in the Carolino Augusteum Museum in Salzburg. There are a number of manuscripts of various 'Stille Nacht' arrangement that were written by Franz Gruber in later years.  The original words of the song were in German (and it was called 'Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht') and translated in to English went:

Silent night, holy night,

Bethlehem sleeps, yet what light,

Floats around the heavenly pair;

Songs of angels fills the air.

Strains of heavenly peace.

It's thought that the song might have travelled around the area with an organ repairman, Karl Mauracher, who could have taken an early arrangement with him in about 1820. Then two singing families (like the 'Von Trappes' in the Sound of Music) seem to have discovered the song and performed it as part of their concerts. In December 1832 the Strasser family performed it at a concert in Leipzig and it was first performed in the USA in 1839 by the Rainer family who sang 'Stille Nacht' at the Alexander Hamilton Monument outside Trinity Church in New York City. During this time the tune changed to the one we know and sing today!  It was translated into English in 1863 by John Freeman Young. The carol was sung during the Christmas Truce in the First World War in December 1914 as it was a song that soldiers on both sides knew.  Can you imagine just how awesome that was?  To hear soldiers....that moments before were fighting....joining together to sing this beloved song.  By the time the carol was famous, Fr Mohr had died. Franz Gruber wrote to music authorities in Berlin saying that he had composed the tune, but no one believed him and it was thought that Haydn, Mozart of Beethoven had written it! But then the 1820 manuscript was found and in the top right corner Fr Mohr had written: 'Melodie von Fr. Xav. Gruber.'.  It's now one of the most, if the the most, recorded songs in the world! Enjoy the version I have chosen for you today!  Hope you have a blessed Sunday!