I love Christmas music, and Silent Night has long been one of my favorites. It’s peaceful and beautiful.
Silent Night is clear and has no false pretense to it. It’s not showy, or fancy, just pure and authentic.
Today, I got the opportunity to play on Pirate Radio, and when he asked me for a tune, Silent Night was the first one to come to mind. After I finished playing, I thought, “I should have played What do you do with a Drunken Sailor?” But, hindsight is 20/20.
Maybe next time. 😉
Silent Night according to Wikipedia
“Silent Night” (German: Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht) is a popular Christmas carol, composed 1818 in Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by the UNESCO in March 2011.
History
The song was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at the St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf bei Salzburg. The small town on the Salzach river, part of the formerArchbishopric of Salzburg, had just passed to Austria in 1816. The young priest Father Joseph Mohr had come to Oberndorf the year before, he had already written the lyrics of the song “Stille Nacht” in 1816 at Mariapfarr, the hometown of his father in the Salzburg Lungau region, where he had worked as a coadjutor.
The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, schoolmaster and organist in the nearby village of Arnsdorf. Before Christmas Eve, Mohr brought the words to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the church service.[1] Both performed the carol during the mass on the night of December 24.
In his written account regarding the composition of the carols, Gruber gives no mention of the specific inspiration for creating the song. According to the song’s history provided by Austria’s Silent Night Society, one supposition is that the church organ was no longer working so that Mohr and Gruber therefore created a song for accompaniment by guitar. Silent Night historian Renate Ebeling-Winkler Berenguer says that the first mention of a broken organ was in a book published in the United States, The Story of Silent Night(1965) by John Travers Moore.[citation needed] There is evidence that a radio play of this version was performed as a Hallmark Theatre Broadcast in 1948.[2]
Some[3] believe that Mohr simply wanted a new Christmas carol that he could play on his guitar. The Silent Night Society says that there are “many romantic stories and legends” that add their own anecdotal details to the known facts.
The original manuscript has been lost. However a manuscript was discovered in 1995 in Mohr’s handwriting and dated by researchers at ca. 1820. It shows that Mohr wrote the words in 1816 when he was assigned to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria, and shows that the music was composed by Gruber in 1818. This is the earliest manuscript that exists and the only one in Mohr’s handwriting.
Another popular story claims that the carol, once performed, was promptly forgotten until an organ repairman found the manuscript in 1825 and revived it. However, Gruber published various arrangements of it throughout his lifetime and we now have the Mohr arrangement (ca. 1820) that is kept at the Museum Carolino Augusteum in Salzburg.[citation needed]
Translations
In 1859, John Freeman Young (second Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Florida) published the English translation that is most frequently sung today.[4] The version of the melody that is generally sung today differs slightly (particularly in the final strain) from Gruber’s original, which was a sprightly, dance-like tune in 6/8 time, as opposed to the slow, meditative lullaby version generally sung today. Today, the lyrics and melody are in the public domain.
The carol has been translated into 140 some-odd languages.[5][6] It is sometimes sung without musical accompaniment.
The song was sung simultaneously in French, English and German by troops during the Christmas truce[7] of 1914, as it was one carol that soldiers on both sides of the front line knew.
Popular recordings and interpretations
The song has been recorded by virtually every artist, past and present, who has made a Christmas album. There are versions by Enya (sung in Gaelic), Andrea Bocelli (sung in Italian), Stevie Nicks, Bing Crosby, Mahalia Jackson, an a capella version by American R&B group Boyz II Men, and an instrumental version by Mannheim Steamroller. Simon & Garfunkel recorded an ironic version of the song in which a depressing radio news report is overheard in the background. There have been choral recordings by the King’s College Choir, the Cambridge Singers, the Robert Shaw Chorale, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Harry Simeone Chorale, the Vienna Boys’ Choir, and many other classical choral groups.
Silent Night Lyrics
Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace
Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ, the Saviour is born
Christ, the Saviour is born
Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
I was a bit startled by the overall resemblance that you have to the photo of Elvis behind you in this video. The only big difference is in the hairlines…
Thank you very much. :p
Beautiful musical performance !