'Silent Night, Holy Night' - The History of a Christmas Carol
10 December 2015Very few Christmas songs have travelled the world as widely as "Silent Night" has done.
Translated and sung in over 300 languages and dialects, the song has touched people of all nations and in the words of its composer Franz Xaver Gruber "expresses a great longing for peace and comfort."
In 2011, "Silent Night – the Christmas carol" was added to the list of UNESCO cultural heritage.
Franz Xaver Gruber (1787 – 1863) was born into a weaver family in rural Austria, later teaching in a village school near Salzburg as well as working as an organist.
"Silent Night" was heard for the first time in 1818 in former St. Nicholas church in Oberndorf near Salzburg
"It was the 24th of December of the year 1818, when the then assistant priest Joseph Mohr at the newly established parish of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf handed over to the organist represented by Franz Gruber (who at the time was also school teacher in Arnsdorf) a poem, with the request to write a fitting melody for 2 solo voices together with choir and for accompaniment by guitar." These are the words of Franz Xaver Gruber which he wrote on December 30, 1854 in his "Authentic Account of the Origin of the Christmas Carol, 'Silent Night, Holy Night!'" Later the same day, on the 24th of December, Gruber came to the musically talented Mohr and handed over to him his composition. As Mohr liked what he saw, this song was included in the Christmas mass that evening. Mohr sang the tenor part and provided accompaniment with guitar, while Gruber sang bass. According to Gruber, the song was met with "general approval by all" in attendance (mostly shipping laborers, boat builders and their families).
THE PATH from TIROL INTO WORLD
"Silent Night! Holy Night!" followed a path through the Zillertal Valley in Tirol, then to Europe, America and the rest of the world. Exactly how and when the song made its way into Zillertal is not completely known. Already at Christmas, 1819, the original Rainer Family Singers reportedly sang the song in the parish church of Fügen (Zillertal). Three years later in 1822, it was again the Rainer Singers who included "Silent Night!" in a performance at the Castle of Count Dönhoff (today "Bubenberg Castle," Fügen) on the occasion of a visit from Emporer Franz I of Austria and Tzar Alexander I of Russia.
Emerging from the Zillertal Valley, the song was carried by the singing families Rainer (from Fügen) and Strasser (from Laimach). Both singing groups undertook extensive trips throughout Europe in the 1820's, traveling as far as England.
The Strasser siblings, around 1833
In 1839 the Rainer Family Singers ventured forth on a tour of America, a trip which would last until 1843. It is recorded that during these travels, on Christmas Day, 1839, the Rainer Singers performed "Silent Night!" apparently for the first time on American soil. The performance took place in New York City in front of the Alexander Hamilton Memorial in the cemetery of the Trinity Church at the end of Wall Street.
Translations into English (also in print) are known to have been made in the middle of the 19th Century. At the Vienna World Exhibition of 1873, a schoolhouse scene from North America displayed the sheet music "Silent Night!" although with the title "Chorale of Salzburg."
The Rainer Singers during their visit in New York, 1839
By the turn of the century "Silent Night!" was being sung on all continents, brought to the far reaches of the globe by Catholic and Protestant missionaries. Today we are aware of translations into over 300 languages and dialects (Wallace Bronner Collection, Frankenmuth, Michigan, USA).
Authentic Account of the Origin of the Christmas Carol, 'Silent Night, Holy Night'
(Resource: Stille Nacht Gesellschaft, Austria)
