Silent Night
Silent Night
{You have probably been enjoying Christmas music at church and on your radio since Thanksgiving – or not. For the next five days (December 20-25 excluding Saturday), I will be adding to your joy or misery by giving some context and historical background to a few of the most popular Christian Christmas hymns.}
Possibly the most beloved of all Christmas carols is “Silent Night.” The first time it was sung was on Christmas Eve 1818. Therefore, today is a great day to share “the rest of the story.”
The original song, written in German was composed by pastor Joseph Franz Mohr, the parish priest in the Austrian village of Oberndorf. If you will read to the end I included the literal translation of the German original into English. What I think is a great line is left out of our English version. It is, “Oh, how laughs love from your divine mouth.” I think that’s a great line.
The details surrounding the origin of “Stelle Nacht” are debatable. One version is that Mohr had written the poem two years prior and was in frantic need of a song for the Christmas Eve service. He walked three miles to a nearby village where his friend, a teacher named Franz Xaver Gruber, lived. He asked Gruber to compose music for the poem he had written. Gruber was able to do so in a few hours. Later that night the new song was performed in the St. Nicholas Church of Oberndorf. The church organ was out of commission due to water damage from a recent flood, so the song was performed with guitar accompaniment only.
A more romanticized version of events suggests that Mohr had been invited to the home of a businessman to watch some villagers perform a reenactment of the Christmas story. Afterward, inspired by the play, Mohr climbed a nearby mountain where he sat down and was awed by the night sky and the view of the village below. He then descended the mountain and proceeded to write “Stelle Nacht,” and almost immediately asked Gruber to write music for it to be sung to.
The first version seems more likely. In that telling of the story pastor Mohr is under the stress of planning a Christmas Eve service and ends up using a poem he had written two years previously. That seems more of a real human experience. Nevertheless, every version of the song's origins include the same basic general facts.
· It was written by pastor Joseph Mohr.
· The music was written by Franz Gruber. This was actually a debated point for many years. People assumed that the music was so good that it had to have been written by a noteworthy composer like Beethoven. Although Gruber had claimed to be the composer and never backed down from that claim until the day he died, he was still doubted. It wasn’t until after his death that a handwritten composition, proven to be written by Pastor Mohr, was found. It had an inscription on top that read, “Melodie von Fr. Xav. Gruber,” (melody by Fr. Hanz Gruber), which confirmed the authenticity of Gruber’s claim to be the musical composer.
· Since the original song was written in German, the English version is, by necessity, different in some ways. The English translation was written by John Freeman Young, an Episcopal priest who enjoyed translating the hymns of Europe into English for Americans. The version we sing today first appeared in 1863.
Here is our English version:
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.
And now the original version from German:
Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hoch heilige Paar.
Holder Knab’ im lockigen Haar,
Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh!
Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht
Lieb’ aus deinem göttlichen Mund,
Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund’.
Jesus in deiner Geburt!
Jesus in deiner Geburt!
Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Die der Welt Heil gebracht,
Aus des Himmels goldenen Höhn,
Uns der Gnaden Fülle läßt sehn,
Jesum in Menschengestalt!
Jesum in Menschengestalt!
Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Wo sich heut alle Macht
Väterlicher Liebe ergoß,
Und als Bruder huldvoll umschloß
Jesus die Völker der Welt!
Jesus die Völker der Welt!
Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Lange schon uns bedacht,
Als der Herr vom Grimme befreit
In der Väter urgrauer Zeit
Aller Welt Schonung verhieß!
Aller Welt Schonung verhieß!
Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Hirten erst kundgemacht
Durch der Engel Alleluja,
Tönt es laut bei Ferne und Nah:
Jesus der Retter ist da!
Jesus der Retter ist da!
And How the German would be literally translated into English:
Everything is asleep;
Lonely Vigil Only the married most holy couple.
Lovely boy in curly hair,
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Silent Night! Holy Night!
Son of God,
Oh, how laughs Love from your divine mouth,
The saving hour strikes us.
Jesus in your birth!
Jesus in your birth!
Silent Night! Holy Night!
Who brought salvation to the world,
Out of heaven's golden scorn,
The fullness of graces allows us to see,
Jesus in human form!
Jesus in human form!
Silent Night! Holy Night!
Where today all power
Fatherly love poured out,
And as a brother graciously embraced Jesus,
the peoples of the world!
Jesus, the peoples of the world!
Silent Night! Holy Night!
We've been thinking for a long time,
When the Lord freed from wrath
In the fathers of primeval times
All the world was spared!
All the world was spared!
Silent Night! Holy Night!
Shepherds first made known
Through the angel Alleluia,
It sounds loud at far and near:
Jesus the Savior is here!
Jesus the Savior is here!