"Silent Night" (German:"Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht") is a popularChristmas carol, composed in 1818 byFranz Xaver Gruber to lyrics byJoseph Mohr inOberndorf bei Salzburg,Austria.[1] It was declared anintangible cultural heritage byUNESCO in 2011.[2] The song was first recorded in 1905[3] and has remained a popular success, appearing in films and multiple successful recordings, as well as being quoted in other musical compositions. It is one of the most recorded Christmas songs, with more than 137,000 known recordings.[4]
Father Joseph Mohr, a young Catholic priest, had come to Oberndorf in 1817. In the aftermath of theNapoleonic Wars,[1] he had written the poem "Stille Nacht" in 1816 atMariapfarr, the home town of his father in the SalzburgLungau region, where Joseph had worked as an assistant priest.[5]
The melody was composed byFranz Xaver Gruber, schoolmaster andorganist in the nearby village ofArnsdorf [de], now part ofLamprechtshausen. On Christmas Eve, 1818, Mohr brought the words to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody andguitar accompaniment for that night's mass, after river flooding had possibly damaged the church organ.[1][6] The church was eventually destroyed by repeated flooding and replaced with theSilent-Night-Chapel.
According to Gruber, Karl Mauracher, an organ builder who serviced the instrument at the Oberndorf church, was enamoured of the song, and took the composition home with him to theZillertal.[7] From there, two travelling families of folk singers, the Strassers and the Rainers, included the tune in their shows. The Rainers were already singing it around Christmas 1819, and they once performed it for an audience that includedFranz I of Austria andAlexander I of Russia, as well as making the first performance of the song in the U.S., in New York City in 1839.[1] By the 1840s the song was well known inLower Saxony and was reported to be a favourite ofFrederick William IV of Prussia. During this period, the melody changed slightly to become the version that is commonly played today.[5][7]
In 2011, Silent Night was declared an intangible cultural heritage byUNESCO, because of its universal message of peace and its global cultural significance.
In 1859, theEpiscopal priestJohn Freeman Young, then serving atTrinity Church, New York City, wrote and published the English translation that is most frequently sung today, translated from three of Mohr's original six verses.[10] The version of the melody that is generally used today is a slow, meditativelullaby orpastorale, differing slightly (particularly in the final strain) from Gruber's original, which was a "moderato" tune in6 8time andsiciliana rhythm.[11][12] Today, the lyrics and melody are in thepublic domain, although newer translations usually are not.
In 1998, the Silent Night Museum in Salzburg commissioned a new English translation by Bettina Klein of Mohr's German lyrics. For the most part, Klein preserves both Young's translation and the interpretive decisions that inform his word-choices. Yet Klein also attempts occasionally to restore Mohr's original phrasing, changing, for instance, Young's "Holy infant, so tender and mild" to Mohr's "Holy infant with curly hair" (Holder Knab' im lockigten Haar). However, she continues to interpret Mohr'straute heilige Paar as referring to Mary and the baby, whereas Mohr's use of the wordtraute can mean "espoused," thus suggesting perhaps that the "holy pair" represents Mary and Joseph watching (picking up Mohr'swacht) over the curly-haired infant/boy.[13]
The carol has been translated into about 300 languages.[14]
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, Alles schläft; einsam wacht Nur das traute hochheilige Paar. Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar, Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh! Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, Hirten erst kundgemacht Durch der Engel Halleluja, Tönt es laut von fern und nah: Christ, der Retter ist da! Christ, der Retter ist da!
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht Lieb' aus deinem göttlichen Mund, Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund'. Christ, in deiner Geburt! Christ, in deiner Geburt!
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 singAlleluia! 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!
In the second stanza, some English versions read "shepherdsquail"[17][18] rather than "shepherds quake."[19]
A common fourth verse or alternative third verse[20] is:
Silent night, holy night, wondrous star, lend thy light; with the angels let us sing, Alleluia to our King; Christ the Saviour is born, Christ the Saviour is born!
Alfred Schnittke composed an arrangement of "Stille Nacht" for violin and piano in 1978, as a holiday greeting for violinistGidon Kremer. Due to its dissonant and nightmarish character, the miniature caused a scandal in Austria.[21][22]
Several theatrical and television films depict how the song was ostensibly written. Most of them report the organ breaking down at the church in Oberndorf, which appeared in a fictional story published in the U.S. in the 1930s.[6]
The First Silent Night (2014), documentary narrated bySimon Callow[27]
Stille Nacht – ein Lied für die Welt (2018), music documentary created and directed byHannes M. Schalle, narrated byPeter Simonischek.[28][29] An English version,Silent Night – A Song for the World (2020), narrated byHugh Bonneville, was released two years later.[30][31]
Walter Kirchhoff (1879–1951), a German officer and atenor who sangSilent Night, Holy Night (German:Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht) both in German and in English and inspiredthe Christmas truce inWorld War I (1914–1918).
![<<
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>>
\new Lyrics \lyricsto "melody" {
Stil -- le Nacht! Hei -- li -- ge Nacht!
Al -- les schläft; ein -- sam wacht
Nur das trau -- te hei -- li -- ge Paar.
Hol -- der Knab’ im lok -- kig -- ten Haar,
schla -- fe in himm -- li -- scher Ruh! __
Schla -- fe in himm -- li -- scher Ruh! __
}
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a4 a8 c8. [b16] a8 | g8. [a16] g8 e4. | d'4 d8 f8.-> [d16] b8 | c4. (e4) r8 | c8. [(g16)] e8 g8. [f16] d8 | c4.~ c4 r8 \bar "|."
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