By Dr. Ashley William Joseph –
Silent Night the beautiful song that we all still sing today had its world premiere on Christmas Eve in the year 1818, at the St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf near the Austrian city of Salzburg. The song was performed by organist Franz Xavier Gruber and a Catholic priest Joseph Mohr. The song was sung by two voices — tenor and bass with guitar accompaniment.
Joseph Mohr and Franz Xavier Gruber – Do these names ring a bell to any of us? The year was 1818, in a small town in Austria was born this magnificent hymn Silent Night, Holy Night.
Joseph Mohr wrote down a poem during the time he served as the assistant priest in Mariapfarr in Lungau. Gruber was asked by Mohr to write a simple melody with guitar accompaniment for the words he had written.
Back then, the Napoleonic wars had created great suffering and with this the ecclesiastical principality of Salzburg lost its status as an independent country and was forced to secularize with other regions. Mohr had witnessed all these sufferings as he was earlier posted to serve at Mariapharr.
Having been witness to these events in 1816 he wrote the words Silent Night. With all these sufferings and wars that he endured, the 4th verse of the song takes special meaning where the text expresses a great longing for peace and comfort.
It is said that John Freeman Young, the then Episcopalian Bishop, first published the English translation in 1859. Numerous stories in the news and over the internet have very interesting descriptions on the actual origin of the song. One goes on to say that the bellows of the pipe organ of the church was eaten by rats and thus was not in a playing condition for the Christmas Eve service.
Another story is that Mohr in particular liked the guitar and had it arranged along with two male voices backed by the church choir.
The carols actually became popular at the time when the famed organ builder Karl Mauchar came to Oberndorf to fix the organ at St. Nichiolas Church. After finishing his repair he asked Gruber to test the instrument. Gruber started playing the melody of Silent Night he had just composed to Mohr’s poem. Having liked the melody, the famed organ builder requested copies of the music and words and took it back to his Alpine village, Kapfing.
At his village, the Rainers and the Strassers, two great family of singers heard this beautiful carol and included it into their Christmas repertoire. These folk or travelling singers like the famous Von Trapp family singers from the epic movie Sound of Music took the song to even greater heights. It is further said that King Frederick William IV of Prussia upon hearing the song ordered the Cathedral Choir to sing it every Christmas eve.
The Rainers family singers on a tour to the United States 20 years later sang this song in German. The Rainers performed this song at the Alexander Hamilton Monument which is located outside New York City’s Trinity Church. So beautiful was the melody and meaningful were the words that this song is sung today in over 300 languages.
Dr. Ashley William Joseph is President and Resident Conductor – Indian National Symphony Orchestra and Chairman – William Joseph International Academy for Performing Arts