"Silent Night" (German: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht") is a popular Christmas carol. The original lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" were written in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, by the priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz Xaver Gruber. In 1859, John Freeman Young (second Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Florida) published the English translation that is most frequently sung today.[1] 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.
A version recorded by Bing Crosby is one of the fewer than thirty all-time singles to have sold 10 million (or more) copies worldwide.
The carol was first performed in the Nikolaus-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria, on December 24, 1818. Mohr had composed the words two years earlier, in 1816, but on Christmas Eve brought them to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the church service.[2]
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. There is evidence that a radio play of this version was performed as a Hallmark Theatre Broadcast in 1948.[3]
Some[4] 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 Nikolaus-Kirche was demolished in the early 1900s as a result of flood damage and because the town's center was moved up the river to a safer location, with a new church being built in the new town, close to the new bridge. A tiny chapel, called the "Stille-Nacht-Gedächtniskapelle" (Silent Night Memorial Chapel), was built in the place of the demolished church and a nearby house was converted into a museum, attracting tourists from all over the world, not only but primarily in December.
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. Gruber's composition was influenced by the musical tradition of his rural domicile. The melody of "Silent Night" bears resemblance to aspects of Austrian folk music and yodelling.
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.
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.
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 acoustic version by American R 'n' 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 countless other classical choral groups. Other recordings include Perry Como (several times), Andy Williams from The Andy Williams Christmas Album, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Jim Reeves from Twelve Songs of Christmas (1963), Elvis Presley from Elvis' Christmas Album (1957), Reba McEntire from Merry Christmas to You (1987); Mariah Carey from Merry Christmas (1994); Linda Ronstadt from A Merry Little Christmas (2000); Christina Aguilera from My Kind of Christmas (2000), Josh Groban from Noël (2007); Tori Amos from Midwinter Graces (2009), and Richard Marx from The Christmas EP (2011). The African-American singer-activist Paul Robeson recorded the song several times; his 1937 recording uses a British translation rather than the one more commonly found in the USA.
In 1943, the Austrian exile Hertha Pauli wrote the book Silent Night. A Story of a Song, in which she explained to American children the origin of the song. The book was illustrated by Fritz Kredel.[8]
Westlife performed the song live in 2001. In 2006, Brad Paisley recorded the song for Brad Paisley Christmas. In 2007, Damien Leith included a recording on a limited special Christmas edition of Where We Land. In 2010 Annie Lennox included this track on her new album A Christmas Cornucopia.
In 2011, it was recorded by Joe McElderry for his third studio album, Classic Christmas.