Many of us know the origins of the hymn Amazing Grace but far fewer know the story of how one of our most beloved hymns 'Silent Night' came to be. Now this is history I wish we had a video production of and there is a reason why I wished we had video footage! Its because the facts that I'm going to set down here is just one of the stories that's told about this hymn.
Most of us are not at all aware of the way history is affected by stories that are not written down but rather narrated to someone who then tells it to someone else, and then another person and we call that the 'oral tradition'. This is one such version of this story I'm going to tell you here so I hasten to add that at least the hard facts of this story have been proved to be drawn from solid facts. I find this alone, very interesting.
Christmas Carol Was First Written As A Poem:
A Clergyman, who lived in an Austrian alpine village scribed this carol a hundred and ninety five years ago; the year was 1818 and the village was known as Oberndorf. It was the week of Christmas.
Father Josef Mohr was on his way walking to see a family who had a cabin nestled high in the Alps. They say that while he was on his way the stunning beauty of the winter landscape overtook him with awe. it was so quiet... except for the babbling brook whose song sang into the crisp air. The pines that lined the hills were dark emerald green against the deep azure blue sky...and all around the snow covered ground.
By the time he arrived to the cabin it was nearly nightfall. The family greeted him warmly and as soon as he was in the door, his attention was drawn to a corner near the fireplace where a newly born babe and his attending mother were resting. Since we haven't a Youtube viral video sent to us thru social media, we'll have to just imagine that Father Mohr was thinking about the Nativity Scene of so long ago that our Christmas observations are framed around.
When he left the family and headed home, it was nightfall and the moonlight glistened from the snow covered hills and gleamed from the babbling brook. It was a silent night and he felt it to be a holy night. All is calm, all is bright. But wait..!
What Exactly Did Happen In Father Josef Mohr's Afternoon Of Absence?
Well, lend me an ear and I'll tell you! His friend, the notable and beloved of all, Choir Master and music teacher discovered that the organ would not play a single note! Remember that this is a village hidden deep in the Austrian Alps! What could he now do with this broken organ? Mind you, no pressure, but it is soon to be Christmas Eve and what is a Christmas Eve Service anywhere in the world without music?! Christmas Eve with everyone happy, singing together with no organ music!? A clear disaster was at hand with no way to turn it around. Franz Gruber thank heavens above, was a consummate Maestro, as such he could play more than one instrument. Its good to know then, that as soon as Father Josef arrived home, he quickly wrote down the words to the simplest of poems that for our joy is still close to the very heart beat of Christmas services all over the world: 'Silent Night', now 195 yrs old, still heard all through the festive season.
Somehow its a bit magical to consider that this simple hymn written some 195 yrs. ago was to become perhaps the most known and beloved Christmas carol of them all. His friend the Choir Master suggested to him that the carol was definitely a Christmas hymn and he felt that the very lyrics suggested the tune it should have.
Poet & Composer Collaborate:
How sweet would it be if we had video footage of these two drafting the final version of 'Silent Night'. i suppose we'll have to just 'know' that like most Maestros, this music teacher also played more than one instrument, in this case, a guitar. He composed in one sitting the lovely sparse tune we all still sing 195 years later! I especially love this fact since many tunes are rewritten, rehashed for many memorable songs. This simple melody simply does not have anything spare on it to spin another version. Like the poem, it is perfectly complete. Later during the spring thaw, an organ mender from a nearby village was summoned to repair the organ. When Franz Gruber sat down at the newly fixed organ he played the tune he'd composed for the poem his friend had written. The organ mender remembered it and took the melody and the song back to his village and taught it to some children.
The Journey of Silent Night:
Somehow, Silent Night went from the children to the then big city of Salzburg, in fact, to it's most prominent cathedral, by name, St. Peter's. How exactly, we don't know, but then it was heard in Paris. It didn't stop there, it arrived in London one Christmas time and it did as many had, it immigrated to America! First the big cities, then the small and even the tiny hamlets of America. You can go anywhere in the entire continent of North America, and you can count on hearing this darling hymn during the holiday festivities. 'SIlent Night...Holy Night...All is Calm, All is Bright.'
I Heard Silent Night Sung In It's Native Language:
This hymn was written by two native Austrians and as good fate and fortune would have it, I had the privilege of sharing a friendship with an Austrian woman. On one Christmas Eve, she, not being a Christian, sang it to me. Michele was in a sort of exile from her homeland. After the war, she and her husband fled from the impending influence of Nazi Germany and made their home in Canada. On this night, we sat there together looking out on what was a glorious view of the snow capped Canadian Rockies and the deep midnight blue waters, Lake Kootenay. British Columbia was a long ways from Austria.
This gorgeous painting we gazed upon during this Christmas Eve, mixed with her longing for her homeland made the singing of this hymn particularly poignant. It was the first time I had ever heard her sing. The song, it's message, and the way she sang it closed the gab on the 30 yrs that lay between our ages. I thought it was odd that she'd taken up learning piano and wondered why she, 'a much older woman' would do that?! I couldn't resist asking her about it and had it not been for her kind nature I suppose she could've thought me rude. I mean, when you consider it, although my roots and upbringing are so closely drawn to the European culture, my birth country was American and Americans, as we know are mostly involved with calculating the value of something by measuring it on the bottom line. That's where the buck starts and stops, is measured to be worthwhile or tossed out!
It surprised my 20 something mindset when she simply said that she was doing it for herself.
Precious Memories Teach Me Still:
Listening to Michele sing this hymn and then her teaching it to me was a bitter sweet experience. Her longing for a 'home' we both knew she would never see again was left uncommented on. I knew she and her husband escaped Nazi Germany and immigrated. He had left the military without proper permissions.
Poignant also because she adored this Christmas tune and yet said she did not believe in God. "God died in the war. They killed Him." Her singing that hymn, on that night, in the way she did, would be something anybody would remember. She's gone now. Home, wherever that is. I don't believe in death... I do believe in circles.
Michele was a very beautiful woman both inside and out. Blond, loosely curled haired, bright blue eyes that somehow seemed very soft focused. That somehow did not combine with her oft state of nervousness. She was a great thinker and is accredited for introducing me to some of the world's greatest philosophers. I was always surprised that even with her confessed loss of faith in God, she was nevertheless keen on my interest in the Bible and my knowledge of it's history.
This is December 12th, 2013. Very soon it will be Christmas Eve. I think I'll sing that very song she sung to me, back to her...and I'll do it in her mother tongue which I still remember. That way, she'll know that I cherish the friendship still. Michele will like that.
Most of us are not at all aware of the way history is affected by stories that are not written down but rather narrated to someone who then tells it to someone else, and then another person and we call that the 'oral tradition'. This is one such version of this story I'm going to tell you here so I hasten to add that at least the hard facts of this story have been proved to be drawn from solid facts. I find this alone, very interesting.
Christmas Carol Was First Written As A Poem:
A Clergyman, who lived in an Austrian alpine village scribed this carol a hundred and ninety five years ago; the year was 1818 and the village was known as Oberndorf. It was the week of Christmas.
Father Josef Mohr was on his way walking to see a family who had a cabin nestled high in the Alps. They say that while he was on his way the stunning beauty of the winter landscape overtook him with awe. it was so quiet... except for the babbling brook whose song sang into the crisp air. The pines that lined the hills were dark emerald green against the deep azure blue sky...and all around the snow covered ground.
By the time he arrived to the cabin it was nearly nightfall. The family greeted him warmly and as soon as he was in the door, his attention was drawn to a corner near the fireplace where a newly born babe and his attending mother were resting. Since we haven't a Youtube viral video sent to us thru social media, we'll have to just imagine that Father Mohr was thinking about the Nativity Scene of so long ago that our Christmas observations are framed around.
When he left the family and headed home, it was nightfall and the moonlight glistened from the snow covered hills and gleamed from the babbling brook. It was a silent night and he felt it to be a holy night. All is calm, all is bright. But wait..!
What Exactly Did Happen In Father Josef Mohr's Afternoon Of Absence?
Well, lend me an ear and I'll tell you! His friend, the notable and beloved of all, Choir Master and music teacher discovered that the organ would not play a single note! Remember that this is a village hidden deep in the Austrian Alps! What could he now do with this broken organ? Mind you, no pressure, but it is soon to be Christmas Eve and what is a Christmas Eve Service anywhere in the world without music?! Christmas Eve with everyone happy, singing together with no organ music!? A clear disaster was at hand with no way to turn it around. Franz Gruber thank heavens above, was a consummate Maestro, as such he could play more than one instrument. Its good to know then, that as soon as Father Josef arrived home, he quickly wrote down the words to the simplest of poems that for our joy is still close to the very heart beat of Christmas services all over the world: 'Silent Night', now 195 yrs old, still heard all through the festive season.
Somehow its a bit magical to consider that this simple hymn written some 195 yrs. ago was to become perhaps the most known and beloved Christmas carol of them all. His friend the Choir Master suggested to him that the carol was definitely a Christmas hymn and he felt that the very lyrics suggested the tune it should have.
Poet & Composer Collaborate:
How sweet would it be if we had video footage of these two drafting the final version of 'Silent Night'. i suppose we'll have to just 'know' that like most Maestros, this music teacher also played more than one instrument, in this case, a guitar. He composed in one sitting the lovely sparse tune we all still sing 195 years later! I especially love this fact since many tunes are rewritten, rehashed for many memorable songs. This simple melody simply does not have anything spare on it to spin another version. Like the poem, it is perfectly complete. Later during the spring thaw, an organ mender from a nearby village was summoned to repair the organ. When Franz Gruber sat down at the newly fixed organ he played the tune he'd composed for the poem his friend had written. The organ mender remembered it and took the melody and the song back to his village and taught it to some children.
The Journey of Silent Night:
Somehow, Silent Night went from the children to the then big city of Salzburg, in fact, to it's most prominent cathedral, by name, St. Peter's. How exactly, we don't know, but then it was heard in Paris. It didn't stop there, it arrived in London one Christmas time and it did as many had, it immigrated to America! First the big cities, then the small and even the tiny hamlets of America. You can go anywhere in the entire continent of North America, and you can count on hearing this darling hymn during the holiday festivities. 'SIlent Night...Holy Night...All is Calm, All is Bright.'
I Heard Silent Night Sung In It's Native Language:
This hymn was written by two native Austrians and as good fate and fortune would have it, I had the privilege of sharing a friendship with an Austrian woman. On one Christmas Eve, she, not being a Christian, sang it to me. Michele was in a sort of exile from her homeland. After the war, she and her husband fled from the impending influence of Nazi Germany and made their home in Canada. On this night, we sat there together looking out on what was a glorious view of the snow capped Canadian Rockies and the deep midnight blue waters, Lake Kootenay. British Columbia was a long ways from Austria.
This gorgeous painting we gazed upon during this Christmas Eve, mixed with her longing for her homeland made the singing of this hymn particularly poignant. It was the first time I had ever heard her sing. The song, it's message, and the way she sang it closed the gab on the 30 yrs that lay between our ages. I thought it was odd that she'd taken up learning piano and wondered why she, 'a much older woman' would do that?! I couldn't resist asking her about it and had it not been for her kind nature I suppose she could've thought me rude. I mean, when you consider it, although my roots and upbringing are so closely drawn to the European culture, my birth country was American and Americans, as we know are mostly involved with calculating the value of something by measuring it on the bottom line. That's where the buck starts and stops, is measured to be worthwhile or tossed out!
It surprised my 20 something mindset when she simply said that she was doing it for herself.
Precious Memories Teach Me Still:
Listening to Michele sing this hymn and then her teaching it to me was a bitter sweet experience. Her longing for a 'home' we both knew she would never see again was left uncommented on. I knew she and her husband escaped Nazi Germany and immigrated. He had left the military without proper permissions.
Poignant also because she adored this Christmas tune and yet said she did not believe in God. "God died in the war. They killed Him." Her singing that hymn, on that night, in the way she did, would be something anybody would remember. She's gone now. Home, wherever that is. I don't believe in death... I do believe in circles.
Michele was a very beautiful woman both inside and out. Blond, loosely curled haired, bright blue eyes that somehow seemed very soft focused. That somehow did not combine with her oft state of nervousness. She was a great thinker and is accredited for introducing me to some of the world's greatest philosophers. I was always surprised that even with her confessed loss of faith in God, she was nevertheless keen on my interest in the Bible and my knowledge of it's history.
This is December 12th, 2013. Very soon it will be Christmas Eve. I think I'll sing that very song she sung to me, back to her...and I'll do it in her mother tongue which I still remember. That way, she'll know that I cherish the friendship still. Michele will like that.
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