Silent Night, Holy Night - Christmas Carol from Salzburg
There are so many Christmas songs today! Most of them were written in the 20th century and popularized by contemporary pop culture. However, there are also some compositions with deeper roots. One such song is sung worldwide on Christmas Eve, and many people don't realize its origin is Salzburg!
Twenty kilometers north of Salzburg, amid the fields and pastures of the Flachgau region, where the snow-capped peaks of the Alps can be seen from afar, lies the tiny village of Arnsdorf. It is known not only for its respectable age of 1200 years but also for having the oldest school still in operation in Austria. There are only two primary classes in the school, and on the top floor is a museum dedicated to one of the creators of the famous Christmas song "Silent Night, Holy Night".
The building of the future school was built in 1771 as a house for the sacristan who served in the pilgrimage church of Maria in Mösl. From 1779, regular education classes were held in the sexton's house. Children and adults studied together in three classes. Several rooms on the second floor were used as the teacher's apartment. When the school's first teacher died, the eighteen-year-old Franz Xavier Gruber came to Arnsdorf to replace him. A few months later, Franz married his predecessor's widow, who was thirteen years his senior and moved into the school building. Being a talented musician and composer, Franz Xavier took over the organ ministry in the churches of Maria im Mösl and St. Nicholas in Obrendorf bei Salzburg.
In 1817, Father Joseph Mohr joined the parish of Oberndorf bei Salzburg. A year before moving from the mountain village of Mariapfarr, he wrote poems about the birth of Christ, kindness, and hope. The Napoleonic Wars, which had changed the map of the world, had only recently ended. Devastation and poverty were everywhere. The lean years further burdened the lives of ordinary people. The parish had no means to help those in need. So Joseph Mohr decided to give the people of the surrounding villages the most precious thing he had, his poem:
Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knab' im lockigten Haar,
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!
Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Die der Welt Heil gebracht,
Aus des Himmels goldenen Höhn,
Uns der Gnaden Fülle läßt sehn,
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!
Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Lange schon uns bedacht,
Als der Herr vom Grimme befreit
In der Väter urgrauer Zeit
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!
Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver eventually formed a strong friendship. The priest asked the organist to set his poem to music so that he could perform a song on Christmas Eve that would inspire faith and hope. There are several versions of why the guitar was chosen to accompany a religious work. One of them is that mice had eaten the moss of the organ in St. Nicholas Church and the instrument had broken down. Franz Xavier Gruber wrote the music to the text on Christmas Eve 1818 in the schoolhouse in the village of Arnsdorf. On the evening of December 24th, Stille Nacht Heilige Nacht was performed for the first time in the parish church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf bei Salzburg.
In 1836, the master who repaired the organ in Oberndorf took a forgotten sheet of music with him. Later, the Tyrolean Zillerthaler ensemble learned the melody and included it in their repertoire. On concert tours, various ensembles increasingly performed the song, considering it to be folk music. Only decades later, society, which had fallen in love with "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht," learned who the authors of the genius work were. In the 1950s and 1960s, the von Trapp family, known from the movie The Sound of Music, sang Silent Night for American audiences.In the meantime, the song was translated into more than 300 languages.
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,
heav'nly hosts sing, “Alleluia!
Christ the Savior is born!
Christ the Savior 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!
Silent night! Holy night!
Wondrous star, lend thy light;
with the angels let us sing
"Alleluia" to our King:
“Christ the Savior is born!
Christ the Savior is born.”
In 2018, the Christmas song turned 200 years old. On the eve of Christmas, a tour of the places where the song "Silent Night, Holy Night" was created will complement your impressions of your trip to Salzburg. I suggest you visit the places where the wondrous song was born, and I will tell you a lot of exciting facts about the authors Franz Xavier Gruber and Joseph Mohr.
Read more: New Year's Eve in the Old Town of Salzburg, Christmas Traditions and Events in Austria
