The Real Story of Silent Night
by Dr Mario Saliba
The story behind Silent Night is one of myth and reality whose history has many twists and turns.
First the myth. The settings are Oberndorf, which lies besides the Salzach River, now the border with Bavaria. In 1818 it was an isolated village, though nowadays commuters travel the 15 miles to Salzburg. 183 years ago the village straddled both sides of the river and its parish priest was the 26-year-old Josef Mohr. Mohr was an illegitimate son of Salzburg girl and a soldier who had gone off to the Napoleonic wars that were tearing central Europe apart. As a young boy he had sung in the choir of Salzburg’s St Michael’s Church under the direction of Hayden’s brother, Michael.
Mohr entered the priesthood after
studying in the seminary in Salzburg and in 1815 as curate to the
Alpine village of Mariapfarr. But he had probably tuberculosis and
was moved to the healthier Oberndorf. There he became friendly with
his organist Franz Gruber, and they made music together. Mohr wrote
the words and Gruber the music to hymns in German to be accompanied
by the guitar.
Then at Christmas 1818 tragedy struck. The organ collapsed: some said the rats were the villains. There was to be no music for the Midnight Mass. Hurriedly the two friends got together. Mohr supplied the words and Gruber the equally moving music. Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht was born.
Now to reality. Fr. Mohr, like
all German-speakers, was already familiar with the peasant tradition
of hymns composed for the guitar and sung in the middle of Mass or
afterwards in German, not in Latin. In 1816, the year after he
arrived in the Alps he wrote a poem of six verses, which began
“Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Alles schlaft; einsam wacht.” We may be fairly sure he
wrote it with at least the idea that at least it could be set to
music.
We also know that when the young priest arrived in his first parish it was a village occupied by foreign troops: the Bavarians, allies of Napoleon, only withdrew from what was then the independent domain of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg in 1816. Silent Night was born out of conflict.
When Josef Mohr arrived in
Oberndorf he still had his singing voice and his love of music. What
more natural than to collaborate with Franz Gruber to set his Weihnachtslied
or Christmas song to music for the two of them to perform after the
Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve in front of the crib with Gruber
playing the guitar?
Sadly, Fr Mohr soon got something of a reputation for unusual behaviour and the diocesan authorities were informed. At the time the village straddled the river, which was crowded with boatmen carrying goods in their flat boats and these men had something of a reputation. Critics said that Fr Mohr was too familiar with these men and, even worse with drinking at the inn, with gambling and coarse songs, and worse still, with equally coarse women. It was time to go and he was moved on to another parish.
In 1830s a manuscript copy of the song came into the possession of one Josef Strasser, a German collector of peasant Christmas songs. His family singing group began to include the song in their repertoire and this led to its publication, albeit without the last three verses. Both Mohr and Gruber insisted that their names should be included in future editions. Gruber arranged the song for the organ and went on to gain fame as a composer (and to claim that both he and Mohr had composed both music and words on the day). Mohr himself remained unknown and finally died in 1848, when he was only 54. His church was eventually pulled down after repeated flooding, to be rebuilt in the newer part of town.
Somewhere along the line the
song’s last three verses were dropped and only the first three
survived. In 1858 the Brighton hymn-writer Emily Elliott translated
the carol, thereby introducing it to the English-speaking world.
Soon others were preparing their translations, including American
Episcopal bishop, JF Young. His translation has become the
standardized version although, as we shall see, it was not all that
accurate. Albert Cassola translated the Maltese version in the
1940s.
The carol’s popularity grew
with leaps and bounds, both in the English and German versions. It
became very famous on Christmas Eve 1914 when German troops began
singing it in their trenches. Soon British troops, recognizing the
tune, took it up with Bishop Young’s words. The men’s shared
Christian beliefs overcame their differences and led to the famous
“truce”. This spread along the front and halted the killing, at
least for a while.
The truncated carol had earned a
place in the international canon of Christmas songs but it was not
until Christmas Eve in 1997 that the world, or at least Austria,
once again heard all six verses. Two years earlier, in 1995, a
retired teacher, Frau Elisabeth Kruckenhauser, found a transcript of
the six verses, signed by Josef Mohr in a family library. The
manuscript was not identified until she took it to a local museum.
Now, after so many years, we have
the complete text and it may be helpful to have it translated afresh
to show what Josef Mohr originally wrote. This will show how
different the original is from bishop Young’s version. Mohr’s
emphasis was more on the incarnation and on the humanity of Christ
as “brother”. The words remind us of one of those beautifully
carved and luxuriantly painted wooden Austrian crib scenes and
indeed one of these may have inspired Mohr. In my opinion it may be
a good idea that now that we know for sure that the original carol
had six verses, to have the Maltese version translated afresh by a
contemporary writer, using Fr
Josef Mohr’s original text.
Silent Night
Silent Night! Holy Night.
Everyone is sleep; quite alone
Only the truly beloved holy
pair is awake.
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Silent Night! Holy Night!
In which today all the power
Of the father’s love pours
down,
And Jesus as a brother
gently
embraced.
The peoples of the world
The peoples of the world.
Silent Night! Holy Night!
God’s son, O how full of love
Is the laughter from your divine
Mouth
As the saving hour strikes for us
Jesus, in your birth!
Jesus, in your birth!
Silent Night! Holy Night!
First made known to shepherds
Through the angels’ Alleluia
It resounds from far and near
Jesus the saviour is here!
Silent Night! Holy Night!
For so long planned for us
When the Lord freed from anger
In the dawn of the
father’s time
Promised to spare all the world!
Promised to spare all the
world!
Silent Night! Holy Night!
Which brought redemption to the world
From Heaven’s golden
heights
Reveals to us the fullness of
grace
Jesus in human form
Jesus in human form.
The above is an English translation of the original manuscript as signed by Fr Josef Mohr and as broadcasted by the BBC for the first time on Christmas Eve 1998. Those in bold are the rediscovered verses.
