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December 24, 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the first performance of one of the best-loved Christmas carols in the world, Silent Night. Composed in difficult times, the story behind its creation was lost to the world for many years, and it is only recently that we have recognized its true source. Though born in a very different era, its message of peace is as needed in today’s trying times as it was 200 years ago.
The Napoleonic Wars, which raged in Europe during the first two decades of the 1800s, had left the Austrian city of Salzburg – the birthplace of Mozart – in sorry shape. For decades, trade in salt (“salz” in German) had provided steady revenue, but conflict caused borders to shift and disrupted the local economy. Many people lost their livelihoods, and families struggled just to keep a roof overhead and put food on the table.
Lyrics
An assistant priest, Joseph Mohr, who was working at the time in the nearby town of Obendorf, had known troubles of his own. Born in Salzburg in 1792, his parents were unmarried, and his father left his mother before he was born. Because of the circumstances of his birth, Mohr’s prospects were poor, but a leader at the local cathedral recognized his intelligence and talent for music.
As a teenager, Mohr sang in the choir and played the violin at a local church. He was a bright student, and after studies at the lyceum, he entered seminary, for which his illegitimacy required a special dispensation. At the age of 22, he completed his studies and was ordained a priest. It was in 1816 while serving as assistant priest in the town of Mariapfarr that he wrote the words to what would become “Silent Night.”
The emphasis of the song’s lyrics on silence, calm, and peace take on special poignancy when we recall how badly this region of Austria suffered during the wars. Military conflict had taken on a dramatically larger scope, with armies numbering into the hundreds of thousands. The industrial revolution made it possible to mass produce weapons, including powerful artillery. And fighting had been escalated to the level of “total war” – conflicts on such a scale that whole societies were transformed.
Melody
After an illness, Mohr accepted a position in Obernforf, where he met a school teacher, Franz Gruber, who also served as an organist in a nearby village. Gruber’s origins had been nearly as humble as Mohr’s. Born to a poor weaver who expected his son to follow him in the trade, Gruber discovered that he loved the organ. Working at a teaching post by day, Gruber frequently filled in on the organ at the church in Oberndorf, which is how he met Mohr.
Anticipating a Christmas Eve mass, Mohr brought Gruber the lyrics and asked him to compose a tune. According to Gruber, who described the song’s origin much later in 1854:
It was the 24th of December of the year 1818, when the then assistant priest Joseph Mohr at the newly established parish of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf handed over to the organist presented by Franz Gruber a poem, with the request to write a fitting melody for two solo voices together with choir and for accompaniment by guitar.
Gruber’s account suggests that he composed the melody in a matter of hours and brought the composition back to Mohr the same day. Mohr, impressed with Gruber’s work, included the song in the evening’s mass, playing the guitar and singing the tenor part himself, while Gruber sang bass. According to Gruber, the song received “general approval by all” – an audience consisting mainly of manual laborers and their families, many of whom were out of work.
The evidence that Mohr actually wrote the poem that became the song’s lyrics in 1816 is provided by a document that was only discovered in 1995. It is an autographed “Silent Night” score, bearing this inscription: “Text by Joseph Mohr, confirmed by my own signature – assistant priest 1816.” Also putting to rest any doubt as to the composer of the melody, it also bears this line: “Melody by Fr. Xav. Gruber.”
The Rest is History
The song spread quickly around the world. According to Gruber, a local organ builder liked the song so much that he shared it with two traveling families of folk singers, not unlike the Trapp family later featured in “The Sound of Music.” Within a year, it was performed before the monarchs of both Austria and Russia, and in 1839 it was heard in New York City.
Gruber continued to teach and serve as an organist for the rest of his life. Mohr was moved to different parishes. A generous man, he devoted most of his salary to charity before finally moving to the village of Wagrain in the Alps, where he founded a fund to allow children of poor families to receive an education. There he died in 1848 at the age of 55. His grave is near the Joseph Mohr School, and the town has erected a Silent Night museum in his memory.
The version of “Silent Night” most familiar to Americans is thought to have been translated into English by an Episcopal priest, John Freeman Young, while he was serving at Trinity Church in New York City in 1859. Today versions of the song exist in over 140 languages, and Bing Crosby’s 1935 rendition ranks number 3 on the list of the best-selling singles of all time, having sold in excess of 30 million copies.
Why is “Silent Night” so popular? For one thing, it has a simple melody that can be accompanied by a few chords on the guitar. Instead of speaking in abstract theological terms, it draws us into the scene of the Nativity. It is also associated with one of the most famous truces of World War I, improbably uniting soldiers from warring armies in the spirit of Christmas.
But above all, “Silent Night” is a song of peace. It reminds us of the importance of approaching life with an inner calm. In a world too often marked by malice and even bellicosity, it summons us to harmony. And it is perhaps our most enduring musical reminder that gentleness is not a sign of weakness but of strength. Amid the din of daily life, sometimes silence speaks most resoundingly of all.
