New Delhi: Every year on December 25, Christmas is celebrated to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. In the Christendom and Western society it is the biggest festival which is celebrated with much pomp and splendour. On Christmas, people decorate their homes as family and friends come over, exchange gifts and gorge on delicious foods. The festival is also associated with several songs, most notably the ‘Silent Night’. In this article, we will take a look at this famous Christmas song and how it originated, attaining popularity all over the world.
What is Silent Night and who composed it?
‘Silent Night’ is one of the most popular Christmas carols in the world and one of the foremost songs sung on the Christmas. In 1818, Franz Xaver Gruber composed it and Joseph Mohr wrote its lyrics in Austria’s Salzburg. In 2011, it became an UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. In 1905, the song was first recorded and it has become immensely popular in subsequent years, featuring in films and multiple successful recordings. Notably, the Silent Night is the most recorded Christmas song in the world.
The Journey of Silent Night to Global Recognition
The Silent Night was first written as “Stille Nacht” in German and was first performed in 1818 on the Christmas Eve at the Nikolauskirche, Oberndorf’s parish church which is currently located in Austria. At that time, Father Joseph Mohr was a young Catholic priest who had come to Oberndorf in 1817. After the Napoleonic Wars, he wrote the poem “Stille Nacht” in 1816 at Mariapfarr, his father’s hometown where Joseph was an assistant priest.
In 1818, during the Christmas Eve, Joseph took the poem to Franz Xaver Gruber, a schoolmaster and organist who lived in a nearby village. He asked Gruber to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for that night’s mass, after the church organ was damaged by river flooding. The inspiration behind Joseph writing the lyrics remains unknown. In the 1840s, the melody that Gruber gave was slightly changed and it became the version that is commonly played today.
English Translations of Silent Night
In 1859, an Episcopal priest named John Freeman Young living in the New York City translated the song into English and that is most frequently sung today. Out of Mohr’s original six verses, he translated from three. Later, in 1998, Salzburg’s Silent Night Museum asked Bettina Klein to translate Mohr’s German lyrics. The Silent Night that we sing today differs from the original composition but it has the flavour and heritage of the original song, which has become an integral part of Christmas celebrations.
‘Silent Night’, a beloved Christmas carol, originated in Austria in 1818. Joseph Mohr penned the lyrics, and Franz Xaver Gruber composed the melody. Initially performed in a small church, the song gained global popularity, undergoing translations and adaptations. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
