Anon

“Silent Night” (TIS No. 311) is perhaps the most beautiful and popular of all Christmas carols, most certainly because of its glorious melody which gives a peaceful ambience to a wonderful night, the eve of Christmas.

Joseph Mohr, (1787 – 1863) a primary school teacher and church organist, wrote Silent Night in 1816 but it was first performed in the Nikolaus-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria on December 24, 1818. Mohr asked his friend Franz Gruber, a catholic priest, to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment especially for that church service. The words and the melody fit nicely together.

We have no details of any specific inspiration for Mohr writing this most beautiful of carols, however the Silent Night Society in Oberndorf says that there are, "many romantic stories and legends," that add their own anecdotal details to the known facts.

The fifth of six children, Franz Gruber worked as a weaver until he was 18 and then, with his father’s blessing, began a career as a school teacher.

In 1807, in a custom not uncommon for the times, he married the widow of the former schoolteacher, Maria Elisabeth Engelsberger.They had two children, both of whom died at a young age. After Maria died in 1825, Gruber married a former student, Maria Breitfuss. They lived together for 15 years, with 10 children born of the marriage; four lived to reach adulthood.

In 1841, his second wife died while giving birth to their last child, which also died. He married a third time in 1842, taking vows with Katharina Wimmaer, the widow of a master shoemaker and friend of his second wife. Me thinks he should have written the Bridal March Here Comes the Bride but he left that to Mendelssohn!! He died of natural causes in 1863 at the age of 76.

The song was sung simultaneously by troops in English and German during the Christmas truce of 1914, as it was one of the few carols that soldiers on both sides of the front line knew. How odd we can have a truce to sing, yet shortly afterwards seek to blow each others heads off! Silent Night has been sung by many artists including the old time favourite Bing Crosby. I understand Irish singer Enya has recorded it too, in Irish. I’d like to hear that!

This article was written by the weekly column on hymns for the Golden Grove Gazette.