This much loved song was literally written on a ‘Silent Night’. If a church pipe organ hadn’t malfunctioned, our society probably wouldn’t have this beloved Christmas carol.
It may be that the silence of the broken pipe organ gave Reverend Joseph Mohr the inspiration to write the lyrics for “Silent Night” in 1818. At that time, he was probably driven by anxiety rather than enthusiasm.
When Father Mohr made plans for Christmas Eve Mass at his church in Obernorf, a small Austrian town, someone noticed that the old church organ was not working. There were only a few days left before Christmas, and the nearest repairman was many miles away. It seemed that Christmas Mass would have to be celebrated without music.
With great regret that his Christmas plans had been destroyed, Fr. Mohr decided to take another course of action. He did this while still performing his usual parish duties, including during the baptism of a new baby. While on this specific visit, the lyrics to “Stille Nacht”, or as we know it, “Silent Night”, suddenly came to Fr. Mohr. She didn’t want to forget the words that had quickly come to her mind, so she ended her call and hurried back home.
When he got home, he quickly put his thoughts on paper. Translated into English, the resulting four stanzas read:
Silent night Holy night,
Everything is calm, everything is bright
Around your virgin, mother and child,
Holy child so tender and gentle, Sleep in heavenly peace.
After he had written down his words, Mohr contacted Franz Gruber. Herr Gruber, who formed the parish choir, was a colleague and musician. Mohr managed to discover that Gruber could play both the guitar and the organ. Gruber told Mohr that he was not a competent guitarist. However, Mohr was determined and gave Gruber the words of the new poem he wrote. Mohr and Gruber found a dusty old guitar and went to work writing the song that provided music for the Oberndorf Christmas mass.
It was unlikely that Mohr or Gruber had the slightest idea that they would leave such an indelible mark on our history. The song eventually faded into obscurity for more than a decade. After this, the Strasser family from Zillertal Valley somehow got hold of the song “Silent Night”.
All four of Strasser’s children received musical training and used their talents to attract customers to his family’s glove business. They spent many hours standing on the road outside singing to attract customers. Someone gave the Strassers the music for Silent Night, just as a talent agent might discover new talent in some unknown place. The song was rewritten from two-part harmony to four-part harmony and the Strasser children immediately became famous with their cover. When the Strasser children sang “Silent Night,” they sounded like a choir of angels. That is why the inhabitants of the valley began to call it “The Song of Heaven”. Their vocalizations were so beautiful that the Strasser were asked to present their music to the kings and queens.
It could have been a king who turned Silent Night into a Christian mainstay. The King of Prussia, Frederick William IV, heard “Silent Night” some 22 years after the Strasser children began to interpret it as “The Song from Heaven.” When he heard it, he said that it should be sung first at all Christmas concerts that are offered for the remainder of the time he was seated on the throne. We do not know if this actually happened. What we do know is that “Silent Night” was not only King Frederick’s favorite, but it soon became a much-loved Christmas ornament around the world.
