370. Stille Nacht Heilige Nacht (Joseph Mohr & Franz Gruber)
raymondcrooke
raymondcrooke
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Uploaded on Dec 13, 2007

The words of this song, known in English as "Silent Night", were written just before Christmas in 1818, by Joseph Mohr, 26-year old assistant to the priest at St. Nicholas' Church at Oberndorf, a village 11 miles down the Salzach River from Salzburg. He asked his friend, 31-year-old Franz X. Gruber, a school teacher in the neighboring village of Arnsdorf and organist at St. Nicholas', to set it to music so that they could sing it together at the midnight Christmas service, using guitar accompaniment as the church organ had broken down.

This song was to become best known of all carols, translated into every language, yet before that it was almost lost. After its initial performance it was forgotten for seven years, until Carl Mauracher was commissioned to rebuild the organ at St. Nicholas' in 1825, and found a handwritten copy of the words and music in the organ loft. He took it back to his Tyrolian home where choral groups took the song with them wherever they sang. It became known as "the Tyrolian folk carol."

When it became the favourite carol of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, the director of the Royal Court Choir of Berlin researched its origins, in 1854, and traced it back to Salzburg and its composers, Joseph Mohr and Franz X. Gruber.

I learned it many years ago at school in German lessons, though I've probably forgotten a lot of the pronunciation.

Lyrics and chords of this song can be found here: http://raymondfolk.wikifoundry.com/pa...

Here is my playlist of Christmas Songs: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...

You can see a playlist of my European songs here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...

For lyrics and chords of all my songs, please see my website:
http://raymondfolk.wikifoundry.com