Stille Nacht! heilige Nacht!

translated as
Silent night! hallowed night!
Silent night! holy night!
Holy night! peaceful night!

with
STILLE NACHT
HOLY NIGHT

I. German Origins

Much of this beloved carol’s early history has been preserved and documented by the Stille Nacht Gesellschaft and the Stille Nacht Museum Hallein and is available on the Gesellschaft website, but some of the basics are offered here. The text of the song is by Joseph Mohr (1792–1848), written in 1816 when he was assistant priest in Mariapfarr in Lungau. The previous year had seen the end of the Napoleonic wars, the restoration of order, and the redrawing of boundary lines in that region. Consequently, Bavarian troops, who had been allies of the French, left Lungau throughout 1816 and 1817, with some sources reporting hardship and economic loss in the area during this shift of power. In October 1817, Mohr became assistant priest of the new Nicola Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, where he met Franz Xaver Gruber (1787–1863), a schoolteacher in Arnsdorf and organist for the Oberndorf church.

On 30 December 1854, Gruber wrote a letter explaining the genesis of the song, in response to an inquiry from Emperor Friedrich Wilhelm IV, because some in Berlin believed the music was a folk tune or it had been written by Michael Haydn:

Es war am 24t Dezember des Jahres 1818, als der damalige Hilfspriester Herr Josef Mohr bei der neu errichteten Pfarr St. Nicola in Oberndorf dem Organistendienst vertretenden Franz Gruber (damals zugleich auch Schullehrer in Arnsdorf) ein Gedicht überreichte, mit dem Ansuchen eine hierauf passende Melodie für 2 Solo-Stimmen sammt Chor und für eine Guitarre-Begleitung schreiben zu wollen. Letztgenannter überbrachte am nämlichen Abend noch diesem Musikkundlichen Geistlichen, gemäß Verlangen, so wie selbe im Original ganz gleich beiliegt, seine einfache Composition, welche sogleich in der heiligen Nacht mit allen Beifall produzirt wurde.

On December 24, 1818, the curate of the newly erected St. Nicholas Church at Oberndorf, Mr. Joseph Mohr, gave the poem to the organist Franz Gruber (who was also the teacher at Arnsdorf), with the request that it be set to suitable music for two solo voices and choir with guitar accompaniment. Mr. Gruber, on the very same evening, gave the simple composition to the musically trained curate. The copy of the enclosed original was sung that same holy night with much success.[1]

Some popular accounts describe the organ as being unexpectedly broken, but other sources describe the organ as being in consistently poor condition, so its unavailability was not a surprise.[2]

The Stille Nacht Gesellschaft lists seven manuscript copies of the song known to have been made by Franz Gruber, three of which are now lost (I, III, VI), three are held by the Stille Nacht Archiv Hallein (II, IV, V), and one is held by the Salzburg Museum (VII). One surviving manuscript by Joseph Mohr is held by the Salzburg Museum (BIB HS 1814-97), believed to have been made ca. 1820–1825, and important because Mohr clearly dated his text to 1816 and credited the music solely to Gruber (Fig. 1).

Regarding the curly-haired Jesus in the first stanza, Lutheran scholars David P. Held and Joseph Herl explained:

Even in the nineteenth century, both Catholics and Lutherans questioned the image of Jesus with curly hair, but such depictions were not uncommon in the part of Austria where Joseph Mohr was serving when he wrote “Silent night.” In the parish church of Our Dear Lady in Mariapfarr, a village in the Lungau district of the federal state of Salzburg, where Mohr was priest from 1815 to 1817, there is a Romanesque fresco, uncovered in 1946, showing Jesus with his hair in small ringlets. On the high altar is a late gothic panel painting by Marx Reichling showing Jesus with curly blond hair.[3]

In the first stanza, the “intimate pair” is presumed to be Mary and Jesus (versus Mary and Joseph). Some later alterations of the song make the pair “blessed” (“selige”) rather than “holy” (“heilige”), possibly from a Protestant concern for not elevating Mary.

In the second stanza, the child is said to bring love and salvation. The third conveys the sense of divine mercy taking on human flesh. The fourth continues this thought, describing Jesus as a loving gift from the Father, a Brother who comes to embrace the world (John 3:16). The fifth offers a bigger picture, a salvation planned since the beginning of time. Lastly, the sixth places these events in the context of Luke 2, with shepherds and angels in a state of worship.

II. Early Publication in German

The song spread quickly, usually credited to the travels of an organ technician named Karl Mauracher, who visited the church, learned the song, and spread it in a region of western Austria known as Tyrol. A family of traveling musicians and glove makers known as the Strassers also helped to popularize the song. They reportedly performed the song at a concert in Leipzig on 15 December 1832, which was attended by A.R. Friese, who arranged to have the song put into print for the first time, in Vier ächte Tyroler-Lieder für Sopran-Solo oder für vier Stimmen mit willkührlicher Begleitung des Piano-Forte. Gesungen von den Geschwistern Strasser aus dem Zillerthale (Dresden, [1833]) [“Four genuine Tyrolean songs for soprano solo or for four voices with optional pianoforte accompaniment, as sung by the Strasser siblings from the Ziller valley”] (Fig. 2).

The Strasser version contains only three stanzas, being 1, 6, and 2. Melodically, there are some small differences of little consequence, except in the penultimate phrase, which starts a third higher but resolves to the same melisma. This version was repeated with a simplified accompaniment in Theomele: Sammlung auserlesener christlicher Lieder und Gesänge, 2nd ed. (Gütersloh, 1836 | Fig. 3).

A few years later, the song was published in Katholisches Gesang- und Gebetbuch für den öffentlichen und häuslichen Gottesdienst zunächst zum Gebrauche der katholischen Gemeinden im Königreiche Sachsen (Leipzig, 1838 | Fig. 4) [“Catholic hymn and prayer book for public and domestic worship, initially for the use of the Catholic communities in the Kingdom of Saxony”] text only, unattributed, using the same three stanzas in the same order as had been printed by the Strassers.

III. Transmission into English

The song is believed to have been transmitted to the United States by a family of Tyrolese singers known as the Rainer Family. They were touring New York in December of 1839. One contemporary account described them thusly:

LYCEUM, Brooklyn—GRAND CONCERT, on Friday evening, 13th [of Dec.]. The Rainer Family, known as the Tyrolese Minstrels, will give a musical entertainment, in which they will sing their favorite songs, quartets, solos, &c., which have been received with so much applause at their concerts at the Apollo Saloon, N. York.[4]

They are credited with singing “Stille Nacht” in front of the Alexander Hamilton monument near Trinity Church in New York City on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day, 1839.

1. J.F. Warner

The first known version of the song published in English was “Silent night! hallowed night!” credited to J.F. Warner in Charles Dingley’s Devotional Harmonist (NY: George Lane and Levi Scott, 1849 | Fig. 5). Dingley used the Strassers’ version of the melody, situated in the tenor part. The text seems to be a free interpretation of the German, not a direct translation.

2. John Freeman Young

The English version more commonly sung and universally adopted is “Silent night! holy night!” by John Freeman Young (1820–1885), first published in Carols for Christmas Tide (NY: Daniel Dana, 1859 | Fig. 6). At the time, Young was curate of Trinity Church in New York City. Young’s version is much closer in meaning to the original German (sts. 1,6,2) than Warner’s.

3. Jane M. Campbell / Alfred Bell

One other translation in popular use for about 80 years, up until WWII, was made by Jane Montgomery Campbell (1817–1878) for C.S. Bere’s Garland of Songs, or An English Liederkranz (1862 | Fig. 7), beginning “Holy night! peaceful night! All is dark,” etc. Like the others, her version contained only three stanzas. In Bere’s collection, the song was credited as “Tyrolese Evening Hymn.” Campbell has been credited as the translator by James Mearns (1892) and others because she was a significant contributor to Bere’s collection.

Campbell’s version was altered and expanded as “Holy night! peaceful night! Thro’ the darkness beams a light,” as published by English organist-composer Joseph Barnby (1838–1896) in his Original Tunes to Popular Hymns for use in Church and Home (1869 | Fig. 8) and also issued separately as a folio. Barnby’s tune has been dubbed HOLY NIGHT in some other collections. The translator was not credited here, but other sources (especially the University Hymn Book, 1896) attribute this version to Alfred Bell (1832–1895). Bell was a professional architect with interests in painting and music. Barnby dedicated his Original Tunes to Bell and once said of him, “He was the nearest to Heaven of any man I ever knew.”[5] This text had also appeared that year in five stanzas in James Robert Turnock’s Additional Hymns with Anthems and Carols, for Use in the Church of S. Mary-Le-Tower, Ipswich, 2nd ed. (Ipswich: J. Haddock, 1869), unattributed, preface dated 9 November 1869. The stanza “Wondrous star! O lend thy light!” has been frequently intertwined with the translation by J. Freeman Young, and sometimes also “Darkness flies, and all is light!” These stanzas should be credited to Bell, but they are typically labeled as anonymous or unknown.

Fig. 8. Joseph Barnby, “Holy night! peaceful night. (A Christmas carol)” (London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1869).

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
17 November 2023

Footnotes:

1. The present location of the original letter is unclear. According to the Stille Nacht Gesellschaft, the score included with the letter is classified as Autograph VI and it is regarded as lost. The German text of the letter was reprinted in Das Antiquariat, vol. 10 (December 1954); a full translation was given in Paul Rosel, Silent Night! Holy Night! (Minneapolis: Ausburg, 1969), p. 39.

2. See Carl Daw, “Silent night, holy night,” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), p. 126, “Another feature of the usual story that needs to be discarded is the supposed crisis with the organ, including the embroidered detail that mice had eaten through the bellows. The more prosaic, but understandable, circumstance is that the organ at St. Nicholas church was in chronic need of attention (Gruber’s son later described it as ‘almost unplayable’) and was eventually replaced in 1825.”

3. David P. Held & Joseph Herl, “Silent night, holy night,” Lutheran Service Book Companion to the Hymns, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), p. 91, citing Wolfgang Herbst, “‘Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar’: Das Jesuskind und seine Frisur,” HfK Aktuell: Nachrichten 4 (Oktober 2009), p. 43.

4. The Long Island Star (Brooklyn, NY), 12 December 1839, p. 3.

5. “Alfred Bell,” The University Hymn Book, Altered by Permission for Use in the First Congregational Society, New Bedford (Cambidge, MA: John Wilson & Son, 1898): Google

Related Resources:

J. Freeman Young, “Stille Nacht! heilige Nacht!” Great Hymns of the Church (NY: James Pott & Co., 1887): Archive.org

James Mearns, “Joseph Mohr,” A Dictionary of Hymnology, ed. John Julian (London: J. Murray, 1892), pp. 761–762: HathiTrust

Mary Flagler Cary, Stille Nacht (NY, 1933).

Byron Edward Underwood, “Bishop John Freeman Young: Translator of ‘Stille Nacht,’” The Hymn, vol. 8, no. 4 (October 1957), pp. 123–150: HathiTrust

Joseph Gassner, Franz Xaver Gruber’s Autographen von Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht (Salzburg, 1958).

Charles Cudworth, “The true ‘Stille Nacht,” The Musical Times, vol. 105, no. 1462 (Dec. 1964), pp. 892–894: JSTOR

Alois Schmaus & Lenz Kriss-Rettenbeck, Silent Night, Holy Night: History and Circulation of a Carol (Innsbruck: University Press, 1968).

Fred L. Precht, “Silent night, holy night,” Lutheran Worship Hymnal Companion (St. Louis: Concordia, 1992), pp. 76–78.

Hugh Keyte & Andrew Parrott, “Stille Nacht! heilige Nacht!” The New Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford: University Press, 1992), pp. 300–305.

Alan Luff, “Silent night,” The Hymnal 1982 Companion, ed. Raymond F. Glover (NY: Church Hymnal Corp., 1994), vol. 3A, pp. 230–233.

Wolfgang Herbst, Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Die Erfolgsgeschichte eines Weihnachtsliedes (Mainz: Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag, 2002).

Manfred W. K. Fischer, “‘Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!.’ Von Salzburg in alle Welt,” Bräuche im Salzburger Land (29 Nov. 2021): https://www.brauch.at/folge01/ch05s18.html

“Holy night, peaceful night,” Hymns and Carols of Christmas: HCC

Stille Nacht Gesellschaft: https://www.stillenacht.at/en/

Salzburg Museum: https://www.salzburgmuseum.at/index.php?id=sammlung_handschriften