It’s Christ­mas time and once again, like many of you, my fam­i­ly and I enjoyed a can­dlelit car­ol ser­vice at our local church. I do like this event each year; it marks the arrival of Christ­mas-prop­er and is the time when you can pause from the mer­ry-go-round that is Christ­mas-in-prac­tice and just enjoy the moment. Car­ols such as O Come All Ye Faith­ful and Hark, The Her­ald Angels Sing are ide­al for a packed church with a rous­ing organ (who doesn’t enjoy blast­ing out those barn­storm­ing Vic­to­ri­an lines such as “Lo, he abhors not the Virgin’s womb” and “Hail th’incarnate Deity”?). The car­ol that I want to write about today, on the oth­er hand, is bet­ter suit­ed to a far more reserved affair: Silent Night is made for hushed tones and a gen­tle accom­pa­ni­ment, and for me is the very epit­o­me of the reflec­tive ele­ment of the sea­son.

The sto­ry goes that the car­ol was first per­formed on the evening of Christ­mas Eve in 1818, in St Nicholas Church, Obern­dorf, in present-day Aus­tria. The young Catholic priest at the church, Joseph Mohr, found him­self in a bit of a pick­le when the church organ became inca­pac­i­tat­ed just before that evening’s Christ­mas Mass ser­vice (in the man­ner of boil­ers break­ing down at just this wrong time of year, I sup­pose). Think­ing on his feet, he remem­bered that he had writ­ten a nice poem a few years before called Stille Nacht, and won­dered if local school­mas­ter and organ­ist Franz Gru­ber might set its six stan­zas to music for gui­tar.

Gru­ber read­i­ly agreed to step into the breach and wrote a melody there and then — and that night, the two men sang Stille Nacht for the first time at the church’s Christ­mas Mass, with Mohr play­ing gui­tar and the choir repeat­ing the last two lines of each verse. Accord­ing to Gru­ber, the organ builder who ser­viced the instru­ment at the Obern­dorf church, was so enam­oured of the song that he took the com­po­si­tion home with him to the Ziller­tal val­ley in the Tyrol where he shared it with musi­cal friends. From there, two trav­el­ling fam­i­lies of folk singers, the Strassers and the Rain­ers, includ­ed the tune in their shows, and its pop­u­lar­i­ty spread all over Europe.

It’s a very mov­ing and hum­bling song; as a tes­ta­ment to its glob­al pop­u­lar­i­ty, it was sung by troops dur­ing the famous Christ­mas truce of World War I, per­haps because it was the one tune that was famil­iar to all of them. How poignant the words must have seemed at that par­tic­u­lar moment!

Ger­man lyrics

Eng­lish lyrics

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, Alles schläft; ein­sam wacht Nur das traute hochheilige Paar. Hold­er Knabe im lock­i­gen Haar, Schlaf in himm­lis­ch­er Ruh! Schlaf in himm­lis­ch­er Ruh!Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, Hirten erst kundgemacht Durch der Engel Hal­lelu­ja, Tönt es laut von fern und nah: Christ, der Ret­ter ist da! Christ, der Ret­ter ist da!Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht Lieb’ aus deinem göt­tlichen Mund, Da uns schlägt die ret­tende Stund’. Christ, in dein­er Geburt! Christ, in dein­er Geburt!

Silent night! Holy night! All is calm, all is bright Round yon vir­gin moth­er and child! Holy infant, so ten­der and mild, Sleep in heav­en­ly peace! Sleep in heav­en­ly peace!Silent night! Holy night! Shep­herds quake at the sight! Glo­ries stream from heav­en afar, Heav­en­ly hosts sing Alleluia! Christ the Sav­iour is born! Christ the Sav­iour is born!Silent night! Holy night! Son of God, love’s pure light Radi­ant beams from thy holy face With the dawn of redeem­ing grace, Jesus, Lord, at thy birth! Jesus, Lord, at thy birth!

Here is a ren­di­tion by the Span­ish sopra­nos Montser­rat Cabal­lé and her daugh­ter Montser­rat Martí. Mer­ry Christ­mas!