Silent Night! Holy Night! -- Joseph Mohr

A parish priest asked a schoolteacher and organist in a nearby town to put his poem to music at Christmastime in 1818 in Austria, and that’s the very briefest way to tell the story of “Silent Night! Holy Night!” A broken organ, ironically, also played a part in how Joseph Mohr decided to craft a new song for the season. And, not to be left out of the story, the organ repairman should also get his share of credit for spreading this simple new song, which needed little or no musical accompaniment from an organ, throughout the mountains of the central European country where it originated (see the coat of arms here of Oberndorf, where the author and composer first performed the song). Perhaps the three men were struck by the pure nature of the song’s historical setting – Bethlehem – and how unadorned was the earthly entrance of One so special. He needs no fanfare, though He deserves everyone’s attention.

The 26-year old Joseph Mohr had been serving at the mountain village church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf (in far northwestern Austria) only about a year, reportedly, when he discovered that the organ that he desperately needed in just a few days for the Christmas Eve service was out of commission. How could a proper worship on so special an occasion take place with no musical accompaniment? It is notable that the song-poem that Joseph had first written some two years earlier while in Mariafarr (in central Austria), before he was even ordained into the priesthood, became the vehicle for this priest’s epiphany in his moment of need. With no organ, but just a guitar available, he asked his friend and local schoolmaster-organist Franz Gruber if he could write some easy music for the words he already had on hand. The fusion of Mohr’s words and Gruber’s music needed little else to become a resonant voice that Christmas of 1818. Yet, the organ repairman, Karl Maurachen who showed up a few days later, gave the song legs outside of that small mountain village, when he took the Mohr-Gruber invention and introduced it to the Tyrol region of the country (western Austria). Since that time, the song has travelled throughout the world, though each year its inception, and the Christ-child whom it magnifies, are celebrated where it was first vocalized, on the site of the small Oberndorf St. Nicholas church. Perhaps that small setting, or one like it in Mariafarr where its words were actually written, prompted the poetry that Mohr penned. A small, seemingly insignificant spot on the globe, high in the mountains and quite remote to most people, allows the attentive believer to calm the spirit and gaze at Him. Is that what Joseph and Franz and Karl all experienced, a silent, pretty special – holy – moment, just to look at his radiant beams (v.3), imagine the shepherds (v.2) and angels (v.4), and of course the mother and this most unusual babe (v.1)? No organ, and no other instrument needed, just the heart of the stilled believer.      

Who isn’t moved each year when Joseph Mohr’s words are sung once again? Get into the moment, and look at the faces around, perhaps lit only by a candle flame. That’s likely all that Joseph and Franz had available in 1818 to provide any light, that and maybe some stars or a moon above. It must have struck those fellows in the 19^th Century that removing some of the familiar musical trappings of Christmas, like their organ, actually improved the experience that they’d tried to steer on previous occasions. Take away the encumbrances, and what is left? My creator and me. That will be enough, someday. Christmas is when I can remind myself of that, thanks to a silent night.

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; 101 Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1982; and Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.

Also see this link, showing all four original verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/i/l/silnight.htm

Also see this site for song information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Night

See this site for details on the place where the song made its premier: http://www.oberndorf.co.at/museum/StilleNacht/defaultgb.htm