It Was a ‘Silent Night’
Christmas has a special significance in the tiny village of Oberndorf, near Salzburg, on the Austrian-Germany border, writes John Newton.
It was here 201 years ago this Christmas Eve that the famous Christmas carol – Silent Night – was performed for the first time.
The carol was originally a poem by Joseph Mohr, the illegitimate son of an impoverished knitter and a soldier who deserted the army of Salzburg’s archbishop.
Mohr, who was then Oberndorf’s assistant priest, wrote the text and gave it to his friend – Franz Zaver Gruber, asking him to put the words to music for two solo voices and a choir, with guitar accompaniment.
Mohr wanted it that same day to be performed on Christmas Eve 1818.
Gruber came up with the melody he wanted as he walked home – humming it to himself through the snow-covered countryside.
Within hours, the two men put the lyrics to the melody and hurried to St Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, where it was performed for the first time to the delight of the congregation.
Mohr sang tenor and played the guitar, while Gruber sang bass and the choir joined in for the final two lines of each verse. It was the only time the two men gave a rendition of the carol together.
A few months later, Mohr was removed from St Nicholas in the wake of allegations that he was devoting too much time to music rather than his pastoral duties.
But Gruber continued to work on different arrangement of the carol until it finally gained international acclaim, despite much argument about who had composed it – before and after the two men had died.
It was a grandson of Huber who proved the origin of Silent Night through documentation.
More than a century after the carol was given its first performance, the people of Oberndorf built a memorial chapel in honour of Gruber and Mohr.
Every year on Christmas Eve people flock to Oberndorf, many of them braving the icy weather outside because it’s a full house inside the small chapel.
* Oberndorf is a 20-minute regular train journey from Salzburg.
Christmas has a special significance in the tiny village of Oberndorf, near Salzburg, on the Austrian-Germany border, writes John Newton.
It was here 201 years ago this Christmas Eve that the famous Christmas carol – Silent Night – was performed for the first time.
The carol was originally a poem by Joseph Mohr, the illegitimate son of an impoverished knitter and a soldier who deserted the army of Salzburg’s archbishop.
Mohr, who was then Oberndorf’s assistant priest, wrote the text and gave it to his friend – Franz Zaver Gruber, asking him to put the words to music for two solo voices and a choir, with guitar accompaniment.
Mohr wanted it that same day to be performed on Christmas Eve 1818.
Gruber came up with the melody he wanted as he walked home – humming it to himself through the snow-covered countryside.
Within hours, the two men put the lyrics to the melody and hurried to St Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, where it was performed for the first time to the delight of the congregation.
Mohr sang tenor and played the guitar, while Gruber sang bass and the choir joined in for the final two lines of each verse. It was the only time the two men gave a rendition of the carol together.
A few months later, Mohr was removed from St Nicholas in the wake of allegations that he was devoting too much time to music rather than his pastoral duties.
But Gruber continued to work on different arrangement of the carol until it finally gained international acclaim, despite much argument about who had composed it – before and after the two men had died.
It was a grandson of Huber who proved the origin of Silent Night through documentation.
More than a century after the carol was given its first performance, the people of Oberndorf built a memorial chapel in honour of Gruber and Mohr.
Every year on Christmas Eve people flock to Oberndorf, many of them braving the icy weather outside because it’s a full house inside the small chapel.
* Oberndorf is a 20-minute regular train journey from Salzburg.
