December 8, 2022 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, from its humble beginnings at an Austrian chapel in 1818, Silent Night has become one of the most popular Christmas hymns in history. Here’s the History Guy with the story of Silent Night.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories and we continue with our
special Christmas season special. Our next story comes to us
from a man who's simply known as the History Guy.
His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people
of all ages on YouTube. The History Guy has also
heard here at Our American Stories. From its humble beginnings
(00:32):
at an Austrian chapel in eighteen eighteen, Silent Night has
become one of the most popular Christmas hymns in the world.
Here's the History Guy with the story of Silent Night.
Josephus Franciscus Moore was born in the prince Archbishopric of
Salisbury December eleventh of seventeen ninety two, the son of
(00:53):
an embroiderer and a mercenary soldier who abandoned the family
before Josef was born. Born into poverty, a vicar at
Salzburg Cathedral sought to his education and encouraged him in music,
where he became a singer and a violinist. In eighteen eleven,
Joseph joined the seminary, and in eighteen fifteen he was
ordained a Roman Catholic priest. In eighteen sixteen he was
(01:14):
serving as assistant priest in the small town of Maria
Far south of Salzburg, where he penned a short sixth
stance a poem. There is no record of him ever
explaining what inspired that poem exactly, but it might have
been the beautiful still countryside around mountainous maria Far, and
the fourth stands of might have been referring to the
difficult period of the Napoleonic Wars in eighteen eighteen. Two
(01:37):
years later, that poem was set to music and played
at midnight mass on Christmas in the church of Saint
Nicholas in the small town of Oberndorf north of Salzburg. Today,
that song is one of the world's most popular songs.
It has been translated into hundreds of languages. It is
sung by millions of people. Just one recording of that
song has sold more than thirty million copies and is
(01:58):
the third highest selling music single in history. The musical
streaming service Spotify has more than twenty six thousand versions
of that song. The story of this poem, written by
a humble priest, that began in German stille Nacht helleg
Nacht silent Night, Holy Night, is one shrouded in legend
(02:21):
and largely unknown to the millions of people who enjoy
the world's most popular Christmas carol. There are records of
Christmas hymns sung in Latin in fourth century Rome, and
the practice itself may predate Christianity, being adapted from pagan traditions,
but these early songs weren't popular with the public, and
in the early Church, Christmas was a minor holiday. The
(02:43):
regular singing of Christmas hymns at Christmas Midnight Mass is
often credited to Saint Francis of Assisi in the thirteenth century,
and Francis's insistence that the songs be sung in native
languages rather than Latin helped to popularize the tradition. The
period of the life of Father Moore had been one
of almost conflict in Europe. Salzburg had been occupied by
the French during the War of the Second Coalition, the
(03:05):
last of the French Revolutionary Wars. In eighteen oh five,
the former prince bishopric was split between the Austrian Empire
and Bavaria in the Treaty of Pressburg during the Napoleonic Wars,
Then in eighteen o nine, Salzburg was ceded to Bavaria
after Napoleon Bonaparte defeated Archduke Charles of Austria in the
Battle of Bagram, ending the War of the Fifth Coalition.
(03:25):
The territory was again divided between Austria and Bavaria in
the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Napoleonic Wars. It
is in this context that the fifth stanza of his
poem finds its meaning. Long we hoped that he might
as our Lord fries Us of Wrath, since times of
our fathers, he hath promised to spare all mankind. In
(03:47):
eighteen seventeen, Fathermore became an assistant priest in the town
of Oberndorff, eleven miles north of Salzburg. On Christmas Eve
eighteen eighteen, Fathermore visited his friend Bronz Zaberg Gruber, who
was the church choirmaster and organist. In addition to being
the choirmaster for the church in Oberendorf friends, Gruber was
a teacher and the church caretaker and organist for the
town of Arnsdorf, about three miles away. Gruber was a composer,
(04:11):
and More hoped that he could write music to accompany
the poem he had written two years earlier, so that
he could sing it at Christmas Mass just a few
hours away. Gruber composed the melody in just a few hours.
Gruber and Moore first sang the song Still a Knocked
in the appropriately named Saint Nicholas Church in Oberndorff for
midnight Mass Christmas of eighteen eighteen. For accompaniment, More played
(04:33):
the guitar and the choir repeated the last two stanzas
of each verse. There has long been a legend that
the church organ was broken. Some say because of rust,
and others say because of a damage done by a
hungry mouse. But the fact is there is no actual
record that the organ was broken, and neither Moore nor
Gruber ever explained why the melody was accompanied by guitar
and not the organ. It might be that Father Moore
(04:56):
simply enjoyed the guitar. By the eight thirties, it had
become a popular folk song throughout Austria and was popularly
sung by two families of folk singers, the Strasser family
and the Reigner family, who became the first to sing
the song in the United States in New York in
eighteen thirty nine. It was published in a compendium of
(05:17):
Terrolean folk Songs in the eighteen thirties, and by the
eighteen forties the song had been popularized by the Royal
Cathedral Choir in Berlin and was a favorite song of
King Frederick William the fourth of Prussia. In eighteen fifty nine,
an episcopal priest in New York City translated the song
into English. While the lyrics were not an exact translation,
they preserved the spirit of the song. It was then
(05:38):
carried by Christian missionaries worldwide. In one of the more
extraordinary moments in history, German soldiers began singing Steely Knocked
from the trenches on Christmas Eve of nineteen fourteen. The
song was very popular in Germany but still not well
known in Britain, and it was the first time that
many British soldiers listening from their nearby trenches had heard
(05:58):
the two The British soldiers responded with a carol of
their own, and that started the extraordinary event called the
Christmas Truce. While the circumstances of the Christmas Truce during
the First World War in nineteen fourteen have sometimes been overstated,
as many as a hundred thousand soldiers were thought to
have taken part in the brief moment of fellowship and
(06:19):
rebellion against authority, laying down their arms, shaking hands with
their enemy, and exchanging gifts. Some soldiers used the opportunity
to retrieve the bodies of the fallen that had been
abandoned in No Man's Land being Crosby released the song
as a single in nineteen thirty five. Since then, that
single has sold more than thirty million copies, making it
the third highest selling single of all time, behind Elton
(06:42):
John's Candle in the Wind and Crosby's own White Christmas.
A devout Catholic, Crosby thought that it would be wrong
to profit from a religious song. All the royalties from
the third best selling song in history have gone to charity.
Other versions have been produced by vocalists diverses Elvis Presley,
Gene Autry, and Justin Bieber. In two ten, music licensing
(07:02):
company PPL determined that Silent Knight was Britain's most recorded
Christmas song of all time. A similar analysis by Time
magazine in twenty fourteen of all Christmas albums recorded in
the United States since nineteen seventy eight determined that Silent
Knight was America's most popular Christmas recording, with seven hundred
and thirty three copyrighted recordings since nineteen seventy eight. If
(07:25):
you listened to a different one of the more than
twenty six thousand versions of the song on Spotify every night,
you go more than seventy nine years who are having
to repeat a version. The song was published for decades
without providing any credit. For many years, people thought that
it was a composition of either Beethoven or Bach. Even
when Franz Gruber was finally recognized for providing the melody,
(07:47):
the contribution of Yoseph More of the lyrics was forgotten.
The question was finally settled in nineteen ninety four when
an original copy in Joseph Moore's hand and including the
original score for guitar and dated eighteen twenty, was finally authenticated.
Fathermore served in many parishes and all his life donated
(08:08):
most of his salary to charity. The man who wrote
one of the world's most popular songs died a pauper,
leaving nothing behind but a ragged cassock. In a lifetime
of good works. Franz Gruber wrote several different variations on
the melody and donated all of the proceeds to charity.
He was recognized as a composer for composing more than
ninety songs, but still A Nacht was by far his
(08:30):
most popular. The Church of Saint Nicholas had to be
demolished as the entire town of Oberndorff was moved upstream
due to repeated flooding, but there is a small chapel
on the site of the original church that is dedicated
to the song Silent Night, and next to it as
a museum that commemorates the lives of fathermore on Franz
Gruber and local history. Franz Gruber's home in the Austrian
(08:52):
town of Halleine has been preserved as a museum and
included in its displays is Joseph Moore's guitar, used to
play the song for the first time in eighteen eighteen,
and it is still the song's humble origins that are
perhaps the most compelling part of the story of the
world's most popular Christmas Carol. I'm the History Guy, wishing
(09:14):
you and yours a very merry Christmas and great job
as always to Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to
the History Guy for all that he does for everybody
telling these stories about life as it was, and my goodness,
what contours. I mean? The man who writes the song
is a priest who dies with nothing. Everyone associated with
(09:35):
this song just couldn't take the earnings. Bing Crosbie didn't.
A devout Catholic, he donated them away. The composer couldn't.
He donated them away. When you're around something sacred, no
matter what your beliefs, sometimes it's hard to make a dollar.
The story of Silent Night, our celebration of Christmas and
the Christmas season, continues here on our American Stories
This is our American Stories and we continue with our
special Christmas season special. Our next story comes to us
from a man who's simply known as the History Guy.
His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people
of all ages on YouTube. The History Guy has also
heard here at Our American Stories. From its humble beginnings
(00:32):
at an Austrian chapel in eighteen eighteen, Silent Night has
become one of the most popular Christmas hymns in the world.
Here's the History Guy with the story of Silent Night.
Josephus Franciscus Moore was born in the prince Archbishopric of
Salisbury December eleventh of seventeen ninety two, the son of
(00:53):
an embroiderer and a mercenary soldier who abandoned the family
before Josef was born. Born into poverty, a vicar at
Salzburg Cathedral sought to his education and encouraged him in music,
where he became a singer and a violinist. In eighteen eleven,
Joseph joined the seminary, and in eighteen fifteen he was
ordained a Roman Catholic priest. In eighteen sixteen he was
(01:14):
serving as assistant priest in the small town of Maria
Far south of Salzburg, where he penned a short sixth
stance a poem. There is no record of him ever
explaining what inspired that poem exactly, but it might have
been the beautiful still countryside around mountainous maria Far, and
the fourth stands of might have been referring to the
difficult period of the Napoleonic Wars in eighteen eighteen. Two
(01:37):
years later, that poem was set to music and played
at midnight mass on Christmas in the church of Saint
Nicholas in the small town of Oberndorf north of Salzburg. Today,
that song is one of the world's most popular songs.
It has been translated into hundreds of languages. It is
sung by millions of people. Just one recording of that
song has sold more than thirty million copies and is
(01:58):
the third highest selling music single in history. The musical
streaming service Spotify has more than twenty six thousand versions
of that song. The story of this poem, written by
a humble priest, that began in German stille Nacht helleg
Nacht silent Night, Holy Night, is one shrouded in legend
(02:21):
and largely unknown to the millions of people who enjoy
the world's most popular Christmas carol. There are records of
Christmas hymns sung in Latin in fourth century Rome, and
the practice itself may predate Christianity, being adapted from pagan traditions,
but these early songs weren't popular with the public, and
in the early Church, Christmas was a minor holiday. The
(02:43):
regular singing of Christmas hymns at Christmas Midnight Mass is
often credited to Saint Francis of Assisi in the thirteenth century,
and Francis's insistence that the songs be sung in native
languages rather than Latin helped to popularize the tradition. The
period of the life of Father Moore had been one
of almost conflict in Europe. Salzburg had been occupied by
the French during the War of the Second Coalition, the
(03:05):
last of the French Revolutionary Wars. In eighteen oh five,
the former prince bishopric was split between the Austrian Empire
and Bavaria in the Treaty of Pressburg during the Napoleonic Wars,
Then in eighteen o nine, Salzburg was ceded to Bavaria
after Napoleon Bonaparte defeated Archduke Charles of Austria in the
Battle of Bagram, ending the War of the Fifth Coalition.
(03:25):
The territory was again divided between Austria and Bavaria in
the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Napoleonic Wars. It
is in this context that the fifth stanza of his
poem finds its meaning. Long we hoped that he might
as our Lord fries Us of Wrath, since times of
our fathers, he hath promised to spare all mankind. In
(03:47):
eighteen seventeen, Fathermore became an assistant priest in the town
of Oberndorff, eleven miles north of Salzburg. On Christmas Eve
eighteen eighteen, Fathermore visited his friend Bronz Zaberg Gruber, who
was the church choirmaster and organist. In addition to being
the choirmaster for the church in Oberendorf friends, Gruber was
a teacher and the church caretaker and organist for the
town of Arnsdorf, about three miles away. Gruber was a composer,
(04:11):
and More hoped that he could write music to accompany
the poem he had written two years earlier, so that
he could sing it at Christmas Mass just a few
hours away. Gruber composed the melody in just a few hours.
Gruber and Moore first sang the song Still a Knocked
in the appropriately named Saint Nicholas Church in Oberndorff for
midnight Mass Christmas of eighteen eighteen. For accompaniment, More played
(04:33):
the guitar and the choir repeated the last two stanzas
of each verse. There has long been a legend that
the church organ was broken. Some say because of rust,
and others say because of a damage done by a
hungry mouse. But the fact is there is no actual
record that the organ was broken, and neither Moore nor
Gruber ever explained why the melody was accompanied by guitar
and not the organ. It might be that Father Moore
(04:56):
simply enjoyed the guitar. By the eight thirties, it had
become a popular folk song throughout Austria and was popularly
sung by two families of folk singers, the Strasser family
and the Reigner family, who became the first to sing
the song in the United States in New York in
eighteen thirty nine. It was published in a compendium of
(05:17):
Terrolean folk Songs in the eighteen thirties, and by the
eighteen forties the song had been popularized by the Royal
Cathedral Choir in Berlin and was a favorite song of
King Frederick William the fourth of Prussia. In eighteen fifty nine,
an episcopal priest in New York City translated the song
into English. While the lyrics were not an exact translation,
they preserved the spirit of the song. It was then
(05:38):
carried by Christian missionaries worldwide. In one of the more
extraordinary moments in history, German soldiers began singing Steely Knocked
from the trenches on Christmas Eve of nineteen fourteen. The
song was very popular in Germany but still not well
known in Britain, and it was the first time that
many British soldiers listening from their nearby trenches had heard
(05:58):
the two The British soldiers responded with a carol of
their own, and that started the extraordinary event called the
Christmas Truce. While the circumstances of the Christmas Truce during
the First World War in nineteen fourteen have sometimes been overstated,
as many as a hundred thousand soldiers were thought to
have taken part in the brief moment of fellowship and
(06:19):
rebellion against authority, laying down their arms, shaking hands with
their enemy, and exchanging gifts. Some soldiers used the opportunity
to retrieve the bodies of the fallen that had been
abandoned in No Man's Land being Crosby released the song
as a single in nineteen thirty five. Since then, that
single has sold more than thirty million copies, making it
the third highest selling single of all time, behind Elton
(06:42):
John's Candle in the Wind and Crosby's own White Christmas.
A devout Catholic, Crosby thought that it would be wrong
to profit from a religious song. All the royalties from
the third best selling song in history have gone to charity.
Other versions have been produced by vocalists diverses Elvis Presley,
Gene Autry, and Justin Bieber. In two ten, music licensing
(07:02):
company PPL determined that Silent Knight was Britain's most recorded
Christmas song of all time. A similar analysis by Time
magazine in twenty fourteen of all Christmas albums recorded in
the United States since nineteen seventy eight determined that Silent
Knight was America's most popular Christmas recording, with seven hundred
and thirty three copyrighted recordings since nineteen seventy eight. If
(07:25):
you listened to a different one of the more than
twenty six thousand versions of the song on Spotify every night,
you go more than seventy nine years who are having
to repeat a version. The song was published for decades
without providing any credit. For many years, people thought that
it was a composition of either Beethoven or Bach. Even
when Franz Gruber was finally recognized for providing the melody,
(07:47):
the contribution of Yoseph More of the lyrics was forgotten.
The question was finally settled in nineteen ninety four when
an original copy in Joseph Moore's hand and including the
original score for guitar and dated eighteen twenty, was finally authenticated.
Fathermore served in many parishes and all his life donated
(08:08):
most of his salary to charity. The man who wrote
one of the world's most popular songs died a pauper,
leaving nothing behind but a ragged cassock. In a lifetime
of good works. Franz Gruber wrote several different variations on
the melody and donated all of the proceeds to charity.
He was recognized as a composer for composing more than
ninety songs, but still A Nacht was by far his
(08:30):
most popular. The Church of Saint Nicholas had to be
demolished as the entire town of Oberndorff was moved upstream
due to repeated flooding, but there is a small chapel
on the site of the original church that is dedicated
to the song Silent Night, and next to it as
a museum that commemorates the lives of fathermore on Franz
Gruber and local history. Franz Gruber's home in the Austrian
(08:52):
town of Halleine has been preserved as a museum and
included in its displays is Joseph Moore's guitar, used to
play the song for the first time in eighteen eighteen,
and it is still the song's humble origins that are
perhaps the most compelling part of the story of the
world's most popular Christmas Carol. I'm the History Guy, wishing
(09:14):
you and yours a very merry Christmas and great job
as always to Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to
the History Guy for all that he does for everybody
telling these stories about life as it was, and my goodness,
what contours. I mean? The man who writes the song
is a priest who dies with nothing. Everyone associated with
(09:35):
this song just couldn't take the earnings. Bing Crosbie didn't.
A devout Catholic, he donated them away. The composer couldn't.
He donated them away. When you're around something sacred, no
matter what your beliefs, sometimes it's hard to make a dollar.
The story of Silent Night, our celebration of Christmas and
the Christmas season, continues here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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