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Nancy's Notes

Wed, 12/23/2020 - 00:16
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Stories Behind the Best Loved Christmas Songs: “Silent Night”

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Even though “Silent Night” has been recorded more than any other song in history, the fact that we know it at all is a miracle. Created out of necessity and performed in a tiny village on Christmas Eve by two ordinary Austrians and a tiny choir, this incredibly beautiful and simple carol owes its debut to an organ that wouldn’t play and a priest who wouldn’t hold a Christmas mass without special music.

In 1817, twenty-five-year-old Joseph Mohr was assigned to the position of assistant priest at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria. A lover of music since his boyhood in Salzburg, Mohr was placed in charge of the music used at the small church and he even wrote poems and song lyrics for special services.

In a particularly cold winter of 1818, Mohr was making last-minute preparations for a special Christmas Eve mass, a service he had been planning for months. Everything from music to message was in place. But as he cleaned and readied the sanctuary, the priest encountered an unfathomable dilemma: the church organ wouldn’t play. Frantically, Mohr struggled with the old instrument for hours, making adjustments, fiddling with keys, stops and pedals, even crawling behind the console to see if he could find a problem. In spite of his efforts, the organ remained silent.

Realizing he could do nothing else, the priest paused and prayed for inspiration. He asked God to show him a way to bring music to his congregation on the year’s most meaningful day of worship. Mohr found the answer to his prayers in something that had happened almost two years earlier, when Mohr had written a Christmas poem. The poem, with six stanzas, was inspired on a winter’s walk from his grandfather’s home to the church. Digging “Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!” from his desk, Mohr read over the words which hadn’t seemed very important for two years, but as he read them again, it was as if the Lord was tossing him a lifeline of hope.

Mohr stuffed the worn paper into his coat pocket and rushed out into the night. Only hours before the Christmas Eve midnight mass, the priest fought his way through snow-covered streets and pounded on the door of Franz Gruber, the school teacher who lived over the schoolhouse. Gruber was shocked to find Father Mohr on the other side. By that time, the priest should have been at the church preparing for services, not making rounds, visiting old friends and colleagues. After a quick “Merry Christmas,” the agitated priest pulled the teacher to the apartment’s small table and signaled for Gruber to sit down beside him. “Franz,” Mohr begged, “can you write music to these words that can be easily learned by our choir? Without the organ?” Studying the poem, Gruber nodded his head. Confident again that God somehow had a special plan for this Christmas Eve, Mohr raced back across the snow to the church, leaving Gruber alone with his thoughts, a ticking clock, and a prayer for inspiration.

A few hours later the two friends met at St. Nicholas. There, in a candlelit sanctuary, Gruber shared his new music with Mohr. The priest approved, and after learning the guitar chords, rushed it to the choir members, who were waiting for their scheduled rehearsal. What should have taken weeks was accomplished in hours.

Just after midnight, Mohr and Gruber stood in front of the main altar and introduced their simple little song. As they sang, they couldn’t have guessed that “Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!” would be remembered not only the next Christmas in their small village, but almost two hundred years later, around the world.

I wish I could tell you more of the story of this beloved carol, but it is much longer than I have space here. Suffice it to say, “Silent Night” remains in most minds what it was written to be—a simple, direct ode of praise. Created to make a Christmas service more meaningful, the old Austrian carol is as powerful and fresh today as it was on that first Christmas Eve when it was sung at St. Nicholas Church. An answer to prayer, few words have better captured the story of a Savior born in a manger than “Silent Night.”

Excerpts from “Stories behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas,” by Ace Collins, 2001