This is perhaps the best known carol and it also has a very interesting story. It all began in Austria in 1816 when a young priest was walking outside in the darkness and looking down over the village below. As most people were in bed, the town was quiet and still. This is what started the train of thought in Joseph Mohr's mind. Europe was at peace but there had been warfare across the continent for over 23 years. In 1815 Napoleon had been defeated at the battle of Waterloo and this brought an end to the wars with France and other countries which had begun shortly after the French Revolution in 1789. Europe was shocked by events in France including the execution of King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette. France invented a brutal but efficient way of removing the aristocracy - the guillotine. Other countries were afraid that these revolutionary ideas would spread to other countries and war broke out between France and her neighbours. So this priest would have watched for himself the ravages of war. Many lives were lost and there were brutal battles fought across Europe. Some soldiers survived the war but carried visible scars on their face or had limbs amputated. It was against this backdrop that Joseph Mohr wrote the song about the peace which he associated with the birth of the baby in Bethlehem.
Of course, the carol was originally written in German - Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. It was first performed in Christmas Eve 1918 when Joseph Mohr played the guitar and sang a duet with Franz Xaver Gruber who had written the melody. The story goes that this song might have been forgotten had it not been for an organ builder and repair man who must have liked the carol and he took a copy of the words back to his village. This six-verse song was then used by two families of travelling folk-singers who performed it in various places around northern Europe. In 1834, the Strasser family performed it for the King of Prussia. But it even made its way to the U.S.A.. In 1839, the Rainer family sang this same carol outside Trinity Church in New York City.
I am indebted to Anne Houston Smith for arranging the music and making a recording in her own home of her playing organ and keyboard. Also thanks to my wife, Janie for recording herself reading Luke chapter 2. I owe her a debt of gratitude for her unstinted support for the work of Day Share and for putting up with me spending so much time locked away in my study.
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