The story behind ‘Silent Night’

This carol is a Christmas favourite and is about a calm and bright silent night, and the wonder of a tender and mild new born child. The words were written in 1816 by a young priest in Austria, Joseph Mohr, not long after the Napoleonic wars had taken their toll.
“The story is that the priest went for a walk before he wrote it, and he looked out over a very quiet, winter-laden town,” says composer/conductor John Conahan, and was inspired to write what originally was a poem.
It was Christmas Eve, 1818, when the now-famous carol was first performed as Stille Nacht Heilige Nacht. Joseph Mohr, the young priest who wrote the lyrics, played the guitar and sang along with Franz Xaver Gruber, the choir director who had written the melody.
An organ builder and repair man working at the church took a copy of the six-verse song to his home village. There, it was picked up and spread by two families of traveling folk singers, who performed around northern Europe. In 1834, the Strasser family performed it for the King of Prussia. In 1839, the Rainer family of singers debuted the carol outside Trinity Church in New York City. 
The composition evolved and was translated into over 300 languages with many different arrangements for various voices and ensembles. It was sung in churches, in town squares, even on the battlefield during World War I, when, during a temporary truce on Christmas Eve, soldiers sang carols from home. By 1914, the carol was known around the world, so was sung at the front simultaneously in French, German and English.
Over the years, the carol has grown in popularity along with some mystery. After the original manuscript was lost some speculated that the music had been written by Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven. In 1994, an original manuscript was found in Mohr’s handwriting, with Gruber named as composer.
The English version of “Silent Night” is typically sung in three verses.

Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright. ‘Round yon Virgin Mother and Child, Holy Infant so tender and mild.  Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night! Shepherds quake at the sight! Glories stream from heaven afar, heavenly hosts sing Alleluia! Christ, the Saviour is born, Christ, the Saviour is born.

Silent night, holy night, Son of God, love’s pure light. Radiant beams from thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace.  Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth, Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.