December 20, 2023 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, from its humble beginnings in an Austrian chapel in 1818, 'Silent Night' has become one of the most popular Christmas hymns of all time. Here’s the History Guy with the story of the song.
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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.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Joseus Franciscus Moore was born in the prince Archbishopriok of
Salisbury December eleventh of seventeen ninety two, the son of
an embroiderer and a mercenary soldier who abandoned the family
before Joseph was born. Born into poverty, a vicar at
Salzburg Cathedral saw to his education and encouraged him in music,
where he became a singer and a violinist. In eighteen eleven,
(01:08):
Joseph joined the seminary, and in eighteen fifteen he was
ordained a Roman Catholic priest. In eighteen sixteen he was
serving as assistant priest in the small town of mariafar
south of Salzburg, where he penned a short six stanzi 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 Mariapar and the fourth stands that
(01:32):
might have been referring to the difficult period of the
Napoleonic Wars in eighteen eighteen. Two 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
(01:53):
of people. Just one recording of that song is sold
more than thirty million copies and is the third highest
selling music single in history. The musical streaming service Spotify
has more than twenty six thousand versions of that song.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
The story of this poem.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Written by a humble priest, that began in German still
Knocht heleg knocked.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Silent Night, Holy Night, is one.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Shrouded in legend 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 Pigan traditions, but these early songs weren't popular
with the public, and in the early Church, Christmas was
(02:41):
a minor holiday. The 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
(03:04):
of the Second Coalition, the 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
Presburg during the Napoleonic Wars, Then in eighteen oh nine,
Salzburg was ceded to Bavaria after Napoleon Bonapart defeated Archduke
Charles of Austria in the Battle of Bagram, ending the
War of the Fifth Coalition. The territory was again divided
(03:27):
between Austria and Bavaria in the Treaty of Paris, which
ended the Napoleonic Wars. It is in this context that
the fifth stance of his poem finds its meaning. Long
we hoped that he might as our lord Freus of Wrath,
since times of our fathers he hath promised to spare
all mankind. In eighteen seventeen, Father Moore became an assistant
(03:50):
priest in the town of Oberndorf, eleven miles north of Salzburg.
On Christmas Eve eighteen eighteen, father Moore visited his friend
Franz Zaberg Gruber, who was.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
The church choir master and organist.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
In addition to being the choir master for the church
in Oberndorf, friendz Gruber was a teacher and the church
caretaker and organist for the town of Arnsdorf, about three
miles away. Gruber was a composer, and Moore 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.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Gruber and Moore.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
First sang the song Still Knocked in the appropriately named
Saint Nicholas Church in Oberendorf for midnight Mass Christmas of
eighteen eighteen. For accompaniment, Moore played 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
(04:46):
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 simply enjoyed the guitar. King thirties,
it had become a popular folk song throughout Austria and
was popularly sung by two families of folk singers, the
(05:07):
Strausser family and the Rainer 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 Taurolean 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
(05:28):
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 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
(05:51):
still not well known in Britain, and it was the
first time that many British soldiers listening from there nearby
trenches had heard the tune. The British soldier 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
(06:12):
have sometimes been overstated, as many as one hundred thousand
soldiers were thought to have taken part in the brief
moment of fellowship and 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. Bing Crosby
(06:33):
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 John's Candle in the Wind.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
In Crosby's own White Christmas.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
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 vocalist's diverses Elvis Presley,
Gene Autry, and Justin Bieber. In twenty ten, music licensing
company PPL determined that Silent Knight was Britain's most recorded
(07:06):
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 determine that Silent
Night was America's most popular Christmas recording, with seven hundred
and thirty three copyrighted recordings since nineteen seventy eight. If
you listened to a different one of the more than
(07:27):
twenty six thousand versions of the song on Spotify every night,
you go more than seventy nine years before 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, the
(07:47):
contribution of Yosef Moore of the lyrics was forgotten.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
The question was finally settled.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
In nineteen ninety four when an original copy in Yosef
Moore's hand and including the original score for guitar and
dated eighteen twenty, was finally authenticated. Father Moore served in
many parishes and all his life donated most of his
salary to charity. The man who wrote one of the
world's most popular songs died a popper, leaving nothing behind
(08:15):
but a ragged cassock.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
In a lifetime of good works.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
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.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
A not was by far his most popular.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
The Church of Saint Nicholas had to be demolished as
the entire town of Oberendorf 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 Father Moore, on Franz Gruber
and local history. Franz Gruber's home in the Austrian town
(08:53):
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.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
I'm the History Guy, wishing.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
You and yours a very merry Christmas.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
And a great job as always.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
To Greg Hengler, 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.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I mean?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
The man who writes the song is a priest who
dies with nothing. Everyone associated with this song just couldn't
take the earnings. Bing Crosby 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
(09:51):
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.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Joseus Franciscus Moore was born in the prince Archbishopriok of
Salisbury December eleventh of seventeen ninety two, the son of
an embroiderer and a mercenary soldier who abandoned the family
before Joseph was born. Born into poverty, a vicar at
Salzburg Cathedral saw to his education and encouraged him in music,
where he became a singer and a violinist. In eighteen eleven,
(01:08):
Joseph joined the seminary, and in eighteen fifteen he was
ordained a Roman Catholic priest. In eighteen sixteen he was
serving as assistant priest in the small town of mariafar
south of Salzburg, where he penned a short six stanzi 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 Mariapar and the fourth stands that
(01:32):
might have been referring to the difficult period of the
Napoleonic Wars in eighteen eighteen. Two 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
(01:53):
of people. Just one recording of that song is sold
more than thirty million copies and is the third highest
selling music single in history. The musical streaming service Spotify
has more than twenty six thousand versions of that song.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
The story of this poem.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Written by a humble priest, that began in German still
Knocht heleg knocked.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Silent Night, Holy Night, is one.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Shrouded in legend 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 Pigan traditions, but these early songs weren't popular
with the public, and in the early Church, Christmas was
(02:41):
a minor holiday. The 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
(03:04):
of the Second Coalition, the 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
Presburg during the Napoleonic Wars, Then in eighteen oh nine,
Salzburg was ceded to Bavaria after Napoleon Bonapart defeated Archduke
Charles of Austria in the Battle of Bagram, ending the
War of the Fifth Coalition. The territory was again divided
(03:27):
between Austria and Bavaria in the Treaty of Paris, which
ended the Napoleonic Wars. It is in this context that
the fifth stance of his poem finds its meaning. Long
we hoped that he might as our lord Freus of Wrath,
since times of our fathers he hath promised to spare
all mankind. In eighteen seventeen, Father Moore became an assistant
(03:50):
priest in the town of Oberndorf, eleven miles north of Salzburg.
On Christmas Eve eighteen eighteen, father Moore visited his friend
Franz Zaberg Gruber, who was.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
The church choir master and organist.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
In addition to being the choir master for the church
in Oberndorf, friendz Gruber was a teacher and the church
caretaker and organist for the town of Arnsdorf, about three
miles away. Gruber was a composer, and Moore 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.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Gruber and Moore.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
First sang the song Still Knocked in the appropriately named
Saint Nicholas Church in Oberendorf for midnight Mass Christmas of
eighteen eighteen. For accompaniment, Moore played 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
(04:46):
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 simply enjoyed the guitar. King thirties,
it had become a popular folk song throughout Austria and
was popularly sung by two families of folk singers, the
(05:07):
Strausser family and the Rainer 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 Taurolean 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
(05:28):
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 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
(05:51):
still not well known in Britain, and it was the
first time that many British soldiers listening from there nearby
trenches had heard the tune. The British soldier 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
(06:12):
have sometimes been overstated, as many as one hundred thousand
soldiers were thought to have taken part in the brief
moment of fellowship and 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. Bing Crosby
(06:33):
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 John's Candle in the Wind.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
In Crosby's own White Christmas.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
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 vocalist's diverses Elvis Presley,
Gene Autry, and Justin Bieber. In twenty ten, music licensing
company PPL determined that Silent Knight was Britain's most recorded
(07:06):
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 determine that Silent
Night was America's most popular Christmas recording, with seven hundred
and thirty three copyrighted recordings since nineteen seventy eight. If
you listened to a different one of the more than
(07:27):
twenty six thousand versions of the song on Spotify every night,
you go more than seventy nine years before 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, the
(07:47):
contribution of Yosef Moore of the lyrics was forgotten.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
The question was finally settled.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
In nineteen ninety four when an original copy in Yosef
Moore's hand and including the original score for guitar and
dated eighteen twenty, was finally authenticated. Father Moore served in
many parishes and all his life donated most of his
salary to charity. The man who wrote one of the
world's most popular songs died a popper, leaving nothing behind
(08:15):
but a ragged cassock.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
In a lifetime of good works.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
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.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
A not was by far his most popular.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
The Church of Saint Nicholas had to be demolished as
the entire town of Oberendorf 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 Father Moore, on Franz Gruber
and local history. Franz Gruber's home in the Austrian town
(08:53):
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.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
I'm the History Guy, wishing.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
You and yours a very merry Christmas.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
And a great job as always.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
To Greg Hengler, 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.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I mean?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
The man who writes the song is a priest who
dies with nothing. Everyone associated with this song just couldn't
take the earnings. Bing Crosby 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
(09:51):
Silent Night, our celebration of Christmas and the Christmas season,
continues here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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