silent night
Reporter | Tian Siqi
On Christmas Eve 1818, the young Catholic priest Joseph Moore invited his friend, teacher and musician Gruber, to compose a small poem he had written two years earlier. That night, in a small town near Salzburg, Austria, the song ," silient night, made its world debut.
For two hundred years, Christmas Eve has been translated from German into more than 300 different languages and was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2011 as one of the classic odes essential to Christmas.
stille nacht, heilige nacht
alles schläft, einsam wacht (all things are asleep, alone)
Shortly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Allied and German soldiers in the trenches on the front lines also lowered their rifles and helmets and sang hymns such as "Christmas Eve" before Christmas. In fact, the birth of this song is also related to war and peace.
Around 1818, life in the Austrian town of Oberndorf was not good. Shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Europe experienced a "summerless year" in 1816 – affected by volcanic eruptions in Indonesia, the Northern Hemisphere experienced rare low temperatures in the summer, and agricultural production was hit hard. The economic backbone of Oberndorf is the salt industry, and many people operate salt barges on the Sarza River.
The inspiration for Pastor Moore's Christmas Eve during this period is still unknown. But Michael Nurrett, president of the Christmas Eve Society, speculated that the inspiration might have come from a desire for continued peace after the Napoleonic Wars.
On Christmas Eve that year, Moore and musician Gruber played "Christmas Eve" at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, and sarah Eyerly, an assistant professor of musicology at Florida State University School of Music, speculated that the audience that night was mostly captains or crew members.
Airlie told The Washington Post that Moore himself was a gifted violinist and guitarist, but he still chose to have his friend Gruber compose the music. The latter chose the Italian genre "siciliana", a popular Italian style from the 17th to the 18th century, which was characterized by imitation of the sound of water, and was associated with venetian gondolas and Italian fishermen. In other words, the tune of "Christmas Eve" is closely related to the daily life of the locals.
As for the reason why Christmas Eve has been circulated around the world, Airlie pointed out: "When people write songs when there is a lot of pressure, there will be some very human content in these songs that can continue to resonate outside of a specific geographical location, culture or time." ”
According to American media daily beast, Carl Morach, who maintains the accordion for Gruber, heard about "Christmas Eve" and took it to Zillertal, a place for traveling musicians to rest their feet. Two more groups of musician families were so surprised to hear the piece that they decided to add it to their performances the following year.
The song soon spread throughout Europe and was first performed in the United States on Christmas Day 1839 at Trinity Church on Wall Street in New York. In the 1850s, Bishop John Freeman Young of Trinity Church translated part of Christmas Eve into English, including the most widely circulated first passage:
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
In addition to the carols, Mohr's guitar has survived to this day. According to the Christmas Eve Association, it was once hung in a tavern and later stored in a salt mine during World War II. It was brought to the United States in the 1960s along with an early manuscript. The guitar is currently on display at Austria's "Christmas Eve Museum," on the banks of the Sarza River, 20 miles south of Oberndorf.