The Story of Silent Night

Franz Gruber, composer, Fr Joseph Mohr, lyricist of Silent Night

The story goes that one of the most popular Christmas carols was written in an emergency situation. In the town of Oberndorf, Austria, a mouse had been chewing on the leather of the bellows that makes the organ work. And so coming to the Christmas midnight Mass, the priest Fr Joseph Mohr, and the organist Franz Gruber, discovered that they could not use the organ at all. So quickly, they sat down and Mohr wrote the words of a carol that became popular all over the world “Stille Nacht – Silent Night.” Gruber wrote the melody, which he then played on his guitar. It was Christmas of 1818, 200 years ago.  

St Nicholas church, in Oberndorf, Austria.

Another story says that Mohr wrote the words in 1816, and then two years later Gruber set the words to the immortal music he composed. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2011. The official manuscript of the music was published in 1833. The song has been recorded by a large number of singers from every music genre, as well s instrumentalists and choirs. The version sung by Bing Crosby is the third best-selling single of all time.