1 December 2018

Where are the three birth places (lyrics, melody, distribution) of the song 'Silent Night' located?

On occasion of the 200th anniversary of the probably most famous Christmas song 'Silent Night', the three federal states Salzburg, Upper Austria and Tyrol teamed up for providing insights into the history of the lyrics, melody and distribution of the carol.

The lyrics were written in 1816 in Salzburg by priest Joseph Mohr and in 1818 accompanied by the signature melody composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, a teacher from Upper Austria. The federal state Tyrol joined the project as 'Silent Night' was spread by singers from the Zillertal valley (history) where especially Fügen plays the main role; the Rainer family from Fügen brought the song 1839 to New York City where some days ago an event was organized on occasion of the 200th anniversary of the carol (article at apnews.com). From the mid-20th century, the increasingly internationalized music business has distributed interpretations by popular singers such as Bing Crosby or Elvis Presley through new media technologies (radio, TV) globally. In 2011, the song was included into UNESCO's 'Intangible Cultural Heritage' list.

fig.: The image shows the Local History Museum Fügen with special focus on the song 'Silent Night'. The lyrics were written in 1816, the melody composed in 1818, and from the 1820s the world travel has started from Fügen, Zillertal valley in Tyrol, Austria. Currently, Fügen provides one of the 'Silent Night' exploration tours in Austria; it's part of the Cross provincial national exhibition (Salzburg, Upper Austria, Tyrol). Photo: © Heimat- und Museumsverein Fügen.

Video: The video from the website stillenacht.com (German, English, Italian,...) carries historical information about the song and shows in the beginning a scene from WWI where German and British soldiers sang together Silent Night; the true story about the Christmas truce happened in December 1914.

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