Stille Nacht

Heilige Nacht

December 24, 2008 (Wednesday)
What beautiful Christmas carol was introduced to the world on a Christmas Eve? Did you say, “Silent Night?” Correct. It is the world’s most popular Christmas carol. It was first sung in 1818 in Austria. The Melody was composed by Franz Gruber; the words were written two years earlier by Joseph Mohr. The original title is “Stille Nacht,” and was first performed in our own country (New York City) in 1839 by an Austrian group. Purse your lips and curl your tongue, say “Deutch,” and sing:

The literal English translation of that verse goes like this:
As you can see, the translation needs a little work for us Americans, so John Freeman Young wrote the English version in 1863:


Click here to hear the Melody for “Silent Night”

Last year’s blog on “Silent Night”