Silent Night, O Holy Night - A Christmas Music Countdown
“Silent night,
Holy night,
All is calm
All is bright”
There are two songs worthy of Christmas Eve – “Silent Night” and “O Holy Night.” One is quiet and gentle, the other, lofty and stirring. There are also some notable performances of each: “Silent Night,” by the Trapp Family Singers (of “Sound of Music” fame), and “O Holy Night,” by Jim Nabors
Let’s go to Wikipedia first for the history of “Silent Night.”
The original lyrics of the song “Stille Nacht” were written by Austrian priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster, Franz Xaver Gruber. In 1859, John Freeman Young (second Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Florida) published the English translation that is most frequently sung today. The version of the melody that is generally sung today differs slightly (particularly in the final strain) from Gruber's original, which was a sprightly, dance-like tune in 6/8, as opposed to the slow, meditative lullaby version generally sung today. Today, the lyrics and melody are in the public domain.
The carol was first performed in the Nikolaus-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria on December 24, 1818. Mohr had composed the words two years earlier, in 1816, but on Christmas Eve brought them to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the church service.
In his written account, Gruber gives no mention of the specific inspiration for creating the song. According to the song's history provided by Austria's Silent Night Society, one supposition is that the church organ was no longer working so Mohr and Gruber created a song for accompaniment by guitar. Silent Night historian, Renate Ebeling-Winkler Berenguer says that the first mention of a broken organ was in a book published in the United States.
Some believe that Mohr simply wanted a new Christmas carol that he could play on his guitar. The Silent Night Society says that there are "many romantic stories and legends" that add their own anecdotal details to the known facts.
The original manuscript has been lost. However a manuscript was discovered in 1995 in Mohr's handwriting and dated by researchers at ca. 1820. It shows that Mohr wrote the words in 1816 when he was assigned to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria, and shows that the music was composed by Gruber in 1818. This is the earliest manuscript that exists and the only one in Mohr's handwriting. Gruber's composition was influenced by the musical tradition of his rural domicile. The melody of “Silent Night” bears resemblance to aspects of Austrian folk music and yodelling.
Another popular story claims that the carol, once performed, was promptly forgotten until an organ repairman found the manuscript in 1825 and revived it. However, Gruber published various arrangements of it throughout his lifetime and the Mohr arrangement (ca. 1820) is kept at the Museum Carolino Augusteum in Salzburg. The carol has been translated into over 44 language and recorded by over 300 artists. It is sometimes sung without musical accompaniment.
The song was sung simultaneously in French, English and German by troops during the Christmas truce of 1914, as it was one of the few carols that soldiers on both sides of the front line knew.
Many artists have recorded the song, and beautifully, but there is probably no more poignant version than that by The Trapp Family Singers, available on their CD, “The Sound of Christms.” This is the real Maria Von Trapp, her natural and adopted children, and unless I mistake, her husband, Georg, singing under the directorship of their priest, Dr. F. Wasner. How fitting that an Austrian family would be singing – in German and a capella, without accompaniment, a song written in their native country.
Their voices are sweet, clear and pure as the Alpine air which they breathed during childhood before eventually moving to America. In addition to the seven children from Von Trapp’s first marriage, he and Maria had three more children, and likely would have had more, but unfortunately, the other pregnancies miscarried.
Friends from Holland told us that such choral groups were very common. In spite of what the film says about the Von Trapps, Von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe, were very musical. Both were accomplished violinists, and the children were musically inclined as well. The child Maria was hired to tutor, also named Maria, was about 11 but suffering from the effects of scarlet fever (a disease that claimed her mother’s life). The girl’s violin was sitting in a corner until she was well enough to play again.
This “amateur” group is simply a sheer joy to listen to. They put many modern, “professional” singers to shame. They sing their way through their CD unaccompanied and faultlessly on key. Recently, Oprah hosted the great-grandchildren of Von Trapp and Agathe on her “Sound of Music” special. Like their grandparents, the quartet sang without accompaniment, sweetly and perfectly. Julie Andrews noted that during the filming of the Sound of Music, the producers add more child singers to fill out the sound of the music. These amazing kids needed no help.
Another singer who puts everyone to shame, particularly with his version of “O Holy Night” is actor – and singer – Jim Nabors. But first, the Wikipedia history of the song.
“O Holy Night” (“Cantique de Noël”) was composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem “Minuit, chrétiens” (Midnight, Christians) by Placide Cappeau (1808–1877), a wine merchant and poet, who had been asked by a parish priest to write a Christmas poem. Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, editor of Dwight's Journal of Music, created a singing edition based on Cappeau's French text in 1855. In both the French original and in the two familiar English versions of the carol, the text reflects on the birth of Jesus and of mankind's redemption.
On Dec. 24, 1906, Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian inventor, broadcast the first AM radio program, which started with a phonograph record of Ombra mai fu,” followed by him playing “O Holy Night” on the violin and singing the final verse. The carol therefore was the second piece of music to be broadcast on radio.
Operatic tenor Enrico Caruso recorded a version of the song with its original French lyrics in 1916. Originally released on a 78-RPM acoustical disc, it has turned up on several compilation discs on CD, notably Prima Voce: The Spirit of Christmas Past.
I have to look at my record collection, but I believe we have that original record in our record collection, passed on to us by our maternal grandparents. But for all the operatic singers who’ve recorded this song – and all wonderfully (I’m sure) – none is more amazing than the version by actor Jim Nabors.
James Thurston Nabors was born and raised in Sylacauga, Ala., on June 12, 1930, where he sang for his high school and church. He attended the University of Alabama, where he began acting in skits. After graduating, he moved to New York, where he worked as a typist for the United Nations. After a year, he moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., where he got his first job in the television industry as a film cutter. Due to asthma, Nabors moved to Southern California. While working at a Santa Monica nightclub, The Horn, he was discovered by Andy Griffith and consequently joined “The Andy Griffith Show,” playing Gomer Pyle, a dim-witted gas station attendant. The character proved popular, and Nabors was given his own spin-off show, “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.”
His act featured him as a character similar to the Gomer Pyle character he would later portray: he would sing in a baritone and sometimes his higher-pitched voices and speak in a higher-pitched voice. At the club, comedian Bill Dana saw Nabors' act and invited him to appear on “The Steve Allen Show.” Nabors signed on to the show, but it was soon canceled.
Nabors was then hired to play a one-shot role of Gomer Pyle, an “addlebrained” gas station attendant, on “The Andy Griffith Show.” Nabors's character (based on his act at The Horn) became so popular that he was made a regular on the show and was later given his own show, the spin-off, “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,” in which his character joined the United States Marine Corps. The show, which placed Nabors' “bumbling” and “naïve” character opposite Sergeant Vince Carter (Frank Sutton), also proved popular.
Despite its airing during the Vietnam War, “Gomer Pyle” remained popular because it avoided war-related themes and instead focused on the show's rural roots and the relationship between Pyle and Sgt. Carter. Nabors quit Gomer Pyle after five seasons because he desired to move to something else, “reach for another rung on the ladder, either up or down.”
Though best known for his portrayal of Gomer Pyle, Nabors became a popular guest on variety shows in the 1960s and 1970s (including two specials of his own in 1969 and 1974) after revealing a rich baritone voice on a 1964 episode of “The Danny Kaye Show.” He subsequently recorded numerous albums and singles, most of them containing romantic ballads.
It’s said that Nabors knew exactly what he was doing portraying an addle-brained simpleton with the voice of angel. His act served us all right for judging by appearances. That makes him the perfect singer to warble the lines:
“Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!”
Holy night,
All is calm
All is bright”
There are two songs worthy of Christmas Eve – “Silent Night” and “O Holy Night.” One is quiet and gentle, the other, lofty and stirring. There are also some notable performances of each: “Silent Night,” by the Trapp Family Singers (of “Sound of Music” fame), and “O Holy Night,” by Jim Nabors
Let’s go to Wikipedia first for the history of “Silent Night.”
The original lyrics of the song “Stille Nacht” were written by Austrian priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster, Franz Xaver Gruber. In 1859, John Freeman Young (second Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Florida) published the English translation that is most frequently sung today. The version of the melody that is generally sung today differs slightly (particularly in the final strain) from Gruber's original, which was a sprightly, dance-like tune in 6/8, as opposed to the slow, meditative lullaby version generally sung today. Today, the lyrics and melody are in the public domain.
The carol was first performed in the Nikolaus-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria on December 24, 1818. Mohr had composed the words two years earlier, in 1816, but on Christmas Eve brought them to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the church service.
In his written account, Gruber gives no mention of the specific inspiration for creating the song. According to the song's history provided by Austria's Silent Night Society, one supposition is that the church organ was no longer working so Mohr and Gruber created a song for accompaniment by guitar. Silent Night historian, Renate Ebeling-Winkler Berenguer says that the first mention of a broken organ was in a book published in the United States.
Some believe that Mohr simply wanted a new Christmas carol that he could play on his guitar. The Silent Night Society says that there are "many romantic stories and legends" that add their own anecdotal details to the known facts.
The original manuscript has been lost. However a manuscript was discovered in 1995 in Mohr's handwriting and dated by researchers at ca. 1820. It shows that Mohr wrote the words in 1816 when he was assigned to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria, and shows that the music was composed by Gruber in 1818. This is the earliest manuscript that exists and the only one in Mohr's handwriting. Gruber's composition was influenced by the musical tradition of his rural domicile. The melody of “Silent Night” bears resemblance to aspects of Austrian folk music and yodelling.
Another popular story claims that the carol, once performed, was promptly forgotten until an organ repairman found the manuscript in 1825 and revived it. However, Gruber published various arrangements of it throughout his lifetime and the Mohr arrangement (ca. 1820) is kept at the Museum Carolino Augusteum in Salzburg. The carol has been translated into over 44 language and recorded by over 300 artists. It is sometimes sung without musical accompaniment.
The song was sung simultaneously in French, English and German by troops during the Christmas truce of 1914, as it was one of the few carols that soldiers on both sides of the front line knew.
Many artists have recorded the song, and beautifully, but there is probably no more poignant version than that by The Trapp Family Singers, available on their CD, “The Sound of Christms.” This is the real Maria Von Trapp, her natural and adopted children, and unless I mistake, her husband, Georg, singing under the directorship of their priest, Dr. F. Wasner. How fitting that an Austrian family would be singing – in German and a capella, without accompaniment, a song written in their native country.
Their voices are sweet, clear and pure as the Alpine air which they breathed during childhood before eventually moving to America. In addition to the seven children from Von Trapp’s first marriage, he and Maria had three more children, and likely would have had more, but unfortunately, the other pregnancies miscarried.
Friends from Holland told us that such choral groups were very common. In spite of what the film says about the Von Trapps, Von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe, were very musical. Both were accomplished violinists, and the children were musically inclined as well. The child Maria was hired to tutor, also named Maria, was about 11 but suffering from the effects of scarlet fever (a disease that claimed her mother’s life). The girl’s violin was sitting in a corner until she was well enough to play again.
This “amateur” group is simply a sheer joy to listen to. They put many modern, “professional” singers to shame. They sing their way through their CD unaccompanied and faultlessly on key. Recently, Oprah hosted the great-grandchildren of Von Trapp and Agathe on her “Sound of Music” special. Like their grandparents, the quartet sang without accompaniment, sweetly and perfectly. Julie Andrews noted that during the filming of the Sound of Music, the producers add more child singers to fill out the sound of the music. These amazing kids needed no help.
Another singer who puts everyone to shame, particularly with his version of “O Holy Night” is actor – and singer – Jim Nabors. But first, the Wikipedia history of the song.
“O Holy Night” (“Cantique de Noël”) was composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem “Minuit, chrétiens” (Midnight, Christians) by Placide Cappeau (1808–1877), a wine merchant and poet, who had been asked by a parish priest to write a Christmas poem. Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, editor of Dwight's Journal of Music, created a singing edition based on Cappeau's French text in 1855. In both the French original and in the two familiar English versions of the carol, the text reflects on the birth of Jesus and of mankind's redemption.
On Dec. 24, 1906, Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian inventor, broadcast the first AM radio program, which started with a phonograph record of Ombra mai fu,” followed by him playing “O Holy Night” on the violin and singing the final verse. The carol therefore was the second piece of music to be broadcast on radio.
Operatic tenor Enrico Caruso recorded a version of the song with its original French lyrics in 1916. Originally released on a 78-RPM acoustical disc, it has turned up on several compilation discs on CD, notably Prima Voce: The Spirit of Christmas Past.
I have to look at my record collection, but I believe we have that original record in our record collection, passed on to us by our maternal grandparents. But for all the operatic singers who’ve recorded this song – and all wonderfully (I’m sure) – none is more amazing than the version by actor Jim Nabors.
James Thurston Nabors was born and raised in Sylacauga, Ala., on June 12, 1930, where he sang for his high school and church. He attended the University of Alabama, where he began acting in skits. After graduating, he moved to New York, where he worked as a typist for the United Nations. After a year, he moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., where he got his first job in the television industry as a film cutter. Due to asthma, Nabors moved to Southern California. While working at a Santa Monica nightclub, The Horn, he was discovered by Andy Griffith and consequently joined “The Andy Griffith Show,” playing Gomer Pyle, a dim-witted gas station attendant. The character proved popular, and Nabors was given his own spin-off show, “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.”
His act featured him as a character similar to the Gomer Pyle character he would later portray: he would sing in a baritone and sometimes his higher-pitched voices and speak in a higher-pitched voice. At the club, comedian Bill Dana saw Nabors' act and invited him to appear on “The Steve Allen Show.” Nabors signed on to the show, but it was soon canceled.
Nabors was then hired to play a one-shot role of Gomer Pyle, an “addlebrained” gas station attendant, on “The Andy Griffith Show.” Nabors's character (based on his act at The Horn) became so popular that he was made a regular on the show and was later given his own show, the spin-off, “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,” in which his character joined the United States Marine Corps. The show, which placed Nabors' “bumbling” and “naïve” character opposite Sergeant Vince Carter (Frank Sutton), also proved popular.
Despite its airing during the Vietnam War, “Gomer Pyle” remained popular because it avoided war-related themes and instead focused on the show's rural roots and the relationship between Pyle and Sgt. Carter. Nabors quit Gomer Pyle after five seasons because he desired to move to something else, “reach for another rung on the ladder, either up or down.”
Though best known for his portrayal of Gomer Pyle, Nabors became a popular guest on variety shows in the 1960s and 1970s (including two specials of his own in 1969 and 1974) after revealing a rich baritone voice on a 1964 episode of “The Danny Kaye Show.” He subsequently recorded numerous albums and singles, most of them containing romantic ballads.
It’s said that Nabors knew exactly what he was doing portraying an addle-brained simpleton with the voice of angel. His act served us all right for judging by appearances. That makes him the perfect singer to warble the lines:
“Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!”
posted by Belle | 9:22 AM
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