ChristmasHelenQ
25-11-2006, 01:46 PM
Christmas carols
Carols from King's College
Christmas carols
The story of Silent Night
Silent Night
Silent Night is one of the world’s most popular Christmas carols. Every year it is sung in many different languages throughout the world. Its popularity is owed to its peaceful melody and its simple narration of the Christmas tale.
The legend
The traditional story of this song comes from the town of Oberndorf, Austria in the winter of 1818. The priest of this town was a young man and also a musician called Joseph Mohr.
On Christmas Eve that year, the church organ was broken and it could not be fixed until the snow melted in the spring. Joseph was not disheartened and was determined that there would be music that Christmas. He remembered a simple poem he had written two years earlier and thought if only he could find an alternative instrument and suitable melody they could sing it in church. He asked his church organist, a man named Franz Gruber, to look at the poem and see what he could do.
Franz was startled by how good the poem was and, used to writing music at short notice, came up with a soothing lullaby to accompany Joseph’s words. That evening the song was sung in the local church with only a guitar as accompaniment.
The real story
The tradional story about a broken organ at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf is fiction from a story published in the U.S. in the 1930s.
Christmas historian Bill Egan writes:
Father Joseph Mohr wrote his six-stanza poem "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!" in 1816 when he was assigned to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria. Two years later, after a transfer to St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria, the Catholic priest decided he wanted his poem set to music. On Dec. 24, 1818, he asked his friend Franz Gruber to create a melody and guitar accompaniment. The two men sang the carol at Christmas Mass in St. Nicholas Church with Fr. Mohr playing his guitar and the choir repeating the last two lines of each verse.
The man who translated "Stille Nacht" into "Silent Night" was John Freeman Young. While assigned to New York's Trinity Church, he translated European hymns into English as a hobby. Later in life he became the second Episcopal Bishop of Florida. Bishop Young is buried in Jacksonville, Florida, forgotten by the city he loved and ignored by the church he served, yet his words are sung by millions of people in English-speaking nations.
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 Sleep in heavenly peace
Silent night, holy night Shepherds quake at the sight. Glories stream from heaven afar Heav'nly hosts sing Alleluia Christ the Saviour is born Christ the Saviour is born
Silent night, holy night, Son of God, love's pure light. Radiant beams from Thy holy face With the dawn of redeeming grace Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
-------
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Carols from King's College
Christmas carols
The story of Silent Night
Silent Night
Silent Night is one of the world’s most popular Christmas carols. Every year it is sung in many different languages throughout the world. Its popularity is owed to its peaceful melody and its simple narration of the Christmas tale.
The legend
The traditional story of this song comes from the town of Oberndorf, Austria in the winter of 1818. The priest of this town was a young man and also a musician called Joseph Mohr.
On Christmas Eve that year, the church organ was broken and it could not be fixed until the snow melted in the spring. Joseph was not disheartened and was determined that there would be music that Christmas. He remembered a simple poem he had written two years earlier and thought if only he could find an alternative instrument and suitable melody they could sing it in church. He asked his church organist, a man named Franz Gruber, to look at the poem and see what he could do.
Franz was startled by how good the poem was and, used to writing music at short notice, came up with a soothing lullaby to accompany Joseph’s words. That evening the song was sung in the local church with only a guitar as accompaniment.
The real story
The tradional story about a broken organ at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf is fiction from a story published in the U.S. in the 1930s.
Christmas historian Bill Egan writes:
Father Joseph Mohr wrote his six-stanza poem "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!" in 1816 when he was assigned to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria. Two years later, after a transfer to St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria, the Catholic priest decided he wanted his poem set to music. On Dec. 24, 1818, he asked his friend Franz Gruber to create a melody and guitar accompaniment. The two men sang the carol at Christmas Mass in St. Nicholas Church with Fr. Mohr playing his guitar and the choir repeating the last two lines of each verse.
The man who translated "Stille Nacht" into "Silent Night" was John Freeman Young. While assigned to New York's Trinity Church, he translated European hymns into English as a hobby. Later in life he became the second Episcopal Bishop of Florida. Bishop Young is buried in Jacksonville, Florida, forgotten by the city he loved and ignored by the church he served, yet his words are sung by millions of people in English-speaking nations.
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 Sleep in heavenly peace
Silent night, holy night Shepherds quake at the sight. Glories stream from heaven afar Heav'nly hosts sing Alleluia Christ the Saviour is born Christ the Saviour is born
Silent night, holy night, Son of God, love's pure light. Radiant beams from Thy holy face With the dawn of redeeming grace Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
-------
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Christmas Vacation Picture (http://refinance-mortgage-4you.com/christmas/christmas-vacation-picture/index.html)
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