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Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht
Silent night, holy night

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!

Alles schläft, einsam wacht

nur das traute heilige Paar.

Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,

schlafe in himmlischer Ruh’!

Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh’!

 

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!

Hirten erst kundgemacht;

durch der Engel Alleluja

tönt es laut von fern und nah:

Jesus, der Retter ist da!

Jesus, der Retter ist da!

 

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!

Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht

Lieb’ aus deinem göttlichen Mund,

da uns schlägt die rettende Stund’,

Jesus, in deiner Geburt,

Jesus, in deiner Geburt!

 

Silent night, holy night!

All asleep, lonely awake,

only the homely, holy couple.

Lovely boy in curly hair,

sleep in heavenly peace!

Sleep in heavenly peace!

 

Silent night, holy night!

To herders first made known;

from the angels’ Hallelujah,

it sounds from afar and near,

Jesus, the savior, is here!

Jesus, the savior, is here!

 

Silent night, holy night!

God’s son, oh, how love

laughs from your godly mouth,

‘cause for us the salvaging time has come,

Jesus, in your birth!

Jesus, in your birth!

Near Salzburg, in Oberndorf, a chaplain called Joseph Franz Mohr (1792-1849) was working, who wrote the lyrics of this song in 1816. The melody was born out of an emergency because the church’s organ in Oberndorf was broken – rendered unusable because mice had eaten some of the organ’s parts. However, the church needed music for the Christmas mass in 1818 that could be played without an organ. Thus, Mohr asked the teacher Franz Gruber (1787-1863) to set his lyrics to music. So to these lyrics, Gruber composed a song for two female voices and guitar accompaniment. By and by, this song spread over the whole world, but in the meantime also changed a lot (melody and lyrics). Even Gruber himself composed different versions later on (with organ accompaniment, for instance) that are very different from the original version. For our recording, we used the probably most original version, and we had the second guitar take on the original second voice – the alto part of the choir – in the first strophe. The most obvious change of melody is in the second last part; we used the version that is common today as a coda for comparison. Even today in Oberndorf, on Christmas Eve (December 24), “Silent night” is played for tourists from all over the world.