Jack J.
Reber
P.O.
Box 2239, Ramona, Calif. 92065-0938
APS 70308 Austrian Philatelic Society of
U.S. 1068
December, 2016
Dear
Friends:
There is a good story connected with
the Christmas song “Silent Night.” In fact, there are several stories. Are any
of them true? Which ones? Your vote is as good as mine.
Some things are not argued: The song
was written by Franz Gruber and Josef Mohr in 1818. You see them pictured on
Austria #558 and #1417. Scott #823 shows the
crèche in the memorial chapel in Oberndorf, where the song was written. #2478 shows Gruber and the memorial chapel at Oberndorf.
One popular story says that early
Christmas Eve Mohr and Gruber met at the Oberndorf church to prepare for
Christmas Mass. Mohr was the priest, and Gruber was a teacher and the church
organist. They discovered mice had chewed through the organ’s bellows. No
music. But wait. Mohr remembered a poem he had written two years ago. Could
Gruber provide music suitable for a guitar? Remarkably, he did, and the song
premiered at midnight mass.
Another version says Mohr walked to
Gruber’s house in Arnsdorf bei
Laufen. He brought a poem he had written a couple of years earlier, and he
liked guitar music. No mention of a busted organ.
Another
story says the song didn’t make the hit parade for a very long time. In 1853
King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia heard the song as part of a program of
Christmas carols at the Royal Castle in Berlin. He loved it, but no one knew
who had written it. He ordered a search, first in Berlin, then in Vienna. He
learned that the song was very popular in Austria, but no one knew who had
written it. He launched a second search, this time in Salzburg. The researcher
said it probably was written by Joseph Haydn.
In
1854, a local music expert hears a boy in Salzburg whistling the song. He
corrects the boy, saying he should not be whistling the song in D major and
six-eight time. The boy insists he knows he is correct because his father wrote
the song. And that’s how the creators were identified.
At
this point Gruber tells yet another story of the song’s creation. He said Mohr
was walking back through the snow and the quiet after a baptism and the words
just came to him, meaning it was not a two-year-old poem. He also said the
organ was broken.
Franz
Xavier Gruber was born in 1787 and died in 1863. Josephus Franciscus Mohr was
born in 1792 and died in 1848. His mother was an unmarried embroiderer and his
father an army deserter who disappeared before the child was born. It was
customary for children to be named after the baptism godfather, and that was
the official executioner in Salzburg, named Joseph Wohlmuth.
Fame
never caught up with either man. Their tombstones say nothing about this
world-famous song. In 1937, that memorial chapel in #2478 was built on the spot
where the song was first performed, and their names are on a monument there.
Every Christmas thousands gather at this chapel and sing the song in many
languages.
Regards, Jack
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