An overview of German Christmas songs from the Middle Ages to Martin Luther
By Robert A. Selig
Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht—Silent Night, Holy Night—Ô nuit de paix, sainte nuit—Noche de paz, noche de amor—Kiyoshi kono yoru hoshi wa Hikari: translated into more than 300 languages, the lyrics and melody about the silent and holy night are known the world over as the German-language Christmas song par excellence. Composed on 24 December 1818 by the schoolmaster and organist Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics written by Priest Joseph Mohr in 1816, the song was first performed on Christmas Eve in the local Nikolauskirche of Oberndorf near Salzburg with Mohr officiating. From there the song began its triumphal procession around the world that culminated in 2011 when UNESCO declared the song an intangible cultural heritage. But “Silent Night” is not the first German song about Christmas Eve and the birth of Christ as the melodious reciting of psalms, the chanting of liturgical texts, and the singing of hymns has always been part of religious services in the Christian Church. Today many Germans are quite familiar with “Jingle Bells”, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, “Dreaming of a White Christmas”, and “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” yet more than 1,200 years ago their ancestors were already singing Christmas songs. While many of those songs and their authors are long forgotten, some of them are still sung today, their English versions known to most of you. Please join me as we look at the first couple of hundred years or so of Weihnachtslieder (Christmas carols).
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