Silent Night: the words, the story, and how a choir sings it
Silent Night is the quietest carol most congregations know by heart. Joseph Mohr wrote the words in Austria in 1816, Franz Xaver Gruber set them two years later, and the English version sung in British churches is a New York priest’s translation of 1859. This guide prints those words, tells the story behind them, and explains how a choir sings the carol at a carol service.
Who wrote Silent Night? Joseph Mohr, a young assistant priest, wrote the German poem Stille Nacht in 1816. Franz Xaver Gruber, a schoolteacher and organist, wrote the tune, and the two of them first sang it at Midnight Mass in St Nicholas, Oberndorf, near Salzburg, on Christmas Eve 1818. John Freeman Young made the English translation in 1859.
We supply the choir and the organist for church carol services, from £1,150 for four singers in Greater London, and carol singers for offices, hotels, and parties.
The words of Silent Night
These are John Freeman Young’s three verses as published in 1859. Mohr wrote six; Young translated three of them, and his version is the one in British hymn books. Young died in 1885, so the words are out of copyright and free to print in an order of service.
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,
Heavenly 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.
Text: Joseph Mohr (1816), translated by John Freeman Young (1859), from Wikisource; capitals and punctuation follow British hymn books.
Two men in an Alpine village wrote it
Mohr wrote the poem in 1816 while he was assistant priest at Mariapfarr, in the Lungau valley south of Salzburg. Two years later he was at St Nicholas in Oberndorf, a river town on the Salzach, and on 24 December 1818 he asked Gruber, the schoolmaster and organist in the next village, to set it for two solo voices, choir, and guitar.
They sang it that night after Midnight Mass, Mohr taking the tenor and playing the guitar, Gruber singing bass. The story that mice had eaten the organ bellows, or that floods had ruined it, appears in no document from the time. A guitar was the instrument Mohr played, and that may be all there is to it.
The carol reached the rest of the world through travelling singers. The Strasser and Rainer families, from the Ziller valley in the Tyrol, sang it at fairs and concerts across Europe in the 1830s, and the Rainers sang it in New York in 1839. By then most people thought it was a folk song, and in 1854 the Prussian court wrote to Salzburg asking who had composed it. Gruber replied with an account of that first Christmas Eve.
Sources: “Silent Night” and “Franz Xaver Gruber”, Wikipedia.
The English words are a translation of half the poem
John Freeman Young was an Episcopal priest at Trinity Church in New York, later Bishop of Florida. He published his translation in 1859, choosing the verses that tell the Christmas story and leaving out the three that reflect on salvation. His three verses match Mohr’s first, sixth, and second.
Young’s English is looser than it looks. “Round yon Virgin Mother and Child” has no exact German behind it: Mohr says that everyone sleeps and only the holy couple keep watch. Yon means that one over there, so the line points across the stable at the mother and child. The second verse, with the shepherds quaking, is the one most often changed in modern books; some American hymnals print a different verse in its place.
If you are printing the words, use the three verses above. They are what British congregations expect, and a choir booked for the service will have them in its music.
The tune was faster in 1818
Gruber wrote the melody in 6/8 as a lilting dance, a siciliana, for two voices in thirds over the guitar. The version sung now is slower and smoother, and its final line has changed shape. Gruber’s own later manuscripts show the tune in several forms, and the slow lullaby most people know settled during the nineteenth century as the carol spread.
The melody moves mostly by step and sits in the middle of the voice. Most people know the first verse by heart, so at a candlelit service, where nobody can read the words, they can follow a choir through it while the singers carry the harmony and hold the pace.
How a choir sings Silent Night
With four or more singers we sing Silent Night unaccompanied, in four parts. The first verse can go to a single voice, a soprano or tenor, with the other three humming underneath or entering on “Sleep in heavenly peace”. The second verse is full harmony. The third verse is where the congregation joins, and the choir can hold the harmony while they take the tune.
At a candlelit service, lower the lights for this carol and keep the organ out of it, so the congregation hears voices alone in a dark church. If the building has an organ and the congregation is large, the organ can come in quietly for the last verse to keep everyone together.
A quartet is enough for Silent Night; it needs no descant or divided parts. It works at office receptions and hotel carol sets as well as in churches, near the end of a set when guests start to join in.
Four singers cost £1,150 for up to two hours, eight cost £2,000 and an organist is £250, so a choir of eight with an organist is £2,250. Each figure includes fees and travel within Greater London; the Christmas prices page lists every size.
Where to put it in a carol service
Put Silent Night in the middle or towards the end, after one of the later readings, rather than at the start. In a Nine Lessons and Carols, it fits after the eighth lesson, the wise men in Matthew 2, and it gives the congregation a quiet carol before the last big hymn. Our guide to planning Nine Lessons and Carols has a full running order.
Follow it with something loud. O Come, All Ye Faithful or Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, with the organ and a descant, after the quiet of Silent Night lifts the church for the end of the service. For a candlelit service, see carols by candlelight.
Earlier in the service, give the choir a carol of its own after the Christmas readings, such as Harold Darke’s In the Bleak Midwinter or Sally Beamish’s In the Stillness. The congregation listens rather than sings, and Silent Night then brings everyone back in. A service needs a choir for those carols; Book one for your carol service and we will suggest the pairings.
Frequently asked questions
Who wrote the English words of Silent Night?
John Freeman Young, an American Episcopal priest, published the English translation in 1859. He translated three of Joseph Mohr’s six German verses, and his version is the one printed in British hymn books. Young died in 1885, so the words are out of copyright.
When was Silent Night first sung?
On Christmas Eve 1818, after Midnight Mass at St Nicholas, Oberndorf, near Salzburg. Joseph Mohr sang tenor and played the guitar, and Franz Xaver Gruber, who wrote the tune that day, sang bass.
What does “round yon Virgin” mean?
Yon means that one over there, so the line means “around that mother and child”. It is the translator’s phrase: the German says that everyone is asleep and only the holy couple keep watch.
Was the organ really broken on the first night?
Nobody knows. The stories of mice in the bellows or flood damage appear in no document from 1818. Mohr played the guitar, and he may have wanted a carol he could accompany himself.
Can a quartet sing Silent Night?
Yes. Four voices in soprano, alto, tenor, and bass are enough, unaccompanied or with the organ. One singer can take the first verse alone and the others join for the second. Four carol singers cost £1,150 for up to two hours in Greater London.
Book a choir for your carol service
Tell us the date, the building, and roughly how many people you expect, and we will suggest how many singers you need and where Silent Night sits in your order of service.
Talk to us about your carol service
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