THE CAROL THAT PAUSED TWO WARS By Mary Davis

By Mary Davis

On Christmas 1914, in Europe, the guns went silent and voices in German, French, and English rose in the stillness singing Silent Night. For a short time, enemies found common ground in a nearly one-hundred-year-old carol.

 

ChristmasTruce1914

But long before WW1, another set of enemies set aside their weapons to sing Silent Night. During the US Civil War, the Union and Confederate troops halted fighting on Christmas day each year and could be heard singing this holiday classic. If only the soldiers on both sides of these wars could have held onto that brief peace after the last strains had been sung.

 

If Father Josef Mohr, of Austria, had known the power of his simple poem, he might not have tucked it away for two years, only to be brought out because of a Christmas crisis.

 

Stained-glass rendering of Mohr

In 1816, in the aftermath of the Napoleonic war, Mohr was in Mariapfarr, Austria. Appreciating the quiet after the war, he penned a six-stanza poem titled Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. A year later, he was transferred to Saint Nicholas parish in Oberndorf in the state of Salzburg in Austria. Then in 1818, after the Salzach River had flooded, the head priest tasked young Mohr with putting together the Christmas Eve midnight service. Mohr was thrilled to finally be given some responsibility.

 

He put the program together with the hymns the choir had practiced. On Christmas Eve day, Mohr went to the church to make sure everything was in order. As an afterthought, he sat at the organ to play through the songs to be sung. The instrument didn’t make a peep, probably damaged by the flood. He tried everything he knew to get it to utter a note, but nothing worked. How could they have a Christmas Eve service without music?

 

Author Photo

Mohr braved the snowy streets by walking three kilometers to a nearby town to get help from a friend, Franz Xaver Gruber, schoolmaster and organist. Gruber was at a loss for what to do but offered to play his guitar during the service. Though the idea had merit, none of the pieces the choir had practiced would work with a guitar. Then, inspiration struck. Mohr remembered his poem, and if Gruber could put it to music, it could be played on guitar and sung.

 

Gruber

The young priest hurried home, found the poem, and returned. Gruber created a melody to fit the words. Mohr singing tenor and Gruber bass with accompaniment of the guitar along with the congregation joining in on the chorus saved the service in the little church.

 

Silent Night might have faded into the darkness of future silent nights if not for the broken organ. In January 1819, organ repairman Karl Mauracher came to Saint Nicholas. Mohr shared the story of having to use a guitar. Mauracher asked him to sing it. Impressed by the tune, Mauracher wrote down the words and learned the melody and took them back with him to the Ziller Valley. He then taught it to churches all across Europe. Thousands of choirs were singing it within a decade.

 

In 1832, the song was performed at a fair. In attendance was King William IV of Prussia. So moved by the piece, he insisted it be sung at his annual Christmas celebration.

 

Seven years later, this moving carol traveled across the ocean to the United States by way of the Rainer singing group who performed it at Trinity Church in New York. Silent Night became America’s favorite Christmas carol within a decade. From there, it has been recorded by numerous singers and groups.

 

Though today, we sing Silent Night slow and reflective, the original arrangement was at a more rapid tempo.

 

Silent Night Music-circa1820

Our contemporary version consists of stanzas 1, 6, and 2. Here are all six verses as translated from Mohr’s original, found on https://silent-night-museum.org/sounds/lyrics.htm. You may notice that some of the words are different. Modern translators changed some of the words to make it more relatable to people.

 

Silent Night! Holy Night!

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon godly tender pair

Holy infant with curly hair

Sleep in heavenly peace

Sleep in heavenly peace.

 

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.

 

Silent Night! Holy Night!

Brought the world gracious light

Down from heaven's golden height

Comes to us the glorious sight:

Jesus, as one of mankind

Jesus, as one of mankind.

 

Silent Night! Holy Night!

By his love, by his might

God our Father us has graced

As a brother gently embraced

Jesus, all nations on earth

Jesus, all nations on earth.

 

Silent Night! Holy Night!

Long ago, minding our plight

God the world from misery freed

In the dark age of our fathers decreed:

All the world is redeemed

All the world is redeemed.

 

Silent Night! Holy Night!

Shepherds first saw the sight

Of angels singing alleluia

Calling clearly near and far:

Christ, the saviour is born

Christ the Saviour is born.

 

I find it fitting that a poem/song that was penned in the aftermath of one war brought temporary peace during two other wars. And if not for a broken organ, it may have remained in Mohr’s bottom desk drawer, forgotten.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

 
MRS. WITHERSPOON GOES TO WAR (Heroines of WWII series)
3rd Place 2023 SELAH Award

A WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) flies a secret mission to rescue three soldiers held captive in Cuba.

Margaret “Peggy” Witherspoon is a thirty-four-year-old widow, mother of two daughters, an excellent pilot, and very patriotic. She joins the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots). As she performs various tasks like ferry aircraft, transporting cargo, and being an airplane mechanic, she meets and develops feelings for her supervisor Army Air Corp Major Howie Berg. When Peggy learns of U.S. soldiers being held captive in Cuba, she, Major Berg, and two fellow WASPs devise an unsanctioned mission to rescue them. With Cuba being an ally in the war, they must be careful not to ignite an international incident. Order HERE!

MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE LADY’S MISSION. Her other novels include THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle Book 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (The Quilting Circle Book 3) is a SELAH Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT, THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection, Prodigal Daughters Amish series, "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of thirty-seven years and one cat. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at: Books2Read Newsletter Blog FB FB Readers Group Amazon GoodReads BookBub

Sources

Stories Behind The Greatest Hits Of Christmas, by Ace Collins

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/silent-night-celebrates-its-bicentennial-180971044/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Night

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-history-behind-silent-night/

https://americansongwriter.com/behind-meaning-of-the-christmas-carol-silent-night/

https://theconversation.com/silent-night-the-story-of-the-carol-that-paused-a-war-108692

https://silent-night-museum.org/sounds/lyrics.htm

The Piano – A Conglomeration of Music

 

By Suzanne Norquist

The mere silhouette of a piano fills our minds with various melodies. It seems like pianos have been around forever. However, the ones we recognize weren’t invented until the 1700s. After that, they went through numerous refinements.

A piano is a stringed instrument, like a harp—with strings hit by hammers, like a dulcimer—and hammers operated with keys, like a pipe organ. It produces both loud and soft sounds, which makes it unique. The piano was initially called the pianoforte, combining the Italian words for soft (piano) and loud (forte). The term was later shortened to piano.

A form of the pipe organ, which inspired the piano’s keyboard, has been around since the third century BCE. It essentially allowed someone to play more than one wind instrument at a time, each pipe representing a different instrument. Greek and Hebrew cultures as well as the Roman Empire used organs. 

On a dulcimer, strings are hit by small hammers to create sounds in a resonating box. This mechanism is used in modern pianos.

The dulcimer appears to have originated in the Middle East, perhaps five thousand years ago. People throughout the ancient world played it. The instrument evolved over time, creating a greater dynamic range. In 1690, a German musician designed an extra-large one for himself, four times the regular size, nine feet long with an extra soundboard.

Another ancestor of the piano was the clavichord. This stringed instrument used a keyboard to strike a string with a brass rod. This was considered an improvement over the pipe organ. Clavichords are small and unable to produce a big sound, making them only useful in small rooms or as practice instruments.

Clavichords appeared in the fourteenth century and were popular in the Renaissance Era.

Harpsicords, created in Italy around 1500, are shaped like pianos but function quite differently. Pressing the keys causes the strings to be plucked by a quill. They are louder than clavichords but produce sound in a limited volume range. 

Bartolomeo Cristofori, an Italian instrument maker, invented the first piano. He was employed by Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, as the Keeper of the Instruments. To overcome the harpsichord's shortcomings, he switched out the plucking mechanism with hammers (like the dulcimer) that would hit the strings and gently return to their original position. The strings could produce sounds at different volumes based on how hard the musician pressed the keys, the first of its kind.

It's unclear exactly when he built the first pianoforte. One appeared on an inventory made by his employer in 1700.

Other instrument makers copied Cristofori’s pianoforte, making changes along the way. Gottfried Silbermann built his own version and had Johann Sebastian Bach offer suggestions. At first, Bach criticized it, saying that the higher notes were too soft.

Silbermann made changes. Bach liked the revised piano so much that he served as an agent selling them.

Over time, others made improvements, including the number of keys and the shape. Eventually, frames were crafted from cast iron, and it became the instrument we use today.

Who knew that playing the piano involved so much history? And I love the songs that go from loud to soft and back again. Forte—piano—forte, all in one instrument. Thank you, Mr. Cristofori.

***

”Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection

Four historical romances celebrating the arts of sewing and quilting.

Mending Sarah’s Heart by Suzanne Norquist

Rockledge, Colorado, 1884

Sarah seeks a quiet life as a seamstress. She doesn’t need anyone, especially her dead husband’s partner. If only the Emporium of Fashion would stop stealing her customers, and the local hoodlums would leave her sons alone. When she rejects her husband’s share of the mine, his partner Jack seeks to serve her through other means. But will his efforts only push her further away? 

Suzanne Norquist is the author of two novellas, “A Song for Rose” in A Bouquet of Brides Collection and “Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection. Everything fascinates her. She has worked as a chemist, professor, financial analyst, and even earned a doctorate in economics. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining engineer husband and has two grown children. When not writing, she explores the mountains, hikes, and attends kickboxing class.