Silent night! Holy night! All is calm, all is bright,
Silent Night, Holy Night
- Tune
- STILLE NACHT
- Metre
- Irregular
- Written
- 1859
- Copyright
- Public domain
Lyrics
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!
History
"Silent Night" (German: "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht") began as a poem written by the Austrian assistant priest Joseph Mohr in 1816, while serving in Mariapfarr. Two years later, on Christmas Eve 1818, Mohr brought the words to Franz Xaver Gruber, schoolmaster and organist in nearby Arnsdorf, and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for that night's Mass at St Nicholas Church, Oberndorf bei Salzburg, where the carol was first performed. A popular story blames flood damage to the church organ for the guitar setting, but Wikipedia notes this account appears to be a later, largely fictional embellishment first published in the US in the 1930s. Gruber's gentle, triple-time tune and Mohr's text, built on its repeated opening phrase, gave the carol its lasting, hushed character. It was first printed in 1833 in a collection titled Four Genuine Tyrolean Songs and had reached 751 hymnals by the twentieth century.
The English text sung today is a translation made in 1859 by John Freeman Young (1820-1885), then an assistant minister at Trinity Church, New York (he was consecrated the second Bishop of Florida in 1867), published that year in his pamphlet Carols for Christmas Tide. Young translated three of Mohr's original six verses, and it is this three-verse form, opening "Silent night! Holy night! All is calm, all is bright", that became, and remains, the version most widely sung in English. Both the German original and Gruber's melody are in the public domain, as is Young's translation.
The carol's most famous wartime association is the Christmas Truce of 24-25 December 1914, when British and German troops along the Western Front laid down their arms. Historian Stanley Weintraub credits the German officer and sometime Berlin Opera singer Walter Kirchhoff with singing "Silent Night" in both German and English across No Man's Land, prompting soldiers on both sides to join in; the carol has remained fixed in popular memory as the soundtrack to that truce. In 2011, Austria's national UNESCO commission inscribed "Silent Night" on its Intangible Cultural Heritage inventory, recognising it as a social practice that brings people of different ages, faiths and backgrounds together each Christmas.
Performance
This recording, titled on its channel "Silent Night - Traditional Christmas Hymn | Franz Gruber & Joseph Mohr", runs 3 minutes 58 seconds and was published to its channel in 2024. No performer or arranger is named in the video facts available, so none is attributed here.
Sources: hymnary.org · en.wikipedia.org · hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com · hymnallibrary.org · theconversation.com · unesco.at
About St Martin's Voices
The recording on this page is sung by St Martin's Voices, the professional vocal ensemble based at St Martin-in-the-Fields, the church on Trafalgar Square in London. One of the UK's most versatile professional choirs, they sing for services, concerts and broadcasts — including on BBC radio and Classic FM — and have released a number of acclaimed recordings.
Their hymn recordings are made freely available to Anglican parishes through the Church of England's A Church Near You Resource Hub, produced by Andrew Earis, Director of Music at St Martin-in-the-Fields, in collaboration with the Royal School of Church Music.