Day 8
On Saturdays and Sundays during Advent, we are focussing on playing some Christmas carols that we have recorded during our services in recent years and finding out what they’re actually all about.
Today, we recorded this new version of Silent Night (which has an extra chorus added) when we were under Lockdown in December 2020. As a church, we put an invitation out to our local communities of Horfield, Lockleaze and Filton (in Bristol) for anyone to join our ‘online community choir’. We met online on a few occasions to practice and then everyone recorded their own version, which was then mixed together to produce this online video below.
Story behind the carol -
Silent Night
‘Silent Night’ (originally ‘Stille Nacht’) was first performed on the evening of Christmas Eve in 1818. Joseph Mohr, a young Catholic priest at St Nicholas Church, Oberndorf bei Salzburg in Austria, was in despair: the organ at his church was broken, and the chances of fixing the instrument before the evening service were looking slim. But young Joseph had an idea. A few years before, he had written a rather beautiful poem called ‘Stille Nacht’. So, he asked Franz Xavez, a schoolmaster and organist in a nearby town, to set his six-stanza poem to music. That night, the two men sang ‘Stille Nacht’ for the first time at the church’s Christmas Mass, while Mohr played guitar and the choir repeated the last two lines of each verse.
An organ builder and repair man working at the church took a copy of the six-verse song to his home village. There, it was picked up and spread by two families of traveling folk singers, who performed around northern Europe. The composition evolved, and was translated into over 300 languages with many different arrangements for various voices and ensembles. It was sung in churches, in town squares, even on the battlefield during World War I, when, during a temporary truce on Christmas Eve, soldiers sang carols from home. "Silent Night," by 1914, known around the world, was sung simultaneously in French, German and English. A number of unofficial ceasefires took place along the Western Front in France, with German and British soldiers crossing the trenches to talk and exchange seasonal greetings, food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps, and in some areas even carol singing and football matches.
In 2014, to mark the centenary of this remarkable truce, Silent Night Carols events brought communities all over the country together in much the same spirit. Sports fans, school choirs, brass bands and families gathered in football grounds, schools, cathedrals and churches to sing carols – including a specially commissioned, contemporary version of Silent Night, with a new verse and chorus, co-written by Ben Cantelon and Nick Herbert. This is the version that we recorded during lockdown 2020 as our own online community choir.
The English version of "Silent Night" is typically sung in three verses corresponding with the original 1, 6, and 2. Luke 2:7-9, Isaiah 9:6 and Isaiah 7:14 were the bible inspiration behind the lyrics
Lyrics of new version
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 above
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia
Christ the Saviour is born
Christ the Saviour is born
Christ the Saviour
Christ the Saviour is born
Peace and hope have come
Through Jesus Christ, the Son
Christ the Saviour
Christ the Saviour is born
Peace and hope have come
Through Jesus Christ, the Son
Silent night, holy night
God's great love giving life
Let the world together rejoice
Sing forever with one voice
Heaven's hope is here
Heaven's hope is here
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
