THE STORY OF SILENT NIGHT
Father Josph Mohr wrote the words to the hymn in 1816, but the song was not known until 1818,when the music was written by Franz Gruber. Mohr took the words with him when he visited Gruber one evening in December 1818. He needed a carol for Midnight Mass. His friend composed the music for the words right away, in just a few short hours.
On Christmas Eve, 1818, in the little Alpine village of Oberndorf in
northern Austria, the hymn was played and sung for the first time.
A master organ builder eventually came to Oberndorf to repair
the rusted organ, and there learned of the carol. He copied the
song and doubtless sang it as he worked on organs in the neighboring
villages. From him, two families of traveling folk singers, similar
to the Trapp Family Singers of "Sound of Music" fame,
learned of the song and sang it in concerts all over Europe. In
1834 the Strasser family performed it for the king of Prussia,
who ordered it sung every Christmas Eve by his cathedral choir.
The Rainer family singers brought it to America in 1839. By mid-century
it had become popular around the world, but no one could recall
its composer.
The story of its fame was long to reach the tiny villages of
Austria. But in 1854, Franz Grüber sent a letter to the leading
musical authorities with his claim to have written the tune. In
1848 Father Mohr had died of pneumonia, but Grüber still had the
original manuscript to show, and gradually he was recognized as
composer.