Following up my post on the classic book A Christmas Carol I thought I’d offer a couple posts on some classic Christmas Carols.
The first is Silent Night. I suspect some (or most of you) already know some of this story but it is still an amazing one to consider.
In December 1818 a man named Joseph Mohr was deeply troubled. He was the assistant pastor of the church in Oberndorf, Austria. The problem he faced was the fact that the organ at the church was broken (various stories give various reasons so I’ll just stick with it was broken). When you need to have your church organ repaired it’s not a matter of calling the repairman and he’s there the next day., it’s often weeks or months before you can get someone.
Mohr was upset because it meant no music for Christmas eve. So he took a walk that brought him onto a hilltop that overlooked his village. He stood there in a contemplative mood and as he did he remembered a poem he’d written a few years earlier. He thought it might work for a song, so he went to Franz Gruber, the church organist.
Gruber took the poem and wrote music for two solo voices and guitar and that Christmas Eve Silent Night was performed for the first time.
As far as Gruber and Mohr were concerned, that was the end of it. They’d gotten music for Christmas and they moved on. But when the man came to repair the organ they told him the story and performed the song. He was deeply moved by the music and asked if they minded if he shared it with others. They consented.
Some time later the repairman (Karl Mauracher) presented the song to two groups of traveling signers (such groups were common at the time). They too were touched by the depth of this seemingly simple song.
They began to perform it on their own tours, and it began to spread. First around Germany, then Europe and then the world.
Today few of us can think of Christmas without Silent Night. Indeed even many of us who are not religious cannot help but to be moved by the beauty of the song.
All because the organ didn’t work one Christmas Eve.
Another classic work is the Messiah, and in particular the Hallelujah Chorus by Handel.
Much like my story of Christmas Carol, this story is one of redemption of the composer. Handel wrote the Messiah to bring the story of Christ to the common people, but he didn’t start out in a particularly Christian mood. Like Dickens he was constantly short of money and the work was composed after he’d been through serious illness and he felt lost in the world.
But as he wrote it, the music restored him. He often said that in many ways it wasn’t so much that he wrote the song but that God dictated it to him. When he completed the Hallelujah Chorus he reportedly told a friend that ” I have seen the face of God”
Interestingly while it is associated with Christmas the work was actually first performed at Easter and was in many ways intended as an Easter work, the first part telling the story of Christmas and the second of Easter.
The work was a hit from the start and today is one of the classics of the holiday season.
And as most of us know, it is traditional for everyone to stand during the HC. The question often asked is why ?
It is known the tradition began when King George II stood when he first attended a performance (and of course when the King stands we all stand). There are various reasons given but the most commonly accepted is that he considered the work to represent the presence of God and he wanted to acknowledge that even he, a king of England, stood in the presence of the King of Kings.
Another wonderful holiday traditon.