January 3, 2016

Each week, you may find information here about the music in the traditional worship services at First United Methodist Church in Lewisville, Texas.  Some of this information is original; much of it is "borrowed" from other sources such as Wikipedia, GBOD, and hymnary.org.  It is my hope that this information will enhance your understanding and enrich your worship experience.  

About the Organ Music:

A Carol for the New Year – Alfred Fedak

The original text of this anonymous Slovak hymn ("Rok novy zase k nam prisel") was found in Tobias Zavorka's Czech hymnal Kancional (1602). A revision of that text was published in 1636 in Juraj Tranovsky's Pisne Duchovni Stare I Move, a Slovak Lutheran hymnal usually known as the Cithara Sanctorum. Jaroslav J. Vajda (b. 1919) prepared the English translation in 1968 for the Worship Supplement to The Lutheran Hymnal. This hymn remains very popular for New Year's Day celebrations in every Slovak home and church.

Born of Czechoslovakian parents, Vajda was educated at Concordia College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Concordia Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. Ordain as a Lutheran pastor in 1944, he served congregations in Pennsylvania and Indiana until 1963. He was editor of the periodicals The Lutheran Beacon (1959-1963) and This Day (1963-1971) and book editor and developer for Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis from 1971 until his retirement in 1986. Working mainly with hymn texts, Vajda served on several Lutheran commissions of worship. A writer of original poetry since his teens, he is the author of They Followed the King (1965) and Follow the King (1977). A collection of his hymn texts, carols, and hymn translations was issued as Now the Joyful Celebration (1987); its sequel is So Much to Sing About (1991). Vajda's hymns are included in many modern hymnals, and he was honored as a Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada in 1988.

“Rok Novy” is an anonymous Slovak tune that was first published in Tobias Zavorka's Kancional of 1602, though it may date back into the fifteenth century. The tune title means "new year" and is the incipit of the Slovak Old/New Year text "Rok novy zase k nam prisel," traditionally associated with this music. Zavorka served as a pastor and dean in the Bohemian city of Dubrava. Kancional was an important Bohemian Brethren hymnal containing 770 tunes.  The tune is often referred to as “Sixth Night”.

Greet now the swiftly changing year with joy and penitence sincere.
Rejoice! Rejoice! With thanks embrace another year of grace.

For Jesus came to wage sin's war; this Name of names for us he bore;
rejoice, rejoice, with thanks embrace another year of grace.

His love abundant for exceeds the volume of a whole year's needs;
rejoice, rejoice, with thanks embrace another year of grace.

With such a Lord to lead our way in hazard and prosperity,
what need we fear in earth or space in this new year of grace?

"All glory be to God on high and peace on earth," the angels cry;
rejoice, rejoice, with thanks embrace another year of grace.

Alfred V. Fedak (b. 1953) holds degrees from Hope Colege and Montclair State College.  A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, he is Minister of Music at United Reformed Church, Somerville, New Jersey.

Variations on “Adoro Te, Devote” – Dale Wood

Adoro te devote is one of five beautiful hymns St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) composed in honor of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament at Pope Urban IV's (1261-1264) request when the Pope first established the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1264. The hymn is found in the Roman Missal as a prayer of thanksgiving after Mass. 

The paraphrase of the Latin text found in our hymnal is:

            Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face;

            Here would I touch and handle things unseen,

            Here grasp with firmer hand eternal grace,

            And all my weariness upon thee lean.

Dale Wood (1934-2003) was a prominent composer, organist, choral director, and clinician.  He was honored many times by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) for his “very important contribution towards the creation and development of contemporary American church music”.  He wrote many collections of organ works, most of which are based on both old and new hymn tunes.  Over eight million copies of his publications have been purchased in over 50 countries.

Trumpet Tune on “Wachet Auf” – Martha Sobaje

"Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" (Awake, the voice is calling) is a Lutheran hymn written in German by Philipp Nicolai, first published in 1599 together with "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern". It appears in German hymnals and in several English hymnals in translations such as "Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying".  Philipp Nicolai wrote the hymn in 1598, a time when the plague had hit Unna where he lived as a preacher after studies in theology at the University of Wittenberg, for six months. The text is based on the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1–13). Nicolai refers to other biblical ideas, such as from the Revelation the mentioning of marriage (Revelation 19:6–9) and the twelve gates, every one of pearl (Revelation 21:21), and from the First Letter to the Corinthians the phrase "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard" (1 Corinthians 2:9).  The author wrote in his preface, dated 10 August 1598: "Day by day I wrote out my meditations, found myself, thank God, wonderfully well, comforted in heart, joyful in spirit, and truly content; gave to my manuscript the name and title of a Mirror of Joy... to leave behind me (if God should call me from this world) as a token of my peaceful, joyful, Christian departure, or (if God should spare me in health) to comfort other sufferers whom He should also visit with the pestilence."

"Wake, awake, for night is flying," the watchmen on the heights are crying;
"Awake, Jerusalem, arise!"
Midnight hears the welcome voices and at the thrilling cry rejoices:
"Where are the virgins pure and wise?
The Bridegroom comes: Awake!  Your lamps with gladness take! Alleluia!
With bridal care and faith's bold prayer, to meet the Bridegroom, come, prepare!"

Lamb of God, the heavens adore you, the saints and angels sing before you
with harp and cymbals' clearest tone.
Of one pearl each shining portal, where, joining with the choir immortal,
we gather round your radiant throne.
No eye has seen that light, no ear the echoed might of your glory;
yet there shall we in victory sing shouts of joy eternally!

Martha Sobaje (b. 1948) has degrees from the University of the Pacific, Eastman School of Music, and the Graduate Theological Foundation in Donaldson, Indiana.  She is minister of music and education at Phillips Memorial Baptist Church in Cranston, Rhode Island.

About the Vocal Solo Music:

Go Tell it on the Mountain

The Fisk Jubilee Singers (drawing their name from Leviticus 25—the year of jubilee) were founded as a ten-member touring ensemble to raise funds for debt-ridden Fisk University. Taking the entire contents of the University treasury with them for travel expenses, they departed on October 6, 1871, from Nashville on their difficult, but ultimately successful eighteen-month tour, a triumph that is still celebrated annually as Jubilee Day on the campus. Though not the original repertoire of the group, by the time they reached New York in December of that year, their concerts grew to include more and more spirituals, until their program consisted primarily of choral arrangements of spirituals or, according to African American scholars C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence Mamiya, “anthemized spirituals.”

They have been credited with keeping the Negro spiritual alive. Spirituals scholar Sandra Jean Graham places this development in context: “The students were at first reluctant ambassadors for the songs of their ancestors. As [Jubilee] singer Ella Sheppard recalled, ‘The slave songs were never used by us then in public. They were associated with slavery and the dark past and represented the things to be forgotten. Then, too, they were sacred to our parents, who used them in their religious worship . . . It was only through persuasion that the students sang their spirituals privately for [the University’s treasurer, George L.] White [who was a white man], and through White’s coercion that they sang them in concert.”

Taking the spiritual to white and black audiences in the United States and Europe earned the school and the spiritual an international reputation. The small ensemble of two quartets and a pianist grew to a full choral ensemble. Other historically black colleges eventually followed the same pattern, including Howard University (Washington, D.C.) and Tuskegee Institute (now University, Tuskegee, Alabama).

The earliest version of the spiritual appeared in in Religious Folk Songs of The Negro, as Sung on The Plantations, new edition (1909) with the heading “Christmas Plantation Song” with different stanzas and in slave dialect:

When I was a seeker
I sought both night and day.
I ask de Lord to help me,
An’ He show me de way.

He made me a watchman
Upon the city wall, [a reference to Isaiah 21:11-12]
An’ if I am a Christian
I am the least of all.

Chorus:

Go tell it on de mountain,
Over de hills and everywhere.
Go tell it on de mountain,
Dat Jesus Christ is born.

A few smaller and less broadly circulated versions use these stanzas or a variation, for example, “When I was a sinner . . ..”

African Canadian composer R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) added another harmonization and stanza in the volume he edited, Religious Folk-Songs of the Negro As Sung At Hampton Institute (1927). His stanza follows:

If you cannot sing like Angels,
If you cannot pray like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus,
You can say he died for all.

Dett’s stanza, or some version of it, is now most commonly associated with the spiritual, “There is a balm in Gilead.”

John Wesley Work, Jr. (1872?-1925), along with his brother Frederick Jerome Work (1878?-1942), led the Fisk Jubilee Singers from 1898-1904. Baptist hymnologist William J. Reynolds cites recollections by John Wesley Work, Jr.’s son about the role of “Go, tell it” on the campus: “[John Wesley Work, III] took pleasure in recalling his early days as a child on the campus of Fisk University where his father was a teacher. Very early on Christmas morning, long before sunrise, it was then the custom for students to gather and walk together from building to building singing [“Go, tell it on the mountain].”

Concert arrangements of spirituals were published in Frederick Work’s New Jubilee Songs, as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers (1902), a collection that may have been co-edited by John Wesley Work, though his name does not appear in this collection. “Go, tell it” appears in another collection for solo voice and four-part choir edited by John Wesley Work, III (Work, Jr.’s son) in American Negro Songs and Spirituals: a Comprehensive Collection of 230 Folk Songs, Religious and Secular (1940).

Drawing on an adaptation of the Work brothers’ setting, The Pilgrim Hymnal (1958), edited by Hugh Porter (1897-1960), professor in the Sacred Music Department at Union Seminary (New York), was the first mainline hymnal to include the spiritual. John Wesley Work’s stanzas based on Luke 2:8-20 have become the standard versions in hymnals:

1. While shepherds kept their watching . . .
2. The shepherds feared and trembled . . .
3. Down in a lowly manger . . .

From this hymnal, versions of “Go, tell it” have spread to the point that it has become one of a “canon” of spirituals found in virtually every hymnal today.

John Wesley Work, Jr. (sometimes designated John Wesley Work II to distinguish him from his son) received his master’s degree from Fisk University, and after further study at Harvard, began teaching Latin and Greek at the University in 1898. He trained the Jubilee Singers and was a leader in preserving and performing African American spirituals. He taught at Fisk University until 1923 when he was relieved of his duties due to changing attitudes toward the spiritual. He then went on to be President of Roger Williams University in Nashville until his death in 1925.

The spiritual has inspired works in other media. Author James Baldwin’s (1924-1987) first major work and semi-autobiographical novel was titled Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953). The novel discusses the role of the paradoxical church as experienced by African Americans, both as the incubator for repression and hypocrisy and as a foundation for hope, identity, and community. The ABC network produced a movie using this title in 1984.

In 1963, the musical team “Peter, Paul and Mary”, along with their musical director, Milt Okun, adapted and rewrote "Go Tell It on the Mountain" as "Tell It on the Mountain", their lyrics referring specifically to Exodus and using the phrase "Let my people go," but referring implicitly to the Civil Rights struggle of the early 1960s. According to Religious Studies professor and Civil Rights historian Charles Marsh, it was African American Civil Rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer who combined this song with the spiritual "Go Down Moses," taking the last line of the chorus, "Let my people go" and substituting it in the chorus of "Go Tell it on the Mountain". Marsh does not document this claim, but given that Hamer was highly active in Civil Rights work beginning in the 1950s, and that the use of the Exodus story and the singing of spirituals played a central role in her activities, this claim is compelling. The song was recorded by Yarrow, Stookey and Travers on their “Peter, Paul and Mary” album In the Wind and was also a moderately successful single for them.

Regardless of which version that is sung, “Go, tell it on the mountain” has become a truly American contribution to the telling of the Christmas story that is now sung around the world.

About the Hymns:

We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations

H. Ernest Nichol (1862-1926) had begun a study program in civil engineering when he decided to study music instead. In 1888 he received a bachelor's degree in music from Oxford University. Nichol wrote some 130 hymn tunes and texts, many under the pseudonym “Colin Sterne” (derived from his middle and last name); many were first sung at church school programs.  “We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations was written in 1896 and published in Sunday School Hymnary, 1905.  A song which encourages us to “go therefore and teach all nations” (Matthew 28:19) was a very popular "missionary hymn" among denominational churches in past years, typical of the hundreds that were penned to express the determined, dynamic, energetic, and expansive attributes of late nineteenth-century "Christian missions."

Bread of the World

Written by Reginald Heber, "Bread of the World" was first published posthumously in his Hymns written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (1827); it was subtitled "Before the Sacrament."  Heber indicated it was to be sung as part of the service of confession and forgiveness or during the communion liturgy as a substitute for the traditional singing of the Agnus Dei. The text is a prayer asking Christ to look on us with mercy and to feed us with his grace. Though written in two stanzas, it is one continuous thought. A devotional text with strong poetic images–"bread of the world" and "wine of the soul"–this hymn invites confession of sin and the acceptance of divine grace.
Reginald Heber (1783-1826) was a bright youth, translating a Latin classic into English verse by the time he was seven, entering Oxford at 17, and winning two awards for his poetry during his time there. After his graduation he became rector of his father's church in where he remained for 16 years. He was appointed Bishop of Calcutta in 1823.  Most of his 57 hymns, which include "Holy, Holy, Holy," are still in use today.

Now Let Us From This Table Rise

The author of this hymn, the Rev Fred Kaan, was born in the Netherlands in 1929. As a young boy, his evening prayer had a three-fold thrust: 1) that their house will not burn down, 2) that his parents will not die early, and 3) that there will be no war.  The first two petitions were “granted” but the third one was not. Kaan spent five years under the Nazi Occupation where he saw his father become the leader of the resistance movement in their neighborhood and his mother a gunrunner who sheltered a Jew and one political prisoner for two-and-a-half years. He saw this as an added risk to their daily living. His experience of the war marked in him a profound and deep concern over peace and justice. 

After the war, he moved to the UK and it was there that he eventually joined the ordained ministry. During his first pastorate, a young postman, a church member, approached him and said: “I am leaving church!” Kaan asked why, and the postman replied “because the hymns don’t send me any longer!” This reply struck Kaan and he thought “if the hymns we sang in church paralysed my postman friend … then the mission of the church is seriously impaired”. This was when Kaan started to look at hymns with a critical ear.  As a minister at the Pilgrim Church in Plymouth, England he became seriously involved in exploring new ways of worship and service. He searched for hymns that “proclaimed the Gospel in the modern city in a language that can be understood”. Because he found very few he began to write hymns that spoke about justice, peace, social action and healing in broken relationships, communities and in the world.

The first hymn that he wrote was “Now Let Us From This Table Rise,” a post-communion hymn. He wrote this with the following questions in mind: “What happens after we have shared the bread and wine at the Lord’s Table? How do we make that vital transition from worship to service, from celebration to action?”

December 27, 2015

Each week, you may find information here about the music in the traditional worship services at First United Methodist Church in Lewisville, Texas.  Some of this information is original; much of it is "borrowed" from other sources such as Wikipedia, GBOD, and hymnary.org.  It is my hope that this information will enhance your understanding and enrich your worship experience.  

About the Organ Music:

Offertory on “O Little Town of Bethlehem” – Dennis Janzer

“O Little Town of Bethlehem” is a popular Christmas carol. The text was written by Phillips Brooks (1835–1893), an Episcopal priest, Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia. He was inspired by visiting the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in 1865. “After an early dinner, we took our horses and rode to Bethlehem,” he wrote home in Christmas week of 1865. “It was only about two hours when we came to the town, situated on an eastern ridge of a range of hills, surrounded by its terraced gardens. It is a good-looking town, better built than any other we have seen in Palestine. . . . Before dark, we rode out of town to the field where they say the shepherds saw the star. It is a fenced piece of ground with a cave in it (all the Holy Places are caves here), in which, strangely enough, they put the shepherds. The story is absurd, but somewhere in those fields we rode through the shepherds must have been. . . . As we passed, the shepherds were still “keeping watch over their flocks or leading them home to fold.” Three years later, he wrote the poem for his church and his organist, Lewis Redner, added the music.

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie;
above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light;
the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

For Christ is born of Mary, and gathered all above,
while mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars together, proclaim the holy birth,
and praises sing to God the king, and peace to all on earth!

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given;
so God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin,
where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
o come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!

Dr. Dennis Janzer (b. 1954) has advanced degrees from Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is organist and choirmaster at St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Memphis, Tn.

Good King Wenceslas – Virgil Fox

"Good King Wenceslas" is a popular Christmas carol that tells a story of a king going on a journey in braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen (December 26, the day after Christmas). During the journey, his page is about to give up the struggle against the cold weather, but is enabled to continue by following the king's footprints, step for step, through the deep snow. The legend is based on the life of the historical Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia or Svatý Václav in Czech (907–935).

Wenceslas was considered a martyr and a saint immediately after his death in the 10th century, when a cult of Wenceslas grew up in Bohemia and in England. Within a few decades of Wenceslas's death, four biographies of him were in circulation. These biographies had a powerful influence on the High Middle Ages conceptualization of the rex justus, or "righteous king"—that is, a monarch whose power stems mainly from his great piety, as well as from his princely vigor.

Referring approvingly to these biographies, a preacher from 12th century says:  But his deeds I think you know better than I could tell you; for, as is read in his Passion, no one doubts that, rising every night from his noble bed, with bare feet and only one chamberlain, he went around to God’s churches and gave alms generously to widows, orphans, those in prison and afflicted by every difficulty, so much so that he was considered, not a prince, but the father of all the wretched.

Several centuries later the legend was claimed as fact by Pope Pius II, who himself also walked ten miles barefoot in the ice and snow as an act of pious thanksgiving. Although Wenceslas was, during his lifetime, only a duke, Holy Roman Emperor Otto I posthumously "conferred on [Wenceslas] the regal dignity and title" and that is why, in the legend and song, he is referred to as a "king". The usual English spelling of Duke Wenceslas's name, Wenceslaus, is occasionally encountered in later textual variants of the carol, although it was not used by Neale in his version. Wenceslas is not to be confused with King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia (Wenceslaus I Premyslid), who lived more than three centuries later.

In 1853, English hymnwriter John Mason Neale wrote the "Wenceslas" lyrics, in collaboration with his music editor Thomas Helmore, and the carol first appeared in Carols for Christmas-Tide, 1853. Neale's lyrics were set to the melody of a 13th-century spring carol "Tempus adest floridum" ("The time is near for flowering") first published in the 1582 Finnish song collection Piae Cantiones.  John Mason Neale published the carol "Good King Wenceslas" in 1853, although he may have written his carol some time earlier, since he carried on the legend of St. Wenceslas (the basis of this story) in his Deeds of Faith (1849). Neale was known for his devotion to High Church traditions. According to older Czech sources, Neale's lyrics are a translation of a poem by Czech poet Václav Alois Svoboda, written in Czech, German and Latin.

Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night, tho' the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel.

"Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know'st it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain;
Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither:
Thou and I shall see him dine, when we bear them thither. "
Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together;
Through the rude wind's wild lament and the bitter weather.

"Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, good my page. Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master's steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.

Virgil Fox (1912-1980) was a child prodigy. At the age of ten, he was playing the organ for church services. At fourteen, he played his first organ recital before a cheering crowd of 2,500 people in Cincinnati. At seventeen, he was the unanimous winner of the Biennial Contest of the National Federation of Music Clubs in Boston, the first organist ever chosen. He attended Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, America’s oldest music conservatory, and became the first one-year student in the history of the Peabody to graduate with the its highest honor, the Artist's Diploma. In 1936, he returned to Baltimore to head the Peabody organ department, and to serve as organist of Brown Memorial Church.  In 1942, he enlisted in the ArmyAir Force and performed 600 recitals in three years to raise money for the armed services. In 1946, Fox became organist of Riverside Church, New York City. In 1952, was chosen by the State Department to represent the United States at the First International Conference of Sacred Music in Bern, Switzerland.

Fox played hundreds of concerts across the United States and Europe. He was the first non-German artist to perform the works of J. S. Bach at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Perhaps the most daring concert Virgil Fox ever played was at the Mecca of rock music, New York’s Fillmore East, where, in 1970, he gave an all-Bach program combined with a light show on the Rodgers Touring Organ. For nine years, "Heavy Organ" toured across the country to various cities, colleges, and festivals. Virgil Fox is credited with bringing the music of Bach to young people.

Brightest and Best are the Stars of the Morning – Wayne Wold

Reginald Heber was born in 1783 into a wealthy, educated family. He was a bright youth, translating a Latin classic into English verse by the time he was seven, entering Oxford at 17, and winning two awards for his poetry during his time there. After his graduation he became rector of his father's church in the village of Hodnet near Shrewsbury in the west of England where he remained for 16 years. He took on the task of improving hymn singing in the congregation. When he arrived, they were still singing only metrical psalms. He couldn’t find the hymns he wanted, especially those that would fit the Anglican liturgy and the requirements of the Book of Common Prayer.  Heber decided to prepare his own hymnal and invited other poets to contribute, including Sir Walter Scott and Henry Milman. Hymn singing was not firmly established in the Anglican Church at this time, and the bishop of London refused Heber’s request to publish a hymnal. He was appointed Bishop of Calcutta in 1823 and worked tirelessly for three years until the weather and travel took its toll on his health and he died of a stroke. Most of his 57 hymns, which include "Holy, Holy, Holy," are still in use today. 

“Brightest and Best” was written in 1811 to be sung at the feast of Epiphany.  It appeared in Heber's widow's compilation of hymns entitled Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Service of the Church Year in 1827.  Images of light, a dominant theme of the Epiphany season, pervade the hymn’s first stanza: “brightest,” “morning,” “dawn,” “star” and “horizon.” The “Star of the East” that once guided the magi now guides us to “where our infant Redeemer is laid.” 

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness and lend us Thine aid;
Star of the East, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.

Cold on His cradle the dewdrops are shining;
Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall;
Angels adore Him in slumber reclining,
Maker and Monarch and Savior of all!

Say, shall we yield Him, in costly devotion,
Odors of Edom and offerings divine?
Gems of the mountain and pearls of the ocean,
Myrrh from the forest, or gold from the mine?

Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
Vainly with gifts would His favor secure;
Richer by far is the heart’s adoration,
Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.

Wayne L. Wold (b. 1954) is active as a teacher, church musician, composer, author, performer, and clinician. He serves as Associate Professor of Music and College Organist at Hood College in Frederick, Md. Over 200 of his compositions are published by fourteen different companies in the U.S. and Australia and include twenty volumes of works for organ and instruments with organ, 30 choir anthems, a children's musical, a recorder suite, and several hymn tunes. He is the author of numerous hymn and anthem texts, articles in professional journals, and two books -- Tune My Heart to Sing: Devotions for Choirs Based on the Revised Common Lectionary and Preaching to the Choir: The Care and Nurture of the Church Choir.

About the Choral Music:

Mary, Did You Know! – Camp Kirkland and Jay Rouse

"Mary, Did You Know?" is a Christmas song with lyrics and music written by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene. It was originally recorded by Christian recording artist, Michael English on his solo debut album in 1991 (English and Lowry were both members of the Gaither Vocal Band). Lowry would record the song several times himself, most notably with the Gaither Vocal Band on their 1998 Christmas album.  The song has since gone on to become a modern Christmas classic, being recorded by many artists over the years across multiple genres.  The song was also used as the basis for a stage musical, also titled Mary, Did You Know and written by Bruce Greer, that won the 1999 Dove Award for Musical of the Year.

Camp Kirkland is a graduate of Florida State University where he received the degrees of Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music Education. During his career as a music educator, he taught at the junior high, high school and collegiate levels,  including band, symphonic orchestra, jazz band, music theory and applied low brass.  Kirkland’s principal instruments are euphonium and trombone. He is an outstanding instrumentalist and has performed with such diverse groups as the Jacksonville Symphony, the River City Brass Band, as well as numerous touring bands and orchestras.   Over the past four decades, Camp Kirkland has emerged as one of the premier Church musicians in the nation. He is recognized as the pioneer in establishing instrumental music as a viable medium in the life of the church music program. In 1971, he began the instrumental music program at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida. In 1976 he joined the staff full time as Instrumental Director, the first position of its kind in the nation. During his tenure the program flourished to include four graded orchestras and a number of small ensembles involving over 200 instrumentalists. He also created the church’s acclaimed School of Music which assists over 100 students each semester in the study of a variety of orchestral instruments, voice and piano. In addition, Kirkland has over a thousand publications in his catalog and is an important contributor to the leading publishers of church music today.  Kirkland commits a significant portion of his time and skill to taking the message of the Gospel beyond our national boundaries through Global Missions Project, a non-profit designed to take Christian musicians on missions. Camp has served as the Music Director for GMP since its inception. Since its beginning in 2003, GMP has taken over 7,000 musicians on mission projects where God has tremendously blessed through evangelism and encouragement to the body of Christ.

Jay Rouse is one of the premier choral arrangers in Christian music. He has over 350 compositions and arrangements published, including over 30 major sacred choral works, 50 best selling a cappella arrangements, a highly recognized hymn series for choir, piano and solo instrument entitled Piano Plus and a number of best-selling solo piano books and recordings. Mr. Rouse is a Dove Award winning producer and has logged many hours on the road traveling in music ministry. He spent 10 plus years as musical director and accompanist for Sandi Patty. In addition to his work as a keyboard artist, composer and arranger he has been the primary producer and conductor for all of the choral and instrumental publications from PraiseGathering Music Group and Gaither Music Company over the last two decades. Jay Rouse continues to make a major impact on music for the church musician across the nation.

            Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?

            Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save your sons and daughters?

            Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?

            And this child that you delivered would soon deliver you?

            Mary, did you know that your baby boy would give sight to the blind man?

            Mary, did you know that your baby boy would calm a storm with his hand?

            Did you know, did you know, that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?

            And when you kissed the baby, you’ve kissed the face of God.

            Oh, Mary, did you know?

            The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again.

            The lame will lead, the dumb will speak the praises of the Lamb.

            Oh, Mary, did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?

            Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?

            Did you know, did you know that your baby boy was Heaven’s perfect Lamb/

            And the sleeping child you’re holding is the great “I Am!”

            Did you know?

There’s a Song in the Air

In the summer of 1904, Karl P. Harrington was assembling the new Methodist Hymnal. He went through hundreds of familiar hymns from a range of hymnals and songbooks. It was his job to comb through the offerings and select the songs that would line the pews. As Ace Collins says in Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas "That meant he had to include music that could be sung by huge church choirs in places like Boston and by tiny congregations in places like Salem, Arkansas. Every pastor and song leader would be depending upon the songs included; other than the Bible itself, his project would be the most important tool found in most churches." He was up to the task. He was a skilled organist. He had studied music around the globe, written numerous hymns, and was a Wesleyan University music professor. Despite his gifts it was still a daunting task. To relax he would read the poetry of American poet and novelist Josiah Holland. Josiah was the founder of Scribner's magazine. He wrote the poem for an 1874 Sunday School Journal and was reprinted that year in Complete Poetry Writings. This was the book that Harrington was flipping through in the midst of his editing the new hymnal. He came across this Christmas poem and decided it should be set to music. Collins says, "Going over to the organ, Harrington again studied the words to 'There's a Song in the Air'. This time he read them aloud, forming a tune around each phrase. As his fingers touched the keyboard, a melody came to life." In 1905, in The Methodist Hymnal the words and music become one and were sent to churches around the globe.

Infant Holy, Infant Lowly

“W Żkobie Leży” ("In a manger lies") may date back to the thirteenth or fourteenth century. However, it was not published until the early twentieth century, when it was included with its traditional tune in Spiewniczek Piesni Koscielne (1908).   "W żłobie leży" was translated to English by Edith Margaret Gellibrand Reed (1885-1933) as “Infant holy, Infant lowly” and was published in December, 1920, in Primary Education: A Monthly Journal for Primary Teacher.

Reed was an Associate of the Royal College of Organists and assisted Percy Scholes in editorial work. During World War I, she edited The Music Student, Music and Youth, and Panpipes, and continued as editor of the latter two after the end of the war. She traveled widely, was devoted to athletics and outdoor life, wrote two Christmas plays, and authored Story Lives of the Great Composers.

The First Noel

Although no Christmas season would be complete without this tuneful carol, very little is known about its origin. It is believed to have had its rise in France during the fifteenth century. Noel is a French word originating from Latin meaning "birthday." The song is thought to have been brought across the channel to England before 1823 by the wandering troubadours. The carol under the English form, "Nowell," became a great favorite for Christmas Eve, especially in the west of England. This was when the entire village gathered for singing and celebrating the bringing in of the Yule log. At this time carols were thought of as popular religious songs meant to be sung outside the church rather than within.

"The First Noel" portrays in vivid narrative style the story of the birth of Christ. All stanzas are needed to complete the entire event when the hymn is sung. The sixth stanza, which has been omitted from our current hymnal, urges us to join together to sing praises to God for the marvels of His creation and for the salvation provided through Christ's shed blood and reminds us that Christ came to redeem the whole world.

Then let us all with one accord sing praises to our heav'nly Lord,

that hath made heav'n and earth of naught, and with His blood mankind hath bought.

December 24

Each week, you may find information here about the music in the traditional worship services at First United Methodist Church in Lewisville, Texas.  Some of this information is original; much of it is "borrowed" from other sources such as Wikipedia, GBOD, and hymnary.org.  It is my hope that this information will enhance your understanding and enrich your worship experience.  

About the Organ Music:

Lo, a Rose – Wilbur Held

"Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" ("A rose has sprung up"), most commonly translated to English as "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" or "A Spotless Rose", is a Christmas carol and Marian Hymn of German origin.  The text is thought to be penned by an anonymous author, and the piece first appeared in print in the late 16th century.  The English translation "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" was written by Theodore Baker in 1894.

This German carol from the Rhineland region combines the story of Luke 1-2 and Matthew 2 with Isaiah's prophecies about the "rose" from the "stem of Jesse " (Isa. 11:1; 35:1-2). Stanzas 1 and 2 are a combination of folklore ("amid the cold of winter") and Christological interpretation of Isaiah 11:1 and 35: 1-2. Stanza 3 introduces imagery from John 1.

"Es ist ein Ros entsprungen," may date to the fifteenth century. However, the earliest manuscript containing the text, found in St. Alban's Carthusian monastery in Trier and preserved in the Trier municipal library, is dated around 1580. It was first published with twenty-three stanzas in Alte catholische geistliche Kirchengesiinge (Cologne, 1599). Originally stanza 2 interpreted the "rose" as being Mary, mother of Jesus, but in Musae Sionae (1609) Michael Praetorius changed the interpretation to point to Christ as the rose in accord with actual biblical imagery.

Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming From tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse's lineage coming As men of old have sung.
It came, a flower bright, Amid the cold of winter
When half-gone was the night.

Isaiah 'twas foretold it, The Rose I have in mind:
With Mary we behold it, The virgin mother kind.
To show God's love aright She bore to men a Savior
When half-gone was the night.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor The darkness everywhere.
True man, yet very God, From sin and death He saves us
And lightens every load

Wilbur C. Held (1914-2015) was born in Des Plaines, Illinois, and received his B.M. and M.M. degrees at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. He then attended Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he earned his S.M.D. A member of the Episcopal Church, for many years Dr. Held was Professor of Organ and Church Music at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.  He remained in this position for over 30 years, and for most of that time was also organist-choirmaster at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio.  Dr. Held started composing little pieces for the organ because he felt there was a lack of teaching material aimed at developing style and registration, especially for the romantic use of the instrument.  Having written several suites primarily for pedagogical use, he turned his attention to broadening the repertoire for church use, continuing to stress modest technical requirements and flexibility of registration. To date he has published 325 organ works. He has served on the national councils of both the AGO and the Hymn Society of America, and has appeared as recitalist at their national conventions.

Prelude on “The First Noel” – James F. Konkel

Although no Christmas season would be complete without this tuneful carol, very little is known about its origin. It is believed to have had its rise in France during the fifteenth century. Noel is a French word originating from Latin meaning "birthday." The song is thought to have been brought across the channel to England before 1823 by the wandering troubadours. The carol under the English form, "Nowell," became a great favorite for Christmas Eve, especially in the west of England. This was when the entire village gathered for singing and celebrating the bringing in of the Yule log. At this time carols were thought of as popular religious songs meant to be sung outside the church rather than within.

"The First Noel" portrays in vivid narrative style the story of the birth of Christ. All stanzas are needed to complete the entire event when the hymn is sung. The sixth stanza, which has been omitted from our current hymnal, urges us to join together to sing praises to God for the marvels of His creation and for the salvation provided through Christ's shed blood and reminds us that Christ came to redeem the whole world.

The first Noel the angel did say  was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay;
in fields where they lay keeping their sheep,  on a cold winter's night that was so deep.

They looked up and saw a star  shining in the east, beyond them far;
and to the earth it gave great light, and so it continued both day and night.

Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel,  born is the King of Israel.

Dona nobis pacem (Latin for "Grant us peace") is a phrase in the Agnus Dei section of the Roman Catholic mass.  The origin of the melody is unknown.

James Konkel (b. 1961) studied at Western Michigan University and is organist at Oshterno United Methodist Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Joy to the World – Virgil Fox

”Joy to the World” was written by Isaac Watts (1675-1748), who is universally acknowledged as "The Father of English Hymnody". He has earned the title, not because he was first to write English hymns, but because he gave impetus to hymnody and established its place in the worship of the English church.  For over one hundred years, congregational singing had been strictly limited to the Psalms of the Old Testament in poetic form.   “Joy to the World” is the "imitation" of the last half of Psalm 98. The author transformed the Psalm of praise for some historic deliverance into a song of rejoicing for the salvation of God that began to be manifested when the Babe of Bethlehem came "to make his blessing flow far as the curse is found." This is one of the most joyous hymns in all Christendom because it makes so real what Christ’s birth means to all mankind.  The tune to which the hymn is sung is attributed to George Frederick Handel and bears resemblance to phrases of his great oratorio, Messiah. Notably the first four tones match the beginning of the chorus, "Lift Up Your Heads."

Virgil Fox (1912-1980) was a child prodigy. At the age of ten, he was playing the organ for church services. At fourteen, he played his first organ recital before a cheering crowd of 2,500 people in Cincinnati. At seventeen, he was the unanimous winner of the Biennial Contest of the National Federation of Music Clubs in Boston, the first organist ever chosen. He attended Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, America’s oldest music conservatory, and became the first one-year student in the history of the Peabody to graduate with the its highest honor, the Artist's Diploma. In 1936, he returned to Baltimore to head the Peabody organ department, and to serve as organist of Brown Memorial Church.  In 1942, he enlisted in the ArmyAir Force and performed 600 recitals in three years to raise money for the armed services. In 1946, Fox became organist of Riverside Church, New York City. In 1952, was chosen by the State Department to represent the United States at the First International Conference of Sacred Music in Bern, Switzerland.


Fox played hundreds of concerts across the United States and Europe. He was the first non-German artist to perform the works of J. S. Bach at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Perhaps the most daring concert Virgil Fox ever played was at the Mecca of rock music, New York’s Fillmore East, where, in 1970, he gave an all-Bach program combined with a light show on the Rodgers Touring Organ. For nine years, "Heavy Organ" toured across the country to various cities, colleges, and festivals. Virgil Fox is credited with bringing the music of Bach to young people.

About the Choral Music:

Were You There on that Christmas Night? – Natalie Sleeth

Natalie Sleeth (1930-1992) was born in Evanston, Illinois. In 1952, she received an Academic major in music theory and a BA in music theory at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. In her later life she received an honorary doctorate from West Virginia Wesleyan College and from Nebraska Wesleyan College. She wrote over 180 works for organ for church and school. She was a member of the Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, TX.

One of Sleeth's best-known anthems for choir is entitled "Joy in the Morning" and was written on the occasion of her husband's inauguration as the president of West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1977.  Another favorite is "In the Bulb There is a Flower", which was composed as an anthem for the Pasadena Community Church, St. Petersburg FL It appears under the title "Hymn of Promise" in the United Methodist Hymnal  and has been translated into German for the Gesangbuch der Evangelisch-methodistischen Kirche (2002).   “Were You There on that Christmas Night?” was originally written for 2-part choir in 1976.  It has since been published for mixed choir with piano and handbells and has been arranged as a congregational hymn and appears in Worship and Rejoice.

            Were you there, were you there on that Christmas night

            When the world was filled with a holy light?

            Were you there to behold, when the wonder foretold came to earth?

            Did you see, did you see how they hailed Him King

            With the gifts so rare that they chose to bring?

            Did you see how they bowed as they praised Him aloud at His birth?

            Did you hear how the choirs of Angels sang at the glory of the sight?

            Did you hear how the bells of Heaven rang all through the night?

            Did you know, did you know it was God’s own Son,

            The salvation of the world begun?

               Did you know it was love that was sent from above to the earth?

About the Vocal Solo Music:

O Holy Night – Adolphe Adam

Placide Cappeau (1808-1877) was the commissionaire of wines in Roquemaure, a small French town.  He was known for his fine poetry.  At the end of the year 1843, the church organ was recently renovated. To celebrate the event, the parish priest asked Cappeau to write a Christmas poem. In a dusty coach travelling to Paris, Placide Cappeau considered the priest's request. Using the gospel of Luke as his guide, Cappeau imagined witnessing the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Thoughts of being present on the blessed night inspired him. By the time he arrived in Paris, “Minuit, chrétiens" (Midnight, Christians) had been completed.  Adolphe Adam set the poem to music in 1847 and titled it "O Holy Night" ("Cantique de Noël").  The song was premiered in Roquemaure in 1847 by the opera singer Emily Laurey.

Adolphe Charles Adam (1803-1856) was a French composer and music critic. A prolific composer of operas and ballets, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle (1841) and Le corsaire (1856, his last work), his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau (1836), Le toréador (1849) and Si j'étais roi (1852) and his Christmas carol Minuit, chrétiens! (1844), later set to different English lyrics and widely sung as "O Holy Night" (1847).  It is an international favorite and is said to have been one of the first pieces of music broadcast on radio.

Adolphe Adam was born in Paris to Jean-Louis Adam (1758–1848), who was a prominent Alsatian composer, as well a professor at the Paris Conservatoire. His mother was the daughter of a physician. As a child, Adolphe Adam preferred to improvise music on his own rather than study music seriously and occasionally truanted with writer Eugène Sue who was also something of a dunce in early years. Jean-Louis Adam was a pianist and teacher but was firmly set against the idea of his son following in his footsteps. Adam was determined, however, and studied and composed secretly under the tutelage of his older friend Ferdinand Hérold, a popular composer of the day. When Adam was 17, his father relented, and he was permitted to study at the Paris Conservatoire—but only after he promised that he would learn music only as an amusement, not as a career. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1821, where he studied organ and harmonium under the celebrated opera composer François-Adrien Boieldieu.  By age 20, he was writing songs for Paris vaudeville houses and playing in the orchestra at the Gymnasie Dramatique, where he later became chorus master. Like many other French composers, he made a living largely by playing the organ.

O holy night the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new glorious morn
Fall on your knees.  O hear the angels' voices
O night when Christ was born.  O night divine.

About the Hymns:

Joy to the World

Our Christmas season would hardly seem complete without the singing of Joy to the World, the most joyous of the carols. Yet Isaac Watts, its author, never intended it to be a Christmas carol at all. Rather, it was a part of his Psalms of David Imitated, published in 1719, which contained paraphrases of many of the Psalms in New Testament language.

The story of the hymn, Joy to the World, is the story of the author, Isaac Watts (1675-1748), who is universally acknowledged as "The Father of English Hymnody". He has earned the title, not because he was first to write English hymns, but because he gave impetus to hymnody and established its place in the worship of the English church.  For over one hundred years, congregational singing had been strictly limited to the Psalms of the Old Testament in poetic form. Many of these rhymed Psalms were so unnatural that Samuel Wesley, father of the famous brothers Charles and John, called them "scandalous doggerel," and his opinion was shared by many.

The birth of Isaac Watts to a dissenting deacon and the daughter of a Huguenot refugee was followed by fourteen years of persecution and hardships for the entire family. Perhaps this suffering was responsible for Isaac Watts’ ill health, for he grew only to a height of just over five feet and was weak and sickly all his life.  Though weak in body, the boy was strong in mind and spirit and early in life showed promise of poetic capability. After one Sunday morning service, Isaac, then fifteen years old, complained of the atrocious worship in song. One of the deacons challenged him: "Give us something better, young man." His answer was to write hundreds of hymns that are still sung today.

 Joy to the World is the "imitation" of the last half of Psalm 98. The author transformed the old Jewish psalm of praise for some historic deliverance into a Christian song of rejoicing for the salvation of God that began to be manifested when the Babe of Bethlehem came "to make his blessing flow far as the curse is found." This is one of the most joyous hymns in all Christendom because it makes so real what Christ’s birth means to all mankind.  The tune to which the hymn is sung is attributed to George Frederick Handel and bears resemblance to phrases of his great oratorio, Messiah. Notably the first four tones match the beginning of the chorus, "Lift Up Your Heads."

O Come, All Ye Faithful

The original text  of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” has been from attributed to various groups and individuals, including St. Bonaventure in the 13th century or King John IV of Portugal in the 17th, though it was more commonly believed that the text was written by an order of monks, the Cistercian, German, Portuguese and Spanish orders having, at various times, been given credit.

The original text consisted of four Latin verses, and it was with these that the hymn was originally published. John Francis Wade (1711=1786) had written the hymn in Latin in 1744, and was first published in 1751. The Abbé Jean-François-Étienne Borderies wrote an additional three verses in the 18th century; these are normally printed as the third to fifth of seven verses, while another, anonymous, additional Latin verse is rarely printed. The text has been translated innumerable times, but the most used version today is the English "O Come, All Ye Faithful". This is a combination of one of Frederick Oakeley's translations of the original four verses and William Thomas Brooke's of the three additional ones, which was first published in Murray's Hymnal in 1852. Oakeley originally titled the song “Ye Faithful, approach ye” when it was sung at his Margaret Church in Marylebone before it was altered to its current form.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

“O Little Town of Bethlehem” is a popular Christmas carol. The text was written by Phillips Brooks (1835–1893), an Episcopal priest, Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia. He was inspired by visiting the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in 1865. “After an early dinner, we took our horses and rode to Bethlehem,” he wrote home in Christmas week of 1865. “It was only about two hours when we came to the town, situated on an eastern ridge of a range of hills, surrounded by its terraced gardens. It is a good-looking town, better built than any other we have seen in Palestine. . . . Before dark, we rode out of town to the field where they say the shepherds saw the star. It is a fenced piece of ground with a cave in it (all the Holy Places are caves here), in which, strangely enough, they put the shepherds. The story is absurd, but somewhere in those fields we rode through the shepherds must have been. . . . As we passed, the shepherds were still “keeping watch over their flocks or leading them home to fold.” Three years later, he wrote the poem for his church and his organist, Lewis Redner, added the music.

Hark, the Herald Angels Sing

The carol we now know as "Hark! the herald angels sing" did not start life as such, and required at least four people to bring it to its current form. Wesley's original, written as a Christmas Day hymn and first published in 1739, is made up of ten four-line verses, rather than the longer eight-line verses with refrain which we have now.  It is interesting to note that in the original version of Wesley's, the heavens ring with the phrase "Glory to the King of kings," echoing Luke's "Glory to God in the highest heaven."  George Whitfield, who had been a student with Wesley, changed this to "Glory to the newborn King" in 1753. His fairly revolutionary Calvinist position was not compatible with Wesley's gentler reforming approach, which eventually bore fruit in the Methodist movement that he and his brother John inspired, Whitfield maintained the four-line verses of Wesley's original, but changed the angels' emphasis: "Glory to the newborn King" means something slightly but significantly different from "Glory to the King of kings." In the Gospel account, the angels praise God, whereas in "Hark! the herald angels sing," they are inaccurately described as praising Jesus.  Furthermore, Luke does not say that the angels "sing," and so it may well be that this reinterpretation by Whitfield has emphasized the popular but unscriptural picture of angels singing the Gloria. ("While shepherds watched" also implies that they sang.)

Silent Night

180 years ago, the carol "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht" was heard for the first time in a village church in Oberndorf, Austria. The congregation at that Midnight Mass in St. Nicholas Church listened as the voices of the assistant pastor, Fr. Joseph Mohr (1792-1848), and the choir director, Franz Xaver Gruber (1787-1863), rang through the church to the accompaniment of Fr. Mohr's guitar.   On that Christmas Eve, a song was born that would wing its way into the hearts of people throughout the world. Now translated into hundreds of languages, it is sung by untold millions every December from small chapels in the Andes to great cathedrals in Antwerp and Rome.

Today books, films and Internet sites are filled with fanciful tales purporting to tell the history of "Silent Night." Some tell of mice eating the bellows of the organ creating the necessity for a hymn to be accompanied by a guitar. Others claim that Joseph Mohr was forced to write the words to a new carol in haste since the organ would not play. A recent film, created for Austrian television places Oberndorf in the Alps and includes evil railroad barons and a double-dealing priest, while a recent book by a German author places a zither in the hands of Franz Gruber and connects Joseph Mohr with a tragic fire engulfing the city of Salzburg. You can read claims that "Silent Night" was sung on Christmas Eve in 1818 and then forgotten by its creators. Of course, the latter are easily discounted by manuscript arrangements of the carol by both Mohr and Gruber which were produced at various times between 1820 and 1855.

The German words for the original six stanzas of the carol we know as "Silent Night" were written by Joseph Mohr in 1816, when he was a young priest assigned to a pilgrimage church in Mariapfarr, Austria. His grandfather lived nearby, and it is easy to imagine that he could have come up with the words while walking thorough the countryside on a visit to his elderly relative. The fact is, we have no idea if any particular event inspired Joseph Mohr to pen his poetic version of the birth of the Christchild. The world is fortunate, however, that he didn't leave it behind when he was transferred to Oberndorf the following year (1817).  On December 24, 1818 Joseph Mohr journeyed to the home of musician-schoolteacher Franz Gruber who lived in an apartment over the schoolhouse in nearby Arnsdorf. He showed his friend the poem and asked him to add a melody and guitar accompaniment so that it could be sung at Midnight Mass. His reason for wanting the new carol is unknown. Some speculate that the organ would not work; others feel that the assistant pastor, who dearly loved guitar music, merely wanted a new carol for Christmas.  Later that evening, as the two men, backed by the choir, stood in front of the main altar in St. Nicholas Church and sang "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!" for the first time, they could hardly imagine the impact their composition would have on the world.

Karl Mauracher, a master organ builder and repairman from the Ziller Valley, traveled to Oberndorf to work on the organ, several times in subsequent years. While doing his work in St. Nicholas, he obtained a copy of the composition and took it home with him. Thus, the simple carol, began its journey around the world as a "Tyrolean Folk Song."

Two traveling families of folk singers from the Ziller Valley, similar to the Trapp Family Singers of "The Sound of Music" fame, incorporated the song into their repertoire. According to the Leipziger Tageblatt, the Strassers sang the song in a concert in Leipzig in December 1832. It was during this period, several musical notes were changed, and the carol evolved into the melody we know today. On another occasion, according to an historical plaque, the Rainer Family sang the Christmas carol before an audience which included Emperor Franz I and Tsar Alexander I. In the year 1839, the Rainers performed "Stille Nacht" for the first time in America, at the Alexander Hamilton Monument outside Trinity Church in New York City.
Joseph Bletzacher, the Court Opera singer from Hannover, reported that by the 1840s, the carol was already well known in Lower Saxony. "In Berlin," he says, "the Royal Cathedral Choir popularized it especially. It became in fact the favorite Christmas carol of the artistically appreciative King Frederick William IV of Prussia, who used to have the Cathedral Choir sing it for him during the Christmas season each year."   During his lifetime, Franz Xaver Gruber produced a number of orchestral arrangements of his composition. The original guitar arrangement is missing, but five other Gruber manuscripts of the carol exist. The manuscript by Joseph Mohr (ca. 1820) is for guitar accompaniment and is probably the closest to the arrangement and melody sung at Midnight Mass in 1818.

Perhaps this is part of the miracle of "Silent Night." The words flowed from the imagination of a modest curate. The music was composed by a musician who was not known outside his village. There was no celebrity to sing at its world premiere. Yet its powerful message of heavenly peace has crossed all borders and language barriers, conquering the hearts of people everywhere.