December 24, 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:

Variations on “Lo, How a Rose” – Murray Bradshaw

"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.

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist.  He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns, many of which reflect an effort to improve the relationship between Protestants and Catholics.  After receiving his musical education, from 1587 he served as organist at the Marienkirche in Frankfurt. From 1592/3 he served at the court in Wolfenbüttel, under the employ of Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. He served in the duke's State Orchestra, first as organist and later (from 1604) as Kapellmeister. His first compositions appeared around 1602/3. Their publication primarily reflects the care for music at the court of Gröningen. The motets of this collection were the first in Germany to make use of the new Italian performance practices; as a result, they established him as a proficient composer. These "modern" pieces mark the end of his middle creative period. The nine parts of his Musae Sioniae (1605–10) and the 1611 published collections of liturgical music (masses, hymns, magnificats) follow the German Protestant chorale style. From 1613 until his death, Praetorius was employed by the court in Dresden, where he was declared Kapellmeister von Haus aus and worked with Heinrich Schütz.  Michael Praetorius died on his 50th birthday, in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, and is entombed in a vault beneath the organ of the Marienkirche there.

A literal translation of the original German text is:

A rose has sprung up, from a tender root.
As the old ones sang to us, Its lineage was from Jesse.
And it has brought forth a floweret In the middleof the cold winter
Well at half the night.

The rosebud that I mean, Of which Isaiah told
Is Mary, the pure, Who brought us the floweret.
At God’s immortal word, She has borne a child
And remained a pure maid. Who makes us blessed.

The floweret, so small That smells so sweet to us
With its clear light Dispels the darkness.
True man and true God! He helps us from all trouble,
Saves us from sin and death.

Murray Bradshaw (b. 1930) studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago and received his PhD from the University of Chicago.  He is former Chair of Musicology at UCLA, and the author of several books and scholarly editions of music, including The Origin of the Toccata (1972), The Falsobordone: A Study in Renaissance and Baroque Music (1978), and Early Sacred Monody (4 vols; 1985-). His translation and study of Giovanni Luca Conforti's Breve et facile maniera s'essercitarsi(1593) appeared in 1998, and an earlier facsimile edition and translation, with Edward J. Sohnlen, of Girolamo Diruta's Il Transilvano (1593, 1603) appeared in 1983 and 1984. Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di anima e di corpo (1600), the first dramatic composition sung throughout, appeared in 2007 as the fourth volume of his series on "Early Sacred Monody." He has published numerous articles in many scholarly journals as well as compositions for the organ. He also served as the general editor of "Musicological Studies and Documents" and the "Miscellanea" series for the American Institute of Musicology.  He is organist at the 43^rd Church of Christ Scientist, Woodland Hills, California.

O Little Town of Bethlehem – Robert Hobby

“O Little Town of Bethlehem” is a popular carol, whose 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 men 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 to us today
We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us Our Lord Emmanuel

Robert A. Hobby (b. 1962) currently serves as Director of Music for Trinity English Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his responsibilities include playing for many of the worship services, overseeing the graded choral program, and managing the concerts the church offers. Numerous activities during his tenure include Trinity Church establishing a choral series with seventeen composers commissioned thus far, hosting a regional convention of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, producing four recordings, and expanding the opportunities for music ministry.

O Come, All Ye Faithful – Gordon Young

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 come, all ye faithful, Joyful and triumphant,
O Come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him, Born the King of angels;

Refrain
O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

God of God, Light of Light,
Lo! he abhors not the Virgin’s womb;
Very God, Begotten not created.

Sing, choirs of angels, Sing in exultation;
Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!
Glory to God, In the highest; 

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, Born this happy morning;
Jesu, to Thee be glory given;
Word of the Father, Now in flesh appearing.

See how the shepherds, Summoned to His cradle,
Leaving their flocks, draw nigh to gaze;
We too will thither Bend our hearts' oblations

There shall we see Him, His Eternal Father's
Everlasting Brightness now veiled under flesh;
God shall we find there, a Babe in infant clothing;

Father eternal, Thine eternal splendour
Now veiled in flesh our eyes shall see:
God as an infant, swaddling clothes about him.

Child, for us sinners Poor and in the manger,
We would embrace Thee, with love and awe;
Who would not love Thee, Loving us so dearly? 

Lo! Star-led chieftains, Magi, Christ adoring,
Offer Him frankincense and gold and myrrh;
We to the Christ-child, Bring our hearts oblations: 

Gordon Young (1919-1998) was born in McPherson, Kansas, and during his lifetime was recognized as one of this country's great church organists. He was a prolific and talented composer for both organ and choir, with nearly 1000 published works.  During the course of his career, he was a radio organist in Tulsa, a music critic and columnist for daily newspapers in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, and choirmaster in churches in Philadelphia and Kansas City. Mr. Young taught organ in conjunction with Wayne State University and for 15 years was organist and choir director at the First Presbyterian Church in Detroit.

About the Piano Music:

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen – Jarrod Radnich

        Jeremy Page, piano

Oddly enough, understanding the original meaning behind this song, one of the most misunderstood carols of Christmas, also helps explain one of the most misused words describing Christmas itself. What Americans hear when they listen to “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is not anything like what the English peasants meant when they first sang this song more than 500 years ago. Because of how wonderfully it told the Christmas story, the song even earned a prominent spot in Dickens’s classic novel A Christmas Carol, and if people today fully understood its unique lyrics too, most would probably designate “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” as one of the most profound and meaningful hymns in the world.

Like so many early Christmas songs, this carol was written as a direct reaction to the music of the 15th Century Church. During this period, the songs of organized religion were usually written in Latin and their melodies were somber and dark, offering singers and listeners little inspiration or joy. In fact, though few admitted it in public, most church members secretly disliked the accepted religious songs of the day. Yet the laymen of the time had no power over the way they worshipped and had to accept things as they were. So, while they continued to go to worship, they created their own church music outside the walls of the cathedrals and chapels. In this way, the peasant class led a quiet rebellion against the tone of religious music by writing religious folks songs that were light, lively and penned in common language. Their Christmas folk songs became the foundation of what are now knows as Christmas carols.  “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” was the most famous and most loved of all the early carols. Written with an upbeat melody and speaking of the birth of Jesus in joyful terms, the song may have shocked early church leaders, but it charmed their flocks. Not only did they sing to this carol, they danced to it.

“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’s” lyrics reveal that the song’s unknown writer knew the story of Jesus’ birth well. He included the high points of the gospel throughout the carol’s verses. The writer also fully understood the power of Christ and what His arrival meant to all who embraced it. In the case of this writer, comprehending the full and personal meaning of the birth of the Son of God brought forth enthusiasm and joy simply not found in any other church songs of the period. Though it might have been rejected by the church leaders, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” better presented the message of the first Christmas and the life of Jesus than did many of the songs used in formal worship of the day.  “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” was sung for hundreds of years before it was finally published in the nineteenth century. By that time—thanks in part to Queen Victoria’s love of carols—the song found favor in the Anglican Church. Soon even the protestant English clergy of the Victorian era were enthusiastically teaching “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” to their parishioners. Crossing the ocean to both Europe and America, the carol became a favorite throughout the Christian world and it is still sung in much the same way as it was five hundred years ago. The only problem is that few of today’s singers fully understand the beginning of each of the carol’s many verses. This is a result of the evolution of the English language.

When modern people say “Merry” Christmas, the word merry means happy. When “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” was written, merry had a very different meaning. Robin Hood’s “Merry Men” might have been happy, but the merry that described them meant great and mighty. Thus, in the Middle Ages, a strong army was a merry army, a great singer was a merry singer, and a mighty ruler was a merry ruler.  So when the English carolers of the Victorian era sang, “merry gentlemen,” they meant great or mighty men. Ye means you, but even when translated to “God rest you mighty gentlemen,” the song still makes very little sense. This is due to another word that has a much different meaning in today’s world and a lost punctuation mark.  The word rest in “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” simply means keep or make. Yet to completely uncover the final key to solving this mystery of meaning, a comma needs to be placed after the word “merry.” Therefore, in modern English, the first line of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” should read “God make you mighty, gentlemen.” Using this translation, the old carol suddenly makes perfect sense, as does the most common saying of the holidays, “Merry Christmas.”

You might wonder why, when most didn’t fully understand the real meaning of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” the old carol remained popular. The world’s love for this song is probably due to its upbeat musical piece paired with the telling of the most upbeat story the world has ever known. Those who sing it naturally get caught up in the celebratory mood of the message and embrace the same kind of emotions that those first to visit the baby Jesus must have felt. As the angel told the shepherds, “I bring you news of great joy.” That joy and the power of faith can be felt and experienced in every note and word of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” You just have to know how to translate the words into the language of the day to have a very Mighty Christmas!

God rest ye merry, gentlemen Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan's power When we were gone astray

In Bethlehem, in Israel, This blessed Babe was born
And laid within a manger Upon this blessed morn
The which His Mother Mary Did nothing take in scorn

From God our Heavenly Father A blessed Angel came;
And unto certain Shepherds Brought tidings of the same:
How that in Bethlehem was born The Son of God by Name.

"Fear not then," said the Angel, "Let nothing you affright,
This day is born a Saviour Of a pure Virgin bright,
To free all those who trust in Him From Satan's power and might."

The shepherds at those tidings Rejoiced much in mind,

And left their flocks a-feeding In tempest, storm and wind:
And went to Bethlehem straightway The Son of God to find.

And when they came to Bethlehem Where our dear Saviour lay,

They found Him in a manger, Where oxen feed on hay;
His Mother Mary kneeling down, Unto the Lord did pray.

Now to the Lord sing praises, All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas All other doth deface.

O tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

Jarrod Radnich has captured the top position on YouTube for piano performance, been ranked #1 for classical artists globally by ReverbNation, been featured with PianoDisc on NBC’s Today Show and, with over 80 million video viewers worldwide, has been heralded as “the force that is making classical piano technique cool again.” Compositions from his Virtuosic Piano Solo Series sheet music line are performed around the globe and carried by Musicnotes.com. His fresh compositions and orchestrations draw much acclaim and have been performed by him at venues such as Lincoln Center, the Annenberg Theatre, and the Music Center at Strathmore, have made him a best-selling author with Hal Leonard Corporation, and Musicnotes.com,, and have served as the launching pad for the Virtuosic Piano Solo Series.

Labeled a child prodigy, at age 11 Radnich began professionally instructing piano and thereafter received full scholarships to Berklee School of Music at 15 and the University of Redlands at 17. During those teen years Radnich rose to be named the Musical Director of “Babes in Arms” (McCallum Theatre), starred in “Jarrod in Concert” (Annenberg Theatre), and composed and produced an original, fully-orchestrated film score for the silent film Metropolis. Following a lengthy and intense battle with a life-threatening illness, Radnich’s was spotlighted in presentations linking music and well-being at The Cleveland Clinic, The Voice Foundation, the Intel Visionary Conference, and various venues with the Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute and Dr. Barry Bittman. Radnich volunteers his time as the President and Artistic Director of the Hi-Desert Cultural Center in Joshua Tree, California, co-directs the Hi-Desert Arts Academy Program, and, as founder of the Desert Music Foundation.

About the Choral Music:

Christmas Sanctus – Lee Dengler

Lee Dengler received a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from West Chester University School of Music in West Chester, PA. He studied choral composition and arranging with Alice Parker at Westminster Choir College as well as in her home in New England where he participated in the Melodious Accord Fellowship program. Lee and his wife, Susan, live in Goshen, Indiana where they are Ministers of Music and Arts at College Mennonite Church. He directs the Goshen Community Chorale. Composing has always been a passion for Lee, beginning very early in life. Lee grew up in a Mennonite church in eastern Pennsylvania where four-part a cappella congregational hymn singing was the norm. This planted in him a deep love for singing. This love continues to be an influence in his writing today. Lee composes a wide range of choral, vocal and piano works and has over 220 works.  The “Christmas Sanctus” was written by Lee with words by his wife Susan.

          See the weary pair, nestled in a stable bare,

Gazing at their baby boy, filled with love and praise.

Earth and heaven sing, worshipping the newborn King,

Who has come to change the world.

Join in songs of praise:

Holy, holy, holy is the blessed one.

Heaven and earth are filled with your glory.

Holy, holy, holy is the promised Son.

Glory be to God in the highest!

See the shepherds run, searching for God’s precious Son;

Kneeling at his manger bed, filled with love and praise.

Every knee will bow.  Every tong confessing now,

Jesus is Lord of all.

            Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.

About the Vocal Duet 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.

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming,

With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.

So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming

Here came the wisemen from the Orient land.

The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,

In all our trials born to be our friend,

He knows our need, he guardeth us from danger;

Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend,

Behold your King, your King, before Him bend.

Truly he taught us to love one another;

His law is love and his Gospel is Peace.

Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,

And in His name all oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,

Let all within us praise His holy name.

Christ is the Lord, then ever, ever praise we,

His power and glory evermore proclaim.

            His power and glory evermore proclaim.

About the Hymns:

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.

Angels We Have Heard on High

"Angels We Have Heard on High" is a Christmas carol of French origin in the public domain. The song commemorates the story of the birth of Jesus Christ found in the Gospel of Luke, in which shepherds outside Bethlehem encounter a multitude of angels singing and praising the newborn child.  People began to chant the phrase "Gloria in excelsis Deo" in Christmas Eve worship services as early as 130 A.D. In medieval times, French shepherds had a Christmas Eve tradition of shouting "Gloria in excelsis Deo" to each other as they watched over their sheep flocks on their respective hills in southern France. A Latin chorale version may have inspired the traditional French Christmas carol 'Les Anges dans nos Campagnes,' which Edward Shippen Barnes used in the 1800s to arrange the first version of 'Angels We Have Heard on High'. The most common English version that was translated in 1862 by James Chadwick, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, northeast England.  'Angels We Have Heard on High' was first published in English as part of an 1862 book called Crown of Jesus Music. But the version that has become popular worldwide was published later, in 1916, in the book Carols Old and Carols New.

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.

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."