Born on a cold night in the chapel of a small Austrian village, Silent Night, the world’s most famous Christmas carol, is celebrating its 190th anniversary.
The song, known as Stille Nacht in the original German, was first performed on December 24, 1818, in the tiny hamlet of Oberndorf, as a local assistant priest, Joseph Mohr, sought to comfort his flock, racked by poverty and misery in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.
"He asked his friend Franz Xaver Gruber, a teacher, to compose the music for six verses he had written two years prior, and they performed the song together at mass with the help of a simple guitar," says Renate Ebeling-Winkler, a historian and expert on the topic.
The song was an immediate success but remained a secret for many years, until an organ delivery man from Tyrol took note of it on his way through the village.
It soon became a favorite with Tyrolean singers, traveling up and down the continent in the winter to earn money.
"Admired for its resistance to Napoleon, Tyrol was very popular with allied countries and its best singers, like the Rainer family, were world stars," said Ebeling-Winkler.
These artists gave Silent Night worldwide fame, performing it at the royal court in London in 1827, in Moscow in 1831 and in New York in 1839.
By this time, its origins had been largely forgotten and Mohr died in 1848 without ever knowing of his song’s success.
Franz Xaver Gruber only found out about it in 1854 when the carol was almost attributed to Michael Haydn, the brother of famed composer Joseph Haydn.
But Silent Night had already made its way into German school books and into the Catholic and Protestant churches.
Often seen as the quintessential Christmas carol, it has been translated into more than 330 languages, bridging social, religious and cultural divides and contributing to a brief truce in the trenches of World War I on Christmas Eve IN 1914.
Every year, thousands of tourists, many from Asia, travel to the little village to take part in a Christmas Eve ceremony in front of the small chapel.
This year, 190 years after the first performance, the Silent Night ceremony will again be held in the afternoon, and broadcast live on the Internet.
世界最著名的圣诞歌曲《平安夜》（Silent Night 歌词）日前迎来其190岁的生日。这首歌在一个寒冷的夜晚诞生于奥地利一个小村庄的教堂。
《平安夜》原名是德文的Stille Nacht，这首歌于1818年12月24日在（奥地利的）欧本朵夫小村庄首度被演唱，当时教堂助理牧师穆尔用这首歌来抚慰在拿破仑战争后饱受贫穷和悲惨生活之苦的信众们。
研究这一问题的专家、历史学家里内特•艾柏林-温克勒说：“当时穆尔让他的朋友、弗兰兹•艾克塞瓦•格鲁伯老师为他两年前所写的六段诗文谱曲，之后大家在做弥撒时一起练唱了这首歌，不过当时只有吉他伴奏。”
这首歌一举成功，但很多年来一直不为外界所知，直到一名从提洛尔来送管风琴的人路过村庄时，才注意到了这首歌。
这首歌很快成为提洛尔卖艺者们的最爱，这些卖艺者在冬天常奔忙于欧洲各地演唱赚钱。
艾柏林-温克勒说：“提洛尔因抵御拿破仑的侵略而受到尊敬，在同盟国享有较高声望，而当地的一些顶级歌手如Rainer家族，则是世界级的歌星。”
正是这些艺人让《平安夜》成为享誉全球的经典歌曲，他们分别于1827年、1831年和1839年前往英国伦敦的王室、莫斯科和纽约演出。
直到那个时候，这首歌的始创人已几乎被遗忘，穆尔于1848年去世，死前他都不知道他的作品获得了如此成功。
弗兰兹•艾克塞瓦•格鲁伯也是到了1854年才为人所知，当时这首歌差点被认为是著名作曲家约瑟夫•海顿的弟弟迈克尔•海顿所创作。
但此时《平安夜》已经进入了德国学校的课本，并且已开始在天主教和基督教教堂中传唱。
《平安夜》一直被视为圣诞经典歌曲，并已被翻译成330多种语言。这首歌消除了社会、宗教以及文化的分歧，在1914年“一战”的圣诞节前夜，一首《平安夜》平息了战壕中的战火，交战双方达成圣诞临时休战协定。
每年圣诞节，都会有大批游客（很多来自亚洲）来到欧本朵夫村庄，参加在教堂前举行的平安夜吟唱仪式。
今年是《平安夜》诞生190周年，今年的“平安夜”吟唱仪式还将于下午举行，同时在互联网上直播。
Lyrics
Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round your Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace
Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Christ, the Saviour is born
Christ, the Saviour is born
(Silent night, Holy night
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from Heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Hallelujah
Christ, the Savior is born
Christ, the Savior is born) |
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