Transcript

Podcast Introduction

This is Day 5 of the 2022 encore of the 2009 season of the Lifespring! Why Christmas show, hosted by James Cooper, creator of whychristmas.com and me, the OG Godcaster, Steve Webb. I do a podcast called Lifespring Family Audio Bible where we are reading through the entire Bible in one year. Check it out at audiobible.link.

Every day from now to Christmas day, you’ll hear an episode from the 2009 season. If you’re  not yet subscribed or following the show, you can do that at lifespringwhychristmas.show.

And if you enjoy the show and would like to give some value back, you can do so at lifespringwhychristmas.show/support.

Design: Steve Webb. Christmas tree character: James Cooper

Notes

The words of Silent Night were written by a priest Franz Joseph Mohr in Mariapfarr, Austria in 1816. And the music was added by his school teacher friend Franz Xaver Gruber, for the Christmas Eve service at St. Nicholas church in Oberndorf, Austria.

Fr. Mohr had asked Franz Gruber to compose the melody with a guitar arrangement. It was several years later that he added an arrangement for the organ.

There's a legend associated with Silent Night that says that the carol was originally to be sung by the children of the village at the midnight Christmas Eve service as a surprise for their parents. But in the middle of practicing, the church organ broke so they had to sing only accompanied by guitar. However, there aren't any records that the organ was broken at all.

The carol was originally written in German, and translated into English it went:

Silent night, holy night,Bethlehem sleeps, yet what light,Floats around the heavenly pair;Songs of angels fills the air.Strains of heavenly peace.

It's thought that the carol might have traveled around the Austrian and German countryside with an organ repairman.

In 1832, the Strasser family performed it at a concert in Leipzig and in the USA. It was first performed in 1839 by the Rainer family in New York City.

It was translated into English in 1863 and was the carol sung during the Christmas truce in the First World War in December 1914, as it was a song that soldiers on both sides knew.

To find out a bit more about the character go to whychristmas.com and the carol stories page in the Christmas customs section.

The beautiful version you've heard playing under me today was by Michael Ryan on his album A Classical Guitar Christmas, and you can find out more about him and get the album from MichaelRyanMusic.com

Come back tomorrow when Steve will be telling you something about a very popular visitor at Christmas.

To leave you today here's another version of Silent Night that was recorded by our good friend Karmyn Tyler especially for the Lifespring WhyChristmas show a couple of years ago

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