I loved this morning’s Writer’s Almanac.
For those who aren’t familiar with The Writer’s Almanac, it’s a website and also a radio podcast that offers a daily poem. There are also literary birthdays and milestones mentioned each day, which are always fascinating. It’s a product of American Public Media, Garrison Keillor reads the poems on the podcast and you can subscribe and receive the almanac free, every day. If you like it as much as I do, you may wish to send them a few dollars to help support them. But you don’t have to. You can still subscribe.
Anyway, this morning’s poem was very beautiful and a little sad. Melancholy would be the word, and melancholy is always my mood around Christmas. So happy, but also…you know. Some sadness.
But what I really loved this morning was the following which I am quoting directly from the site:
“It was on this day in 1818 that the carol “Silent Night” (Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!) was first performed at the Church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf, Bavaria. Father Joseph Mohr was working there as a young priest, and had written the poem two years earlier.
Legend has it that as Christmas approached, the church pipe organ was broken, threatening a Midnight Mass without music. Father Mohr paid a quick visit to the choir director, Franz Gruber, and asked him to compose a melody for his Christmas poem. Late that night, the two performed the carol as a duet at the Midnight Mass. Father Mohr sang tenor and played the guitar while Gruber sang bass. The song was immediately popular throughout the village, and copies of the sheet music soon began to spread around the country. By the middle of the 19th century, it was embraced throughout Europe, and was being sung by folk singers, church choirs, and in the courts of kings. It is now sung in 300 languages around the world.
Father Mohr died penniless 30 years after that first performance, having donated his entire church salary to care for the elderly. He also founded a school in Wagrain, in the Austrian state of Salzburg. The school — which still stands near the parish house where Father Mohr once lived — provided education for children of the poor. The song’s composer, Gruber, remained unknown in his lifetime, and many believed that “Silent Night” was the work of Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven — a myth that persisted into the 20th century. It wasn’t until 18 years ago that a copy of the original sheet music was authenticated and the original composers were officially credited.
And it was also on this day in 1914 — nearly a hundred years after it was written — that German soldiers along the Western Front began singing “Silent Night”(Stille Nacht) from their frozen trenches. German troops fighting in Belgium began decorating their trenches and singing Christmas carols. Their enemy, the British, soon joined in the caroling. The war was put on hold, and the soldiers greeted each other in “No Man’s Land,” exchanging gifts of whiskey and cigars. In many areas, the truce held until Christmas night, while in other places the truce did not end until New Year’s Day. In one area, the opposing sides played a soccer match together.
British commanders Sir John French and Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien disapproved of the truce, and they ordered artillery bombardments on Christmas Eve in the remaining years of the war. Troops were also rotated with regularity to keep them from growing too familiar with the enemy troops in the close quarters of trench warfare. The Christmas truce was a war tradition of the 19th century, and its disappearance marked the end of wartime protocols of that time.”
Wow.
God bless all of you who have family members stationed overseas and all who have lost loved ones this year.
And Merry Christmas to all!
Thank you for sharing, I love when the true story comes out. Merry Christmas to your 4 legged and your 2 legged family.
I think it must have been a bit eerie to be in the trenches and hear Silent Night being sung. I agree that Christmas can be sad. It’s supposed to be “the most wonderful time of the year” but for those of us who have experienced loss, we are reminded of those people that won’t be with us. Anyway…I hope you enjoy Christmas with your family and loved ones.
Beautiful story.
Merry Christmas, Ann, and to all who visit your blog.
I love stories like this.
I’ve got one for you. Herbert Howells lost his nine year old son Michael to polio in 1935 and mourned his loss by writing a requiem, or death mass, for him. He composed the most beautiful music–half in English, half in Latin–and hid it away for years, unable to complete the work until twenty years later. More romantic, in a sorrowful sense of the word, he did not officially publish Howell’s Requiem until 1980, just three years before he died.
I’ve performed this Requiem several times and each time I have found myself choking back tears on stage. I’ve listened to it often in the past week after Sandy Hook. If you’ve got fifteen minutes, Howells Requiem is worth the listen.
http://youtu.be/RIz_mujuSxs
Merry Christmas, Ann and blog friends!
I just listened. Thanks for this Lauren!
Such a beautiful story, and what memories it stirred in me. My grandmother, aunts and my mom used to sing Silent Night to us in German on Christmas Eve. I miss them all very much, but to have these memories and stories is a treasure as well. Merry Christmas to you and your family and the family here at the blog !
Mearry Christmas, Ann, Denis, Jack and Devin! (And to everyone who loves your blog like I do!!!).
Oops—-and to Ann’s animals…..
who doesn’t love a good truce?
thanks for sharing that, ann. merriest of christmases to the bestest of blog friends!
I am grateful to have all of you in my life, so may I say Merry Christmas to all the wonderful blog friends, and may you and your family have a very blessed holiday, Ann!
Really beautiful story. You’ve again, made my day. Merry Christmas to your family – fur and human
Merry Christmas to all blog buddies.. Thanks for the uplifting and laugh out loud posts throughout the year Ann. Much happiness to all.
Thank you Ann! Merry Christmas to the Leary family, and to all who visit the blog.
The first piece I ever played on piano was Silent Night, taught to me by my grandfather, using black keys only, with me perched on his lap, him moving my fingers and singing to me in his native German. Thank you, Ann, for reminding me of that memory. Merry Christmas to all! Peace in the New Year!
Merry Christmas.
Ann, Merry Christmas to you and your family and to everyone who reads your blog.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
(And to all of my Jewish friends: don’t forget that we’ll be gathering together on Christmas day at movie theaters and Chinese restaurants all across the country.)
By Christmas Eve, Im usually jealous of my Jewish friends. Very stressful. I spent most of last night looking for present that I eventually realized I never bought. Ugh. Hopefully recipient will remember that that’s not what Christmas is really about (right).
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas all.
I love the story of how the song Silent Night came to be. I just watched the movie tonight this Christmas Eve. Such sad news these last several days…the world deserves a Silent Night, Holy Night.
So true Gail
Beautiful story! I never heard of the Christmas truce and I cannot imagine what life was like during that time. Fighting….then stopping….then singing…some holiday contact with enemy troops…then going back to the war. I am thinking of all our brave men and women stationed all over the world and their families. I am also thinking of all the children and families in Newtown CT. Christmas was always such a joyous time for me, but this year is so different. I am feeling a sadness I never really felt during the holiday season before. My father’s passing earlier this year changed my family’s Christmas traditions quite a bit this year. Experiencing a loss puts such a hole in your heart that never really goes away. My thoughts are with those who are experiencing the same.
I wish everyone on Ann’s Blog a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year. May they both be filled with much love and happiness. Enjoy the holidays and cherish the special moments with those you love.
You too Christine, it is so sad, that first Christmas after a loss like that. SO sorry.
Love the post.
Peace and good will to all!!
Merry Christmas, Ann. Thank you for your beautiful writing. Happy and healthy New Year to you and your entire family.