In 1818, the Austrian Franz Gruber composed his only published work, the music to a poem by the curate of his church; by what name do we know this Christmas carol?
"named choir director, singer and organist. Maria Gruber died in childbirth in 1841. The following year he married Katherine Wimmer. In 1816 he took on the additional responsibilities of organist and choirmaster at St Nicholas Church in the neighboring village of Oberndorf bei Salzburg. Together with Joseph Mohr, a Catholic priest who wrote the original German lyrics, Gruber composed the music for the Christmas carol ""Silent Night"". On Christmas Eve of 1818, Mohr, an assistant pastor at St Nicholas, showed Gruber a six-stanza poem he had written in 1816. He asked Gruber to set the poem to music. The church"
"in Mariapfarr. Poor health forced him to return to Salzburg in the summer of 1817. After a short recuperation he began serving as an assistant priest at St. Nicholas in Oberndorf, where he made the acquaintance of Franz Gruber, schoolteacher in neighbouring Arnsdorf. On a cold Christmas Eve in 1818, Mohr walked the three kilometres from his home in Oberndorf bei Salzburg to visit his friend Franz Xaver Gruber in the neighbouring town of Arnsdorf bei Laufen. Mohr brought with him a poem he had written some two years earlier. He needed a carol for the Christmas Eve midnight Mass"
"Xaver Gruber can be heard in an audio exhibit at the Waggerl Museum in Wagrain. Joseph Mohr Josephus Franciscus Mohr, sometimes spelled Josef (11 December 1792 – 4 December 1848) was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest and writer, who wrote the words to the Christmas carol ""Silent Night."" Mohr was born in Salzburg on 11 December 1792, to an unmarried embroiderer, Anna Schoiberin, and Franz Mohr, a mercenary soldier and deserter, who abandoned Joseph's mother before the birth. The ancestors on his father's side came from the town of Mariapfarr in the mountainous Lungau region south of Salzburg, while his"
"lyrics, or what prompted him to create a new carol. According to Gruber, Karl Mauracher, an organ builder who serviced the instrument at the Obendorf church, was enamoured with the song, and took the composition home with him to the Zillertal. From there, two travelling families of folk singers, the Strassers and the Rainers, included the tune in their shows. The Rainers were already singing it around Christmas 1819, and once performed it for an audience that included Franz I of Austria and Alexander I of Russia, as well as making the first performance of the song in the U.S.,"
"to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the church service. The first English translation was in 1871 where it was published in a Methodist hymnal. Several different Christmas episodes, apart from the birth of Jesus itself, are described in Christmas carols, such as: In addition, some carols describe Christmas-related events of a religious nature, but not directly related to the birth of Jesus. For example: Nineteenth-century antiquarians rediscovered early carols in museums. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, about 500 have been found. Some are wassailing songs, some are religious songs in English, some are"
"years 1822-1830 published. It is of course very rare for such a choir to have a director who is also its own resident composer. Of the music that Christian Friedrich Ruppe wrote for the choir, only two pieces written for performances have survived: the ‘Kerstmuziek 1796’ (‘Music for Christmas 1796’) and the ‘Muziek voor het Paaschfeest 1797’ (‘Music for Easter 1797’). The manuscript of the ‘Kerstmuziek 1796’ was discovered in 1987 when a new inventory was made of the archives of the Heilige Geest Orphanage. The pieces can be seen in the light of the vocal music from the time"
"the birthplace of the carol ""Silent Night"" (German: ""Stille Nacht""), which was first performed at the former ""St. Nikola"" parish church by the schoolmaster Franz Xaver Gruber and the young priest Joseph Mohr on Christmas Eve 1818, from where it spread out to the world. As in the 1890s several floods of the Salzach River destroyed large parts of Oberndorf, the church was finally demolished and a memorial chapel erected on its site in 1937. A full-scale replica of the memorial chapel, built in 1992, can be found in Frankenmuth, Michigan. Oberndorf can be reached from Salzburg by S-Bahn rapid"
"Christmas Lullaby Christmas Lullaby is a popular sacred choral composition by John Rutter, a lullaby for Christmas. He wrote his own text, beginning ""Clear in the darkness"", three stanzas with the refrain ""Ave Maria"". Rutter scored the piece for four vocal parts (SATB) and piano, adding other versions. He composed it on a 1989 commission from The Bach Choir for the celebration of the 70th birthday of their conductor David Willcocks. It was first performed at the choir's Christmas concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, an event that Rutter knew from being a member of the audience as"
"Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn, BWV 96 Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata (Lord Christ, the only Son of God), 96, in Leipzig for the 18th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 8 October 1724. The chorale cantata, part of Bach's second annual cycle, is based on the hymn in five stanzas """" by Elisabeth Cruciger, published in in 1524. The hymn, related to mysticism and comparing Jesus to the Morning star, matches two aspects of the prescribed gospel for the Sunday, the Great Commandment and a theological dispute about the term ""Son of David"". An unknown"
"young priest, Father Joseph Mohr, had come to Oberndorf the year before. He had written the lyrics of the song """" in 1816 at Mariapfarr, the hometown of his father in the Salzburg Lungau region, where Joseph had worked as a co-. The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, schoolmaster and organist in the nearby village of Arnsdorf. Before Christmas Eve, Mohr brought the words to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the Christmas Eve mass, after river flooding had damaged the church organ. It is unknown what inspired Mohr to write the"
"numerous singers in the modern era. 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, then rector of Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia and later of Trinity Church, Boston. He was inspired by visiting the village of Bethlehem in the Sanjak of Jerusalem in 1865. Three years later, he wrote the poem for his church, and his organist Lewis Redner (1831-1908) added the music. Redner's tune, simply titled ""St. Louis"", is the tune used most often for this carol in the United"
"Kaspar Füger Kaspar Füger (also Caspar, born c. 1521, died after 1592) was a German Lutheran pastor and hymn writer. Füger was born around 1521 in Dresden. He worked as a chaplain in Torgau, Saxony, and later he served as pastor at the Kreuzkirche, Dresden. He died after 1592. His son of the same name was a composer of hymns and from 1585 to 1586 ""Kreuzkantor"" (director of music) at the same church. Füger the Elder wrote a Christmas carol, ""Ihr Christenleut"". which was used by several composers. Johann Sebastian Bach set different stanzas of it, on the tune by"
"and dated by researchers as . It states that Mohr wrote the words in 1816 when he was assigned to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria, and shows that the music was composed by Gruber in 1818. This is the earliest manuscript that exists and the only one in Mohr's handwriting. The first edition was published by in 1833 in a collection of ""Four Genuine Tyrolean Songs"", with the following musical text: <score vorbis=""1"" lang=""lilypond""> \relative c"" { </score> The contemporary version, as in the choral example below, is: <score vorbis=""1"" lang=""lilypond""> \relative c"" { </score> In 1859, the Episcopal"
"Christmas concerts in the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries. ""Candlelight Carol"" focuses on describing the Nativity of Jesus, focusing on the love of Mary (mother of Jesus) for her son Jesus. This carol was commissioned by John Romeri, then Director of Music at the Church of the Assumption in Bellevue, Pennsylvania. Candlelight Carol ""Candlelight Carol"" is a Christmas carol with music and lyrics by the English choral composer and conductor John Rutter. The carol was written in 1984, and was first recorded by Rutter's own group, the Cambridge Singers, on their 1987 album ""Christmas Night"". The carol"
"write a Christmas poem, even though the latter had never showed any interest in religion, and Cappeau obliged. Soon afterwards that same year, Adolphe Adam composed the music. The song was premiered in Roquemaure in 1847 by the opera singer Emily Laurey. Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, editor of ""Dwight's Journal of Music"", translated the song into English lyrics in 1855. The song has been recorded by numerous well-known popular-music, classical-music, and religious-music singers. Some milestones include: O Holy Night ""O Holy Night"" () is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem ""Minuit,"
"Christmas carol A Christmas carol (also called a noël, from the French word meaning ""Christmas"") is a carol (song or hymn) whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas, and which is traditionally sung on Christmas itself or during the surrounding holiday season. Christmas carols may be regarded as a subset of the broader category of Christmas music. The first known Christmas hymns may be traced to 4th-century Rome. Latin hymns such as ""Veni redemptor gentium"", written by Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, were austere statements of the theological doctrine of the Incarnation in opposition to Arianism. ""Corde natus ex Parentis"""
"the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych as ""Shchedryk"", and premiered in December 1916 by a choral group made up of students at Kyiv University. Although it is a Christmas carol in Wilhousky's English lyrics, in original Ukrainian lyrics it is a Generous Eve carol (, ), having nothing with Christianity. Christmas music performed in the United States ranges from popular songs, such as ""Jingle Bells"", to Christmas carols, such as ""Away in a Manger"", ""O Little Town of Bethlehem"", and numerous others of varying genres. Church and college choirs celebrate with special programs and online recordings. Christmas carol A Christmas carol"
"Christmas Concerto (Corelli) Concerto grosso in G minor, Op. 6, No. 8 by Arcangelo Corelli, known commonly as the Christmas Concerto, was commissioned by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and published posthumously in 1714 as part of Corelli's ""Twelve concerti grossi, Op. 6"". The concerto bears the inscription """" (made for the night of Christmas). Its composition date is uncertain, but there is a record of Corelli having performed a Christmas concerto in 1690 for the enjoyment of his new patron. The concerto is scored for an ensemble consisting of two concertino violins and cello, ripieno strings and continuo. The work is"
"1725). In 1718, he composed his Christmas cantata for tenor solo, string emsemble, trumpet and basso continuo, first performed on Christmas Day 1718 in the court chapel. This cantata is considered representative of the Saxon baroque music and is still performed occasionally in the Frauenkirche in Dresden. She lived in Forst until her death; she died on 28 April 1736. She was buried in the crypt of the St. Nicholas church in Forst (Lausitz). The in Forst was named after her. It is close to the location of her palace, which no longer exists. The exact location of her grave"
"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, then rector of Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia and later of Trinity Church, Boston. He was inspired by visiting the village of Bethlehem in the Sanjak of Jerusalem in 1865. Three years later, he wrote the poem for his church, and his organist Lewis Redner (1831-1908) added the music. Redner's tune, simply titled ""St. Louis"", is the tune used most often for this carol in the United States. Redner recounted the story of"
"and Modern"" in 1861. Professor Jeremy Dibble of Durham University has noted that ""While Shepherds Watched"" was ""the only Christmas hymn to be approved by the Church of England in the 18th century and this allowed it to be disseminated across the country with the Book of Common Prayer."" This was because most carols, which had roots in folk music, were considered too secular and thus not used in church services until the end of the 18th century. David Weyman's adaptation of ""Christmas"", taken from an aria in the 1728 opera ""Siroe"" by George Frideric Handel was arranged by Lowell"
"chorus repeats how the birth of Christ has raised up the poor and cast down the proud. First verse and chorus: Masters in This Hall ""Masters in This Hall"" (alternative title: ""Nowell, Sing We Clear"") is a Christmas carol with words written around 1860 by the English poet and artist William Morris to an old French dance tune. The carol is moderately popular around the world but has not entered the canon of most popular carols. The French composer Marin Marais composed the tune as a dance for his opera ""Alcyone"" of 1706, with the title ""Marche pour les Matelots""."
"or the Slovenian-German composer Jacobus Gallus). Georg Wicel, a contemporary of Martin Luther, referred to the carol as ""one of the chief Christmas songs of joy"" in 1550. In addition to its literal English translation, it has also appeared as ""Christ was born on Christmas Day"" in two different translations by John Mason Neale in 1853 (who based his version on the 1582 Swedish song collection ""Piae Cantiones"") and Elizabeth Poston in 1965. In Germany, the melody is used for the traditional song ""Joseph, lieber Joseph mein"", originally sung as a lullaby by the Virgin Mary in a 16th-century mystery"
"Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV 191 ' (Glory to God in the Highest), ', is a church cantata written by the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach, and the only one of his church cantatas set to a Latin text. He composed the Christmas cantata in Leipzig probably in 1745 to celebrate the end of the Second Silesian War on Christmas Day. The composition's three movements all derive from the Gloria of an earlier Missa (Kyrie and Gloria in B minor) written by Bach in 1733 for the Dresden court, which the composer would later use as the Gloria of"
"Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn """" (Lord Christ, the Only Son of God) is a Lutheran hymn by Elisabeth Cruciger. Printed in 1524 in the Erfurt ""Enchiridion"", together with 18 hymns by Martin Luther, it is one of the oldest Lutheran hymns. The text combines Lutheran teaching with medieval mysticism. It has been the basis of musical settings such as Bach's chorale cantata . Apart that Elisabeth Cruciger's authorship has been ascertained, little or nothing is known about the genesis of ""Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn"". The notion that it was modelled after the Christmas hymn ""Corde natus"
"Christmas Oratorio The Christmas Oratorio (), , is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It was written for the Christmas season of 1734 and incorporates music from earlier compositions, including three secular cantatas written during 1733 and 1734 and a now lost church cantata, BWV 248a. The date is confirmed in Bach's autograph manuscript. The next performance was not until 17 December 1857 by the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin under Eduard Grell. The ""Christmas Oratorio"" is a particularly sophisticated example of parody music. The author of the text is unknown, although a"
"a Christmas service sometime in the mid-1740s (between 1743 and 1746). In the last years of his life, Bach integrated the complete Mass for the Dresden court (Bach) as Kyrie and Gloria in his Mass in B minor, his only complete mass (or ""missa tota""). Scoring and structure are identical with the later work. Another part of this Mass was derived from the 1724 Sanctus for six vocal parts. Also the music of several movements of his earlier German cantatas was integrated in this mass. Hans Georg Nägeli described the work, in 1818, as ""the greatest musical art work of"
"Candlelight Carol ""Candlelight Carol"" is a Christmas carol with music and lyrics by the English choral composer and conductor John Rutter. The carol was written in 1984, and was first recorded by Rutter's own group, the Cambridge Singers, on their 1987 album ""Christmas Night"". The carol has since been recorded by many artists, including Neil Diamond (on his 1994 album ""The Christmas Album, Volume 2""), Joseph McManners (on his 2005 album ""In Dreams""), Aled Jones (including a version in Welsh), and several important choirs including the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It has also become a fairly popular carol for choirs at"
"Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63 ' (Christians, engrave this day), ', is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the Christmas cantata for the First Day of Christmas, possibly in 1713 for the in Halle. He performed it again for his first Christmas as in Leipzig, on 25 December 1723. The cantata is Bach's earliest extant cantata for Christmas Day, possibly composed in Weimar as early as 1713. The text of the cantata, which echoes theologians in Halle, suggests that it was composed with Halle's in mind, in 1713, when Bach applied to be organist of this"
"first line only by the continuo, but for the rest of the text by the oboes, playing an obbligato melody in unison. The only aria of the cantata is dominated by the oboes and accompanied by pizzicato in the strings which symbolizes funerary bells, according to John Eliot Gardiner. The closing chorale is again enriched by a soaring additional violin part. Christus, der ist mein Leben, BWV 95 Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata (Christ, he is my life), 95 in Leipzig for the 16th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 12 September 1723. Bach wrote the"
"Christum wir sollen loben schon, BWV 121 Bach composed the cantata in his second year in Leipzig for the . The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the Epistle to Titus (), the Acts of the Apostles ( and ), and the Gospel of Luke (). The source for the melody is Martin Luther's setting of the hymn ""Christum wir sollen loben schon"", a German translation of the Latin ""A solis ortus cardine"" (c. 430). The opening chorus is its first verse and the closing chorale is its eighth verse, both unchanged. The hymn's other verses are freely"
"Corpus Christi Carol Corpus Christi Carol is a Middle or Early Modern English hymn (or carol), first found by an apprentice grocer named Richard Hill in a manuscript written around 1504. The original writer of the carol remains anonymous. The earliest surviving record of the piece preserves only the lyrics and is untitled. It has survived in altered form in the folk tradition as the Christmas carol ""Down In Yon Forest"". The structure of the carol is six stanzas, each with rhyming couplets. The tense changes in the fourth stanza from past to present continuous. One hypothesis about the meaning"
"standing on either side. The ivories are meant to serve as the folding wings of the ivory relief of the golden book cover of the Treasury Gospels and have no connection whatsoever with the silverwork evangelists and angels In 1886, the master of the Aachen Minster college, Heinrich Böckeler found the so-called ""Aachen Fragment"" in the Liuthar Gospels, which was dated orthographically to the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries. It contained the beginning of the oldest known Christmas carol in German language, the ""Aachen Christmas Carol"". The melody, recorded in square notation, comes with the words """"Syt willekomen heirre kirst want"