Tag: Christmas Hymns

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Stille Nacht (Silent Night)

The following account is one man’s record of how we came to know and love “Silent Night.”  The accompanying video (YouTube) is sung acapella by St. Thomas Boy’s Choir.  They’re singing this song in its original language, German.  The story is told…silent night

 

In 1818, a roving band of actors was performing in towns throughout the Austrian Alps. On December 23rd they arrived in a village near Salzburg, Germany, where they were to re-enact the story of Christ’s birth at a small church.  Instead, the actors presented their Christmas drama in a private home.  That Christmas presentation of the events in the first chapters of Matthew and Luke placed Josef Mohr, one of the ministers, in a meditative mood.  As he left that evening, instead of walking straight home, Mohr took a longer more scenic route. This path took him up over a hill overlooking the small village.  From that hilltop, Mohr looked down on the peaceful snow-covered hamlet. Reveling in majestic silence of the wintry night, Mohr gazed down at the glowing scene. His thoughts about the recent Christmas play reminded him of a poem he had written a couple of years before. That poem was about the night when angels announced the birth of the long-awaited Messiah to shepherds on a hillside.  Mohr decided those words might make a good ‘carol’ for his congregation the following evening at their Christmas Eve service. The one problem was that he didn’t have any musical composition to which that poem could be sung.  The next day Mohr took his poem to Franz Xaver Gruber, a musically talented member of the congregation. Gruber only had a few hours to come up with a melody which could be sung.  However, by that evening, Gruber had managed to compose a musical setting for the poem.  They now had a Christmas carol ready to be sung by/for the congregation.  On Christmas Eve, the little congregation in the village of Oberndorf heard the first singing of the now favorite, “Silent Night.”  Weeks later this Christmas poem made its way down the mountainside and into the hearts of hundreds of thousands of God-fearing men and women.

Yet a Biblical message so beautifully compiled couldn’t be contained to the Austrian Alps.  In less than 15 years “Silent Night” was sung all across Europe.  Then, in 1838 at the Alexander Hamilton Monument, located outside New York City, this melancholy Christmas hymn was sung in the United States, in its original, German language. Then, nearly fifty years after being first sung in the mountains of Austria, “Silent Night” was translated into English.  By 1876, eight years later, that English version made its way into print in Charles Hutchins’ Sunday School Hymnal.  Today the words of “Silent Night” are sung in more than 300 different languages all around the world.

As the month of December draws to a close, consider this old, ‘Christmas Hymn’ again sung in German.  May this old favorites ring through the years and cheer our hearts.  The “Christmas Song of the Day”…Silent Night.

Silent night! holy night! All is calm, all is bright,
‘Round yon virgin mother and Child!
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night! Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ, the Saviour is born. Christ, the Saviour is born

Silent night, holy night Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth. Jesus Lord, at Thy birth.

 

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Joy to the World

joy to the worldTwo brilliant song writers, separated by almost a century of time and half a world apart, created of one of the most recognizable ‘Christmas hymns’ ever sung.  Issac Watts and Lowell Mason were musical icons who blazed new trails for spiritual renewal.  Their work has touched the hearts of God-fearing men, women and children for generations.  Yet as they penned the words and drafted the scales of this classic favorite, they never realized how much they were blessing the world with this cherished ‘Christmas anthem.’

Isaac WattsPsalm 98 provides the message that Issac Watts needed for the hymn we know as ‘Joy to the World.’  Reading the words penned by the Psalmist in verses 4, 7 & 8 we see the inspiration; “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song…let the sea resound…the world, and all who live in it…let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord…”  The strength of this song comes was we consider the words of the angel in Luke chapter 2, “…I bring you great joy which will be for all people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord…’ (Additionally, this work from Issac Watts was set in common meter, and ‘Joy to the World’ was originally sung to the tune of ‘Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.’

lowell mason

Born in 1792, Lowell Mason grew up in the early years of American history.  A native of New Jersey, he was raised with a love for spiritual hymns.  His ability to compose music for worship was highlighted in the early 1800’s as he taught Sunday school in Georgia.  His musical popularity escalated in the late 1820’s when 50,000 copies of his self-published song book were ordered by Handel & Haydn Society of Massachusetts.  But one of his great accomplishments came in 1836 when Mason composed a new melody inspired by Handel’s Messiah.  The completed melody was an exuberant ode called ‘Antioch.’  It’s name inspired by the Syrian city were followers of Christ were first called ‘Christians.’  But this new master piece lacked the proper message to fit the melody…until he found Watt’s ‘Joy to the World.’

As December continues to roll along we’ll continue to explore and learn more about some of the songs of the season.  This “Christmas Song of the Day”…Joy to the World.

 

Joy to the world! The Lord is come let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare Him room and heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing and heaven, and heaven and nature sing

Joy to the world! the Savior reigns let men their songs employ
While fields and floods rocks, hills and plains repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy repeat, repeat the sounding joy

No more let sin and sorrow grow nor thorns infest the ground
He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found
Far as the curse is found far as, far as the curse is found

He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness and wonders of his love
And wonders of his love and wonders and wonders of his love

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O Come, O Come Emmanuel

o come EmmanuelAs we consider this hymn many call a ‘Christmas song,’ we find it ancient in not only its text, but in the music as well.  The tune you most certainly know it by (made popular in the 1800’s) actually finds its origin from the medieval times.  The lack of strict rhythmic measures gives the tune a free-flowing style.  You can almost hear the simple intervals as they echo through an old, stone cathedral.

Like many hymns of worship, the text of this song provides a rich source for Christian meditation as we notice that each stanza concentrates on a specific Biblical name for Christ.  Jesus is God with us, “Emmanuel.”  He is the “Wisdom from on high” and the “the Lord of might.”  We read in the scripture He is called “the Rod of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1) and the “Key of David” (Isaiah 22:22) “…and the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.”  Jesus is the ‘Dayspring’ (17: 76-79); “…And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”  Certainly, our Savior is the “Desire of Nations” (Haggai 2:7) “…and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.”  The prophets of old wrote and today we sing of our Savior, Emmanuel.

Consider this old, ‘Christmas Hymn’ as we take this month to look at and explore some familiar favorites.  The “Song of the Day”…O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.
Chorus: Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel,
shall come to thee o Israel!
O come, Thou Wisdom, from on high, and order all things far and nigh;
to us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways to go.
O come, o come, Thou Lord of might, who to thy tribes on Sinai’s height
in ancient times did give the law, in cloud, and majesty, and awe.
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse’s stem, from ev’ry foe deliver them
that trust Thy mighty power to save, and give them vict’ry o’er the grave.
O come, Thou Key of David, come, and open wide our heav’nly home,
make safe the way that leads on high, that we no more have cause to sigh.
O come, Thou Dayspring from on high, and cheer us by thy drawing nigh;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death’s dark shadow put to flight.
O come, Desire of the nations, bind in one the hearts of all mankind;
bid every strife and quarrel cease and fill the world with heaven’s peace.