In 1994, an original manuscript was found in Mohr's handwriting, with Gruber named as composer. After the original manuscript was lost, for decades, some speculated that the music had been written by Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven. Over the years, the carol's mystique grew with its popularity. "Silent Night," by 1914, known around the world, was sung simultaneously in French, German and English. It was sung in churches, in town squares, even on the battlefield during World War I, when, during a temporary truce on Christmas Eve, soldiers sang carols from home. The composition evolved, and was translated into over 300 languages with many different arrangements for various voices and ensembles. In 1839, the Rainer family of singers debuted the carol outside Trinity Church in New York City. In 1834, the Strasser family performed it for the King of Prussia. There, it was picked up and spread by two families of traveling folk singers, who performed around northern Europe. Joseph Mohr, the young priest who wrote the lyrics, played the guitar and sang along with Franz Xaver Gruber, the choir director who had written the melody.Īn organ builder and repair man working at the church took a copy of the six-verse song to his home village. It was Christmas Eve, 1818, when the now-famous carol was first performed as Stille Nacht Heilige Nacht. Recommended to anyone seeking picture-book presentations of this carol, as well as to those who are, like me, admirers of Dusíková's work."The backstory is that the priest went for a walk before he wrote it, and he looked out over a very quiet, winter-laden town," says composer/conductor John Conahan, who co-organized the Silent Night Sing-In with WRTI in 20, and created a new arrangement of the famous carol. I loved the use of color and of light here, and the way the setting shifted from Austria to the Holy Land, and then back again. All told, I think I prefer this version done by Dusíková, whose artwork I have also enjoyed in Dorothea Lachner's The Gift from Saint Nicholas and Selma Lagerlöf's What the Shepherd Saw, both of which are also Christmas books. Originally published in Switzerland as Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, this is the third picture-book presentation of this carol that I have read, following upon the ones done by Susan Jeffers and Lara Hawthorne. A brief note from the illustrator lays out the history of the carol - written on Christmas Eve in 1818, by Father Joseph Mohr, the priest of Oberndorf, Austria, and set to music by church organist Franz Gruber - while the main body of the book is given over to the beautiful words of this song, and the lovely illustrations of Dusíková. The words of the classic Christmas carol, Silent Night - Stille Nacht in the original German - are paired with the luminous artwork of Slovakian illustrator Maja Dusíková in this beautiful holiday picture-book. Silent Night, Holy Night, illustrated by Maja Dusíková The scenes with the angels were particularly well done, making it no surprise that they ended up on the cover of the new edition. Although Jeffers, who has done quite a few well-received fairy-tale retellings as well, is not one of my very favorite illustrators, I do enjoy her work, and this was no exception. I was reminded of candle-lit Christmas Eve carol services I have attended, over the years. With such a simple text, there isn't much of a "story," but the artwork fills in the blanks, and when read while listening to a recording of the carol - I chose a performance done by The Deller Consort, myself - the experience is quite evocative. Reissued in 2003 with new cover art, Susan Jeffers' interpretation of this beloved carol was first published in 1984, and it is this earlier edition that I read. The result is a gentle, contemplative Nativity story that makes for a wonderfully quiet reading experience. Each two-page spread features a sentence or two, with full-page color illustrations depicting the scene being mentioned in the text. The classic Christmas carol Silent Night - "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht" in the original, it was composed by an Austrian priest named Joseph Mohr, set to music by local schoolmaster and oragnist Franz Xaver Gruber, and first performed in Oberndorf bei Salzburg in 1818 - is used as the text for this lovely holiday book, with accompanying artwork by Susan Jeffers. Silent Night, illustrated by Susan Jeffers.
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