Silent Night

First performed Christmas eve in a small Austrian village church by a few singers with guitar accompaniment (performed by the composer, Franz Gruber) in 1818, this song has become the most recorded Christmas tune of all time (according to a 2013 Time magazine survey of Christmas recordings). Joseph Mohr, assistant pastor and choir director, wrote the poem Gruber would set to music. The first half of this arrangement orchestrates two of the earliest known manuscripts researchers have discovered. Both are in 6/8 and the key of D. The first chorus (placed in C) is taken from a handwritten score by Gruber, probably in the mid 1820s, for small chamber orchestra. The horn part is exactly as Gruber wrote it. The second verse in D is from a copy of the first performance made by Mohr in 1820 for guitar and choir. In both of these authentic presentations the last two lines of the tune we now know as Silent Night, are repeated. The arrangement then takes off with more modern harmonies and ends in a brisk 3/4. Early versions of this tune were undoubtedly peppier than most modern interpretations. Two alternate trumpet parts in C are included. Trumpet 1 (Bb part) to written B above staff. Medium.