Christmas Ukulele: Stille Nacht (Silent Night)
“Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, alles schläft; einsam wacht nur das traute hochheilige Paar.”
The author
Franz Xaver Gruber, was an Austrian primary school teacher and church organist in the village of Arnsdorf.
Born on November 25, 1787 in the village of Hochburg, Gruber worked as a weaver until the age of 18, then trained to become a schoolteacher.
He completed his music education studying with the church organist of Burghausen, Georg Hartdobler.
In 1807 became schoolteacher in Arnsdorf.
The piece
“Silent Night” (in German: Stille Nacht) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. The original manuscript has been lost. However, a manuscript was discovered in 1995 in Mohr’s handwriting and dated by researchers at ca. 1820.
It shows 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.
The version of the melody that is generally used today is a slow, meditative lullaby, differing slightly from Gruber’s original, which was a sprightly, dance-like tune in 6/8 time.
It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2011 and the lyrics and melody are in the public domain.
My arrangement
The original was in A, but for a better usage of the ukulele tuning I preferred transpose in C.
Here my ukulele version:
Ukulele score&tablature could be downloaded clicking the link below:
