Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Silent Night - alternative words
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Mudfrog
Shipmate
# 8116
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Posted
In looking again at which carols to use this year I looked at our version of silent Night, attributed of course to Fr Mohr, but which I have never seen in anyone else's hymn book, carol book or carol sheet.
Does anyone else have these words:
quote: Silent night! Holy night! All is calm, all is bright Round the virgin mother and child; Holy infant, tender and mild, Rests in heavenly peace.
Silent night! Holy night! Guiding star, lend thy light. See, the eastern wise men bring Gifts and homage to our King, Jesus Christ is here.
Silent night! Holy night! Wondrous star, lend thy light. With the angels let us sing Hallelujahs to our King, Jesus Christ is here.
I would love to know where The Salvation Army got them from.
-------------------- "The point of having an open mind, like having an open mouth, is to close it on something solid." G.K. Chesterton
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Mamacita
 Lakefront liberal
# 3659
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Posted
Perhaps they are an adaptation from the original German lyrics? (I barely passed one trimester of German back in univerity, so this is a very wild guess!)
-------------------- Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
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Jengie jon
 Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
Two different translators the one above was by John F Young the other version Stopford A Brooke.
Jengie
-------------------- "To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
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Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175
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Posted
I have sung the above version in a very low Anglican church.
-------------------- Consider the work of God: Who is able to straighten what he has bent? [Ecclesiastes 7:13]
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
One rarely sees (at least in the USA) a translation of 'Silent Night' that even comes close to the Austro-German original. While my own German isn't up to the task, a priest friend who served in Germany and is quite fluent came up with an accurate translation that fits the metre of the tune. I'll post it (with his permission) if I can find it.
-------------------- You can't retire from a calling.
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Forthview
Shipmate
# 12376
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Posted
The version posted by the OP is the one which is usually heard in RC churches in Scotland. Generally Presbyterians here have another version which begins Still the Night,holy the nightThis version follows more closely the language of the original version in German. Unfortuinately I can't remember any more,but you can find the words,I'm sure in any Scottish Presbyterian hymnbook. There is,by the way a fourth verse, which I don't think was written by Josef Mohr,but which is often sung in Austria at Epiphany :
Stille Nacht,heilige Nacht Seht den Stern in grosser Pracht Er fuehrte die Weisen ins heilige Land Wo einjeder als Kindlein fand Christus,den Heiland der Welt
Silent Night,holy night See the star in its great beauty It led the wise men To the Holy land where each found in the person of a little child Christ,the Saviour of the world.
Posts: 3444 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Feb 2007
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otyetsfoma
Shipmate
# 12898
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Posted
In my childhood the CofEin Canada had (in its official hymn book) a version that managed to avoid any reference to the Theotokos!As I recall the offending bit "...save the light Yonder where they sweet vigil keep O'er thr Babe who in silence deep Sleeps in heavenly peace"
Posts: 842 | From: Edgware UK | Registered: Aug 2007
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The Silent Acolyte
 Shipmate
# 1158
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Posted
Keeping the steep incline toward the deceased equine firmly in view, may I ask whether there is an alternate tune to this old chestnut, one that doesn't have us screeching out "heavenleeee peeeeEEEEECE!!!!"? [ 28. November 2012, 22:52: Message edited by: The Silent Acolyte ]
Posts: 7462 | From: The New World | Registered: Aug 2001
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Oblatus
Shipmate
# 6278
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by The Silent Acolyte: Keeping the steep incline toward the deceased equine firmly in view, may I ask whether there is an alternate tune to this old chestnut, one that doesn't have us screeching out "heavenleeee peeeeEEEEECE!!!!"?
But fat chance another tune would ever be chosen for Silent Night on Christmas Eve except as a strange method of suicide or at least a bridge-burning closure to a phase of one's church-music career.
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Mr. Rob
Shipmate
# 5823
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by The Silent Acolyte: ... this old chestnut ...
I dread to hear it sung every year. It's probably something about the weary, syrupy sentimentality of the hymn which makes be gag. Then too, one encounters Silent Night on the street, in stores and even on the high class radio stations too long before Christmas. By the time Silent Night comes at the midnight Mass with theatrical lowering of the lights, I want to run screaming from the church.
All of this is a very good reason for me to stay hidden away as much as possible during this silly season, go to Mass only on Christmas Day, and turn on the radio again on Christmas morning. For years, when I had to attend Christmas midnight Mass as part of my duties, I could slip out of the sanctuary or out of choir under cover of the dim light in the darkened church and excuse myself during the singing of Silent Night for what appeared to be an emergency toilet call. That worked like a charm and I always returned undercover of darkness for the retiring procession.
I'm sure this is all scandalous, if not heretical, to hear from me about Silent Night. But I think it would take years of psychotherapy to cure me of my neurotic phobia for the hymn. It's like fear of elevators or fear of flying, I think. I once knew a priest who had a neurotic fear of parades, the brass band type of parade.Church processions were OK for him, but not something like a civic praade outside on the street.
So to me, this list is really scary. Just think of all the occasions or places I might encounter Silent Night. And list is not comprehensive. I don't see the great Silent Night opus of Alvin & The Chipmonks, for instance, some versions of Silent Night that have been recorded and released by popular recording artists.
* Perry Como (several times)
* Frank Sinatra from Christmas Songs by Sinatra (1948)
* Elvis Presley from Elvis' Christmas Album (1957)
* Andy Williams from The Andy Williams Christmas Album (1963)
* Jim Reeves from Twelve Songs of Christmas (1963)
* Barbra Streisand from A Christmas Album (1967) entitled 'Sleep In Heavenly Peace'
* The Temptations (1968, and again in 1980)
* Reba McEntire from Merry Christmas to You (1987)
* Bros from the double-A-side single "Cat Among the Pigeons/ Silent Night" (1988)
* Boyz II Men from Christmas Interpretations (1993)
* Gloria Estefan from Christmas Through Your Eyes (1993) partly as Noche De Paz in Spanish
* Mariah Carey from Merry Christmas (1994)
* Enya as a b-side of her "Evening Falls" single (1988) and again on And Winter Came... (2008) both times as {I] Oiche Chiun [/I] in Gaelic
* Jewel from Joy: A Holiday Collection (1999) Linda Ronstadt from A Merry Little Christmas (2000)
* Christina Aguilera from My Kind of Christmas (2000)
* Plus One from Christmas (2002)
* Whitney Houston from One Wish: The Holiday Album (2003)
* Brad Paisley from Brad Paisley Christmas (2006)
* Sarah McLachlan from Wintersong (2006) Il Divo from Siempre (2006)
* Damien Leith from the limited special Christmas edition of Where We Land (2007)
* Taylor Swift from Christmas EP Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (2007)
* Josh Groban from Noël (2007) also as Noche De Paz in Spanish
*Katherine Jenkins from Sacred Arias (2008)
* David Archuleta from Christmas from the Heart (2009)
* Tori Amos from Midwinter Graces (2009)
* Susan Boyle from I Dreamed a Dream (2009)
* Pixie Lott from Turn It Up iTunes UK Deluxe Edition (2009)
* Hayley Westenra from the Nativity! soundtrack (2009)
* REO Speedwagon from Not So Silent Night: Christmas with REO Speedwagon (2009)
* Jackie Evancho from O Holy Night (2010)
* Richard Marx from The Christmas EP (2011)
* Annie Lennox from A Christmas Cornucopia (2010)
* Michael Bublé from Christmas (2011)
* Joe McElderry from Classic Christmas (2011)
* Cee Lo Green from Cee Lo's Magic Moment (2012)
* Lady Antebellum from On This Winter's Night (2012)
* Cascada from It's Christmas Time (2012)
* Rod Stewart from Merry Christmas, Baby (2012)
* Justin Bieber from Under the Mistletoe (2012)
*
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