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One of the most famous Christmas songs was celebrated on Tuesday as it nears its 200th anniversary, with a concert at the New York Church where "Silent Night" would have been sung in the United States for the first time and where a priest was the first to publish an English translation of Austrian singing.
The performance of the singing by Austrian Kroell family singers and Trinity Church ensembles took place at the Alexander Hamilton Memorial in Trinity Cemetery. The singers stood in front of the memorial in the dark courtyard as spectators gathered and car horns rang in the streets nearby.
The Kroell singers opened the song with verses in German, followed by singers from the Trinity with verses in languages including French, Spanish and finally English. After the outdoor performance, they went inside the church, where the Austrian group sang other songs before ending with another rendition of "Silent Night".
The song resonates with the audience because of its simple melody and its direct message, said Elisabeth Frontull, a member of the Kroell group.
"You sing it from the bottom of your heart, that's why this song is so popular," she said.
Event organizers said they believed the song would have been sung for the first time at the Trinity Church's site in 1839 by the Rainer family singers, a group of singers itinerant Austrian.
"Silent Night" debuted as a musical piece in December 1818, with lyrics by Joseph Mohr, a priest, and music by Franz Xaver Gruber, in Oberndorf, Austria.
In 1859, a Trinity priest, John Freeman Young, published the first English translation of three verses of the song, including the well-known first verse that ended with "Sleep in Heavenly Peace".
It has become one of the most recorded songs in the world and declared as part of the cultural heritage of Austria.
On the occasion of its anniversary, Austrian tourism organizations have organized a number of events in this country, including concerts and exhibitions.
Sigrid Pichler, spokesman for the Austrian Tourism Office in New York, said the Trinity concert – a historic church and tourist attraction that survived the destruction of the nearby World Trade Center in 2001 – was the only one event organized in this state
"It deeply affects the hearts of people," she said. "It's a very simple song, it carries a message of eternal peace.This is also something that the whole world has to hear."
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