The Viral Sensation of 1818 - a Not So Silent Night

By Anne Sullivan 

In 2023, music that “goes viral” is almost normal. With social media, all it takes is the right video at the right time and the entire world sees it, dances to it and sings along. Two hundred years ago, it took a lot longer for music to have that kind of widespread impact. Here’s a story of a song that “went viral” in the 1800’s. It took about 40 years, not bad for a time when there was no electricity in homes, let alone any way to record music.

It started on Christmas Eve in 1818. That day the assistant priest of a small church in Oberndorf, Austria handed the church organist a poem he had written and asked the church’s organist to set it to music. The two of them performed it at the service that night standing by the Nativity scene in the church, just voice and guitar accompaniment. It was the first performance of the carol “Stille Nacht” or “Silent Night.” The priest, Joseph Mohr, and the organist, Franz Gruber, could have had no idea on that Christmas Eve how their composition would spread.

Although the familiar story about the mouse that chewed through the organ bellows is more legend than fact, it is true that the church’s organ was in disrepair. The following year an organ builder came to repair the church’s organ, and he heard the song and was enchanted with it, taking it home with him to the Zillertal, to a town called Fügen, nearly 90 miles from the church.

In that area there were several family groups of singers who performed and toured (visions of “The Sound of Music,” anyone?). Like all performers, they were looking for new music to add to their repertoire and of course, they fell under the spell of “Stille Nacht,” reportedly even performing it for European royalty.

One of those families, the Rainer family, performed the song in New York in 1839. It was first officially translated to English by an American Episcopal priest in 1859. And at that point, the viral spread of the song was assured.

Today the carol is sung worldwide and has been translated into over 120 languages. In 2011, the international organization UNESCO declared “Silent Night” to be part of the world’s “intangible cultural heritage.” This Christmas Eve there will be performances that reflect the simplicity of that first performance and there will be countless variations on that theme with any and all available musical forces called into service. 

Going viral is impressive. The staying power that this song has had is much more so. That’s something to think about when you create your next TikTok video.