I found Silent Night: The Song and Its Story both informative and moving, and appreciated the history it provided of the carol after it was initially created by Mohr and Gruber. It went on to be translated into many languages, to be sung at key moments in various conflicts, including the 1914 Christmas Truce during World War I, and remains a most popular Christmas carol today. It was brought to America by another singing family of the Ziller Valley, and was first translated into English in 1863, by John Freeman Young. It eventually caught the attention of King Frederick William IV of Prussia, who had it sung every Christmas by his Cathedral Choir, and whose curiosity about its origins led to its true authorship being revealed. Sung by the Strasser Family of the Ziller Valley. The origin of the song was forgotten for a time, but it was popularized by an Austrian family who sang it at a fair in Leipzig, leading to its inclusion in a small book entitled Four Songs of the Tyrol. Written by Austrian priest Joseph Mohr on Christmas Eve, 1818, when his church's organ broke down, thereby threatening the music that made such an integral part of their congregation's Christmas Eve mass, the words of the song were paired with a tune composed by church organist Franz Gruber. "I need good ideas, and they don't come out of machines," she once said.Īuthor Margaret Hodges and illustrator Tim Ladwig join forces in this picture-book history of one of the world's most beloved Christmas carols. She wrote her stories on a notepad or a typewriter. Hodges died of heart disease on Decemat her home in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. She was a professor of library science at the University of Pittsburgh, where she retired in 1976. Her 1985 book Saint George and the Dragon, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, won the Caldecott Medal of the American Library Association. Beginning in 1958 with One Little Drum, she wrote and published more than 40 books. She trained as a librarian at Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University, under Elizabeth Nesbitt, and she volunteered as a storyteller at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. when in 1937 he became curator at the Stephen Foster Memorial. A 1932 graduate of Vassar College, she arrived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband Fletcher Hodges Jr. She enrolled at Tudor Hall, a college preparatory school for girls. She was born Sarah Margaret Moore in Indianapolis, Indiana to Arthur Carlisle and Annie Marie Moore. While very different in its approach and artwork from Granfield's treatment of the subject, Hodges's Silent Night is more versatile and is a better bet for library purchase.Ĭopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.Margaret "Peggy" Hodges was an American writer of books for children. Glowing shades of gold and brown accentuate faces lifted in harmony, creating feelings of warmth, wonder, and contentment. Full-page watercolor illustrations capture quaint mountain village scenes. Hodges includes stories about wartime enemies who forgot their hatred and joined together, sometimes across enemy lines, to share a few verses of the song. With its creators all but forgotten, "Silent Night" eventually became an international favorite. Franz Gruber, a local schoolmaster, wrote a simple tune to accompany the words. In compelling prose, Hodges recounts the young priest's struggle to write a poem that would bring the beauty of the Christ Child's humble, but sacred birth night to a congregation that expected to celebrate with music. On Christmas Eve in 1818, in a small Austrian town, Father Mohr's church organ broke down. Grade 1-3?This account of the beloved carol's history pays tribute to its creators and to the song itself.
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