silent night free piano sheet music
About Silent Night Free Piano Sheet Music
Welcome to FastPlay free piano sheet music for DecPlay piano rapid results tuition method which enables you to learn to play piano in 1 hour, using numbers, colours and patterns, instead of many months of practice to play to the same level using traditional music notation.
FastPlay is the fastest way to learn to play piano and you can extend your skills with other methods in the DecPlay range, such as ProPlay - the most professional way to play.
This song is classed as public domain or copyright free, which means that we are able to provide this piano sheet music free of the constraints of controls or royalties from the composer or original publisher. DecPlay offers a variety of copyright free piano song sheets, including traditional songs, folk songs, Christmas carols, hymns and nursery rhymes.
Watch Melanie Learning to Play Silent Night on Piano in Under 1 hour!
History of Silent Night Carol
Silent Night or "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht" is the most famous Christmas carol of all time and was written as a poem by an Austrian priest called Joseph Mohr. At midnight mass on Christmas Eve in 1818 the organ at St. Nicholas Church in a village called Oberndorf Austria had broken so Joseph Mohr gave the Silent Night (Stille Nacht) poem to his friend Franz Xavier Gruber who composed the melody in time for Midnight Mass, to the accompaniment of Father Mohr on guitar!
Part of the beauty of this carol is its simplicity, eg the last 2 lines on each verse is repeated in 4 part harmony. The German words were written by Joseph Mohr in 1816 when he was a priest at Mariapfarr, Austria.
On December 24, 1818 Joseph Mohr journeyed to the home of musician-schoolteacher Franz Gruber who lived in an apartment over the schoolhouse in nearby Arnsdorf. He showed his friend the poem and asked him to add a melody and guitar accompaniment so that it could be sung at Midnight Mass. His reason for wanting the new carol is unknown. Some speculate that the organ would not work; others feel that the assistant pastor, who dearly loved guitar music, merely wanted a new carol for Christmas.
It was then taken up by 2 groups of travelling singers and the carol spread - eventually being performed in front of Emperor Franz I and Tsar Alexander I. In the mid 1800s the carol was popular in lower Saxony and was reputedly King Frederick William IV of Prussia’s favorite carol.
