Silent Night: The True Story of Gruber and Mohr

Merry Christmas and welcome to a special episode of Honourable Mentions where, to celebrate the season, we are looking into the lives of Franz Gruber and Joseph Mohr, whose 1818 collaboration in the parish church of Oberndorf, Austria, gave the us the world's favourite Christmas Carol - Silent Night or Stille Nacht if you want to show off. 

But we're not stopping there - oh no - like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, we're going on until the job is done, so drop those turkey drumsticks and settle in as we explore the legacy of the Carol and its part in the famous Christmas truce of the First World War.

It's a fun packed, festive sleigh ride back in time. 

If you've ever wondered what Steven and Neil's favourite Christmas films and songs are, this is the only place to be. And remember to listen out for an exclusive Christmas message from the real Santa Claus himself! 

Email honourablementionspod@gmail.com 

Website

honourablementions.buzzsprout.com

Facebook

Honourable Mentions 

Instagram 

honourablementionspod

TikTok 

honourable.mentionspod

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:16

Christmas listener welcome to the special Christmas edition of Honourable Mentions. Now then I'd like you to do something for me, listener, if you could please. Close your eyes very tightly and let's all try and conjure up one of Santa's little pixies. What's that you're shouting? He's behind me. I don't think he is. Let's close our eyes tight. Oh honourable mentions. Is that really Santa's Pixies or is that hello, Neil trying to trick me? It's me, Stevie. Oh you tricky trickster. Oh never mind, listener, we've got Neil. Unless Neil is one of Santa's little pixies.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

I'm not telling you.

SPEAKER_04 1:06

Oh that's what one of Santa's little pixels would say. Exactly. Exactly that. How exciting, listener. What are you hoping for for Christmas, Neil from Santa Christmas?

SPEAKER_03 1:18

I would just like world peace. Would you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

Well that ain't gonna happen. So what the slippers is your second choice.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

I'm second choice, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:29

After World Peace.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Yeah. I've got that age now as slippers.

SPEAKER_04 1:34

And for the listener at home, Uncle Neil has his own special Christmas traditions in the Neil household. Because you have your Christmas dinner of a Christmas Eve evening, don't you?

SPEAKER_03 1:46

Yes, we do, yes. Thank you very much for asking, yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

And that's because Mrs. Neal was brought up in joymany to a British household, a military household serving in Germany, where of course they do have their different traditions.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

Yes. And it works very well because Christmas Day we can just spend chilling out and we just play with whatever's available. Like my sons get toys and games and stuff like that, and we play them.

SPEAKER_04 2:10

You play with yourselves, do you, on Christmas Day? Yeah, why not?

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Don't make me a bad person, is it?

SPEAKER_04 2:15

No, you can do what you like. Exactly. So we're off today to November the twenty fifth, seventeen eighty-seven. That's just a month before Christmas.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 2:27

In a very special Christmas episode of Ho ho Honourable Mentions. We're going to the Austrian village of Hawkburg.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

Oh I've known that, yes. Nice place.

SPEAKER_04 2:39

Yeah, quite well, dear. Yep. And we're going to the birth of someone called Franz Xaver Gruber.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

Ooh.

SPEAKER_04 2:47

Who was born to Joseph and Maria Gruber, a pair of linen weavers.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

Ooh. Linen weavers.

SPEAKER_04 2:55

So we're not talking about the birth of the baby Jesus, we're talking about the birth of Franz Xavier Gruber.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

They're all called Franz, isn't he?

SPEAKER_04 3:04

However, you say that, Neil. But Franz is given name recorded in the baptismal record as Conrad Xavier. But for reasons unknown, this was later changed formally to Franz Xavier Gruber. So he wasn't initially a Franz, he was initially a Conrad. The Gruber family didn't have Netflix or anything else to keep them entertained over the long winter evenings like what we have today. And we know this because little Franz was the fifth of six children.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

Well, yes, they didn't have TV or anything, did they?

SPEAKER_04 3:38

They had to keep themselves entertained there. And as with the rest of the little Grubers, he was expected to learn the family trade, but Franz didn't want anything to do with any weaving. Thank you very much indeed.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

Instead, for a young age, Franz Xaver Gruber could feel a rhythm scratching in his little crop chits. Really? When you're a young boy struck with an urge, you need a bit of help pulling it off. I'm sure you'll agree.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

I don't know much things.

SPEAKER_04 4:08

So it fell to Hawkesburg teacher, Andreas Peterleckner. Pulling it off? Yeah, to give little friends music lessons and some help in pulling it off. Okay. Why are you laughing at that?

SPEAKER_03 4:24

No, no reason. No reason whatsoever.

SPEAKER_04 4:26

It's perfectly sensible. The little boy's got a dream, he needs some help achieving it.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

Yeah, yeah. I'm with you on that one.

SPEAKER_04 4:34

Yeah. So despite little Franz's love of tinkling the ivories and other musical metaphors I can't think of right now. Can you think of any musical metaphors right now?

SPEAKER_03 4:45

Don't really want to.

SPEAKER_04 4:46

Blowing his oboe, something like that. Blowing his own trumpet, that's a musical metaphor. Franz did work as a weaver until his eighteenth birthday, at which point Joseph, who was his father if you recall, which is another Christmas coincidental.

SPEAKER_03 5:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

Because Joseph was also well he wasn't the father of your baby Jesus, was he? He was your stepfather of your baby Jesus. At which point Joseph, being an honest, upright citizen, kept his word and gave his son his blessing to go and pursue the career of his dream. So at 18 years old, Franz went and worked as a school teacher.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Hang on. That wasn't his dream, was it?

SPEAKER_04 5:26

No, I thought it was a musician. Let me check that. No, definitely says school teacher. Perhaps he was a music teacher. No, primary school teacher.

SPEAKER_03 5:39

Primary school teacher.

SPEAKER_04 5:41

Yeah. There you go. Back then, in Austria, a position as a school teacher often included the opportunity to serve as the organist in the local church.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

Right.

SPEAKER_04 5:52

That's a relief because I thought we were gonna have to start over, but we're back with the church organist he was.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:59

So here we go. You ready to continue?

SPEAKER_03 6:01

I'm ready.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

Are you sitting comfortably?

SPEAKER_03 6:04

No.

SPEAKER_04 6:05

Are you excited for tomorrow?

SPEAKER_03 6:08

What's happening tomorrow?

SPEAKER_04 6:09

Christmas, you fool.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

Oh yes. Yes, I'm excited for tomorrow.

SPEAKER_04 6:14

What's happening tomorrow? Before he could begin, however, Franz would need to complete his musical education. Of course he would. Who does he think he is?

SPEAKER_03 6:22

Exactly. Can't just walk into that job, can't you?

SPEAKER_04 6:26

What would happen if musicians just turned up with no training whatsoever and just began being a musician? You'd end up with Ed Sheeran all over the place. Yeah, and Coldplay and things like that, wouldn't you? Yeah. Dollar. Do you remember Dollar?

SPEAKER_03 6:40

I do, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

So he's there and he's completing his musical education by studying with the church organist at Berghausen, a man by the name of George Hart Dobler. George spelt without an E on the end.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Gorg.

SPEAKER_04 6:54

That's typical Austrian, isn't it? Because of a bit more effort. Austria could have been Australia. Then he needed a few more letters. They couldn't even be bothered to spell George. The hills could have been alive with the sound of digery does, which I think would have made a much better film. No, you don't agree. Er no. No. You like a bit of sand of music here.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Oh it's one of my wife's favourite film.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

Is it? It's her favourite favouritist film of all of the films. Is it? Then again, Mrs. Neil doesn't like Star Wars, does she?

SPEAKER_03 7:34

She's more into that one with that kid with a twig.

SPEAKER_04 7:37

Oh, it's like Uncle Barry Plopper or something.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

That's it, yeah. Think they wants to beat anyone with a stick.

SPEAKER_04 7:42

What's your favourite Christmasist film, please? Elf, oh that's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

Yes, I like Elf. I like Miracle on 34th Street, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 7:51

It's also a good one. The original or the colored version.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

The Rich Attenbrewer.

SPEAKER_04 7:55

Yeah, they're both quite good.

SPEAKER_03 7:56

I do like um Deck the Halls, and I also like Christmas with the Cranks. Do you? Yeah. One of the worst films ever made. I know you do, because you're more intelligent than me.

SPEAKER_04 8:08

That's that's just a brilliant, brilliant film. Muppet Christmas Carol. Yeah, it's alright.

SPEAKER_03 8:13

I'll just get fed up with the songs on it.

SPEAKER_04 8:15

I do like that. So that's Christmas films gone through, listener. If you'd like to tell us what your favourite Christmas films of all time are, you can contact us on your social medias or you can email us at honourable mentionspod at gmail.com. We'd very much like to hear from you, and we will reply and tell you whether your choice of Christmas film is brilliant or a load of old toss like Christmas with the Cranks.

SPEAKER_03 8:39

Or Die Hard.

SPEAKER_04 8:40

Diehard is a brilliant film. Yes, good film.

SPEAKER_03 8:42

It's a good film, it's not a bloody Christmas film.

SPEAKER_04 8:45

It is a Christmas film. No, it isn't. Die Hard is a Christmas film. What's the theme to Die Hard, please? Is it Run DMC, Christmas in Hollis? Oh yes it is, isn't it? What's the name of his wife in that film, please? Is it Holly? Oh yes it is, isn't it? What's the main plot device in that film? Is it that they all turn up for a Christmas party? Oh yes it is, isn't it? What does he write on that man's sweatshirt when he's done him in and killed? Ho ho ho, now I've got a machine gun. Oh yeah, he does, doesn't he? And yet it doesn't have to have a santer in it. Doesn't have to have a Santa in it to be a Christmas. It does. Of course it doesn't. It does. I digress.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:24

I think I'm going a nice seasonal red.

unknown 9:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:28

Red and gold for my crest that I'm dying.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

Okay. Can we get back to the story now, please? I'm completely lost where we are.

SPEAKER_04 9:35

Everybody calm.

SPEAKER_03 9:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:38

Right, so where we were is that Franz was 18 and is about to begin his musical education. Then you learnt the basics from Peter Lechner, didn't he? And he passed the necessary exams in 1806, and in 1807 he became an actual school teacher, if you can imagine such a thing.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:58

With that, he became the church caretaker and organist in a place called Arnsdorf, up in the mountainy bits of Austria. There he married a lady called Elizabeth Engelsberger, who just so happened to be the widow of the previous school teacher. This sounds about Agatha Christie now. It's another little Christmas twist.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:26

Agatha Christie on the television over Christmas. Yeah, sounds like she's is she's doing in her husbands who were all previous school teachers? I'd be watching my back if I were him.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

Same here.

SPEAKER_04 10:37

In 1816, so he's got been murdered. In 1816, Franz chose to add to his musical responsibilities by becoming the organist at the newly established neighbouring parish of Obendorf.

SPEAKER_03 10:53

Alright, that's a song, wasn't it? Obendorf. That's Hazel Vice.

SPEAKER_04 10:57

I wouldn't recognise it from the tune. Obendorf is a picturesque little town of mostly pale-coloured buildings with red tiled roofs, all snuggled down in the rolling alpine foothills just north of the city of Salzburg in Austria.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

Nice.

SPEAKER_04 11:12

You ready for the clang?

SPEAKER_03 11:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:14

I've been there. Clang! I've been to Salzburg. Beautiful little place. Birthplace of your Mozart, I believe. He went there.

SPEAKER_03 11:25

Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

Wolfgang Amadeus.

SPEAKER_03 11:28

Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 11:29

Anyway, back to our little favourite lists. What's your what's the best Christmas song?

SPEAKER_03 11:33

Uh The Pogues.

SPEAKER_04 11:35

Fairy tale in New York.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:37

Yeah, I'm wearing. I like that one. I like that one. I like can't think what her name is now, is it Arlene Dove or something like that? Baby Come Home for Christmas. And no one's there is good. No one should be alone on Christmas.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

Slade.

SPEAKER_04 11:52

I'll tell you I'll tell you what, listener, a very underappreciated but up there with your cheesy Christmas records, show Wadi Waddy, hey Mr. Christmas. That's us now listed Christmas films and Christmas music, listener. So again, if you do want to tell us what your favourite Christmas music is, or even tell Neil where he went wrong, then you can please do so on social media or HonourableMentions pod at gmail.com. Thank you. Painted a lovely little picture for you there so you can imagine what Obendorf looks like.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

Yeah, so he's the organist at Oberndorf now, right? Fine. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 12:28

Yeah, as well as the other place.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

As a peach as a teacher as well.

SPEAKER_04 12:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:33

He went to Obendorf with one eye on being offered the position of school teacher in the parish.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

Do you have a lazy eye in?

SPEAKER_04 12:40

No, when I say he had one eye, I meant as in like the saying, oh he's got one eye on that giant.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Oh, not got a lazy eye.

SPEAKER_04 12:48

He's got a lazy eye, so he's looking over at you, but his other one's checking out your boobs.

SPEAKER_03 12:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:53

No, no, not like that.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:55

He went there one eye on being offered the position of school teacher in the parish. But alas and a lack, he never was. Instead, Franz spent many hectic days jam-packed with the tasks associated with being a schoolteacher, a church caretaker, and organist for two churches. The damn fool. He's let himself in for it there, hasn't he? Despite his despite his heavy workload, Franz's school was judged to be one of the best run in the whole district, with a proficiency to be admired. So actually, he may have been a very busy boy, but he was very good at his job.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

Yeah, there's only two schools in the district, so. How do you know? I know everything about Austrian things.

SPEAKER_04 13:36

Oh, do you?

unknown 13:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:38

Do you speak Austrian as well? Because you do speak a lot of I do. Is that Austrian?

SPEAKER_03 13:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

Oh, there you go, listener. Another little bit of education for you from the tongue of Neil and Resident Multilinguist.

SPEAKER_03 13:50

Yeah, you're welcome. Or You're welcome. And that's Austrian as well.

SPEAKER_04 13:56

Yeah. Cool. The high point of Franz's time in Arnsdorf, of course, and you're going to tell me this, but I'll get in before you can butt in and interrupt. The high point of Franz's time in Arnsdorf was the 300-year Jubilee celebration for the villages. Maria Arm Mosul Pilgrimage.

SPEAKER_03 14:15

Well, fuck it, I was just about to say that.

SPEAKER_04 14:17

You were just going to tell me what about the Maria Arms Pilgrimage. Yeah. Yeah, there we go. We're in there now. And I do apologise to any Austrian listeners we may have, because unlike Neil, I am not a multilinguist, and I may have mangled the pronunciation, but I think it's Maria Arm Mosalt Pilgrimage. This is a five-day festival that drew 20,000 visitors. Someone moved busy with a pencil. Yeah, when I say drew 20,000 visitors, someone didn't have to draw 20,000 visitors. It attracted 20,000 visitors. 20,000 visitors thought, oh, I'll go to that, and they did. You with it now?

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 14:57

Okay. Abbots from both the Michael Boyan Monastery, to which the Arnsdorf Church belonged, as well as the important St. Peter's Monastery of Salzburg, joined the thousands of other visitors in listening to orchestral performances, all under the careful direction of Him.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

Him Joseph.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

Thanks for paying attention.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Yeah. What's his name?

SPEAKER_04 15:25

Franz Gruber. Yes. I'm glad you were sitting there you're sitting there wrapped. Thanks for paying attention. So this was like a nineteenth century Glastonbury, if you can imagine that. Only not in England.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Yeah, and not in a field. Or Glastonbury. Or a paper stage.

SPEAKER_04 15:44

And there was only one band. Yeah. And they only played hymns. But apart from that, it was just like Glastonbury.

SPEAKER_03 15:51

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_04 15:53

The year after all this frivolity, in the summer of eighteen seventeen, Paul Health had forced an assistant priest with a love of poetry from the town of Mariaphar to return to Salzburg, where he'd originally been, and following some recuperation, take up a new position, assisting the Paris priest in Obendorf.

SPEAKER_03 16:18

Which is Franz's place.

SPEAKER_04 16:19

That's Francis Patch, in it, as his gaff is on his manor.

SPEAKER_03 16:25

What are you doing here, you slag, or as I say in Austrian? What's doing here, you slag? Is that for can you translate that again, please? What are you doing here, you slag?

SPEAKER_04 16:35

Thank you. Just for our listener at home and what not have followed the Austrian. This new priest was called Joseph Moore. Spelled M O H R. Moer Joseph Moore. Joseph was born in Salzburg on the 11th of December 1792. So another Christmas-ish birth. And was the son of an unmarried embroiderer called Anna, and a mercenary soldier by the name of Franzmore.

SPEAKER_03 17:07

Oh Franz, old yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:09

Franzmore deserted the Austrian army. Probably because he thought he was signing up for the Australian army.

SPEAKER_03 17:14

Probably, yeah. Didn't get enough tin ears and get when they were saying little knives.

SPEAKER_04 17:18

One of those little knives that gets stones out of horses' ooves.

SPEAKER_03 17:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:21

And little magnifying glass and things on them. Yeah. But more than that, Frantzmore was an absolute dirtbag.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

Why?

SPEAKER_04 17:30

Because he also deserted Anna before little Joseph was born.

SPEAKER_03 17:35

What a git.

SPEAKER_04 17:36

What a git. That's not a very Christmassy thing to do, is it?

SPEAKER_03 17:39

No. It is calling it a git though. I'll put tinsel on that git. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:45

Christmas is a time of cheer and love for all mankind.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

And women kind.

SPEAKER_04 17:51

And women kind. And all creatures, great and small. And and little donkeys, particularly.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

Yes. That's no one.

SPEAKER_04 17:58

And yet Joseph was left abandoned by his father before he even had a chance to be born. He was one of four illegitimate children born to Anna. I don't know whether all Franz is or what, I just don't know. So stop asking. I don't know, Neil. Please just drop it. I really don't know. And this and the single parent family unit has to survive in extreme poverty and the cruel judgment of their community. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:31

Especially in your Austria near Salzburg in those days. However, one day a local priest who happened to be the leader of music at Salzburg Cathedral took a shine to young Joseph, as local priests tend to do.

SPEAKER_03 18:47

Yeah, to young boys.

SPEAKER_04 18:49

In spirit of the season, we won't take that any further.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

No.

SPEAKER_04 18:53

So Joseph began life with the church, which eventually led him to Obendorf.

SPEAKER_03 18:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:59

Now naturally, through their day jobs in Obendorf, Franz and Joseph became acquainted.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:07

Do you think they became friends, or do you think it was like a bloody fear where they just couldn't stand each other on a constant?

SPEAKER_03 19:13

No, I think they became friends as Christmas.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

Oh, you're right, Neil. It is Christmas, and they did become friends. Nice. But they had no idea that one day their circumstances would weld their legacies together for all eternity. Now brace yourself because this is our little Christmas story here. Okay. And it begins with a sad tragedy. Right. Usually tragedies when the feeling's gone and you can't go on. It's tragedy. So anyway, the story goes that on Christmas Eve, eighteen eighteen, the organ in St. Nicholas's Church opened on Off broke down.

SPEAKER_03 20:06

Well cried.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

No, I don't mean emotionally. I mean it just stopped working. Yeah. And this is on Christmas Eve in 1880, imagine.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

Yeah, got a hole in its pipe.

SPEAKER_04 20:18

The whole town is thinking, oh, it's Christmas Eve, rubbing the hands together, we can go along to the church this evening, because this would have been a very religious time.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

They'd have all thought, oh, we'll go to church this evening, we'll sing some carols, we'll listen to the organ, we'll go home and have some eggnog, and then in the morning when we wake up, St. Nicholas would have been.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 20:41

But no, the bloody organ's broken. It was like a well-delivered googly from the pavilion end. Unplayable. That's my little cricket reference.

SPEAKER_03 20:51

Right season for cricket?

SPEAKER_04 20:52

It is the right season for cricket if you're Australia.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

Well, exactly. Well, we're not though, we're Austrian. Remember you messed it up, you got it wrong.

SPEAKER_04 20:59

Oh, damn. Yeah. I told you. But hark, Neil Santos, the Pixie Helper. Yeah. Is that is that good news, I hear, upon yonder? I hope so. Because Frenz Gruber's own account of the day, he makes no reference to his struggling to revive a limp organ. So maybe we can all relax and just drop it and move on.

SPEAKER_03 21:24

Yeah, that'd be a good one.

SPEAKER_04 21:26

And that's the end of our little podcast.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

Let's not mention limp organs on Christmas.

SPEAKER_04 21:30

Let's not, no. You were like North Pole, if you rather.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

If you will, yes.

SPEAKER_04 21:35

Whatever the circumstances, what we do know for sure is on that cold Christmas Eve, high up in the snowy mountains, Joseph Moore, bless him, presented Franz Gruber with a poem he'd written back in 1816, two years past. Stick some music to that sunshine, and we'll bash it out tonight during the service, he said.

SPEAKER_03 21:57

What about the song?

SPEAKER_04 21:58

Just two of us, a guitar and a few choir boys, everyone else can just stand and watch. Yeah. Now, downhill.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

Here's where it gets a bit complicated because we're in Christmas Eve 1818, aren't we?

SPEAKER_03 22:11

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 22:12

And now we're gonna have to go a bit wibbly wobbly. And we're going back to 1816 in Mariaphar.

SPEAKER_03 22:24

Right. Two years previous.

SPEAKER_04 22:26

Two years previous, where Joseph Moore was living as an assistant priest. Mariafah is south of Salzburg as you head towards Slovenia, further up the mountains there.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Yeah. Near the Toberones.

SPEAKER_04 22:41

You're picturing that, are you?

SPEAKER_03 22:42

Yeah, yeah, we've got it.

SPEAKER_04 22:43

Now stay with this because this is important.

SPEAKER_03 22:45

I'm here.

SPEAKER_04 22:47

Still there, Newell!

SPEAKER_03 22:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

Hello, Neil! Mariafart had been under occupation by the Bavarian army as a hangover from the Napoleonic Wars. You heard of the Napoleonic Wars?

SPEAKER_03 23:00

Yeah, I have, yeah, something to do with Napoleon.

SPEAKER_04 23:02

Something to do with Napoleon, weren't they? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:04

Yeah. The occupation had been brutal, but now they were withdrawing, handing back the Duchy of Salzburg in exchange for its own territories.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

So they were pulling out the duchy.

SPEAKER_04 23:16

They were, and passing it to the left hand side. From his small window, damped with condensation, Joseph watched the remains of the occupied army lumber past. So to conjure up the scene for you, I'm going to come over all Charles Dickens. Just for a moment.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

I know you like reading books, Stephen, they're that excited about it.

SPEAKER_04 23:40

That's better. Right, we can now carry on. So these Bavarians, are you ready?

SPEAKER_03 23:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 23:48

The creak of their wheels on the heavy wagons was a mournful groan. They shouted curses, a final venomous farewell to the land they were forced to relinquish.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

See you later, git. That wasn't very bavarian.

SPEAKER_04 24:02

Can you speak Bavarian?

SPEAKER_02 24:04

See you later, your gids.

SPEAKER_04 24:05

That's very good. Is that fluent? Yeah. A broken lantern lay shattered on the cobbles. A small act of spites leaving glass shards to glitter threateningly in the moonlight.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 24:19

It's good that isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 24:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

I wrote that when I came over all Charles Dickens.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

Nice. That's very exciting. Well done.

SPEAKER_04 24:26

Now, I don't know whether I've mentioned this, but I've been to Salzburg.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

You didn't mention that, no.

SPEAKER_04 24:31

Didn't I?

unknown 24:32

No.

SPEAKER_04 24:32

No. And it's a lovely place and it's very hard to imagine such squalor and destitution. So what I did there in my mind, using the power of my imagination, is I um took myself to Northampton.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:46

Outside the Postula Fried Chicken on a Christmas Eve.

unknown 24:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

And just talk to imagine what it would be like. And then I wrote that, you see.

SPEAKER_03 24:54

Yeah, because that would be hell on earth, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_04 24:57

Exactly. So that's where we were there, really.

SPEAKER_03 24:59

We were in a bad day.

SPEAKER_04 25:02

Postula fried chicken. That's where we were. So that's the power of the imagination. A little tip for your listener. Little power of the imagination.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

If you want to imagine something hell worth on earth, just imagine Northampton.

SPEAKER_04 25:15

Hell worth on earth.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:17

For years now, the town had been charged with a lingering tension. This is Maria Far, I should point out.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:24

Although Northampton probably has the same as well. But in Maria Pharr, the quiet fear that a knock at the door could mean serious trouble. But now that fear was slowly, tentatively beginning to ebb away. Nice. Outside there was a distant barking of a dog, and Joseph Oh. Did you hear that?

SPEAKER_03 25:47

Yeah, what was it?

SPEAKER_04 25:48

I don't know, it sounded like the distant barking of a dog. How peculiar. That's a cr Christmas miracle. Yeah. Outside there was a distant barking of a dog. And Joseph suddenly realized it was the only sound he could hear. Recently, a poem had been forming in his mind. It was a response not just to the ongoing departure of the soldiers, but to these ever longer hollows of silence left in their wake. In in the dim and flickering light, he dipped his quill.

unknown 26:23

Right.

SPEAKER_04 26:24

Look a fuck a feathery feather.

SPEAKER_03 26:27

Feathery feather.

SPEAKER_04 26:29

Feathery feather as opposed to like a big Byron. Yeah. The scratching sound, a small, steady voice over the paper, as the words seemed to flow with divine inspiration. And so that's the two-year-old poem Joseph Moore was now shoving into Franz Gruber's hand, giving him just a few hours to set it to music and save a whole Christmas Eve for the town of Obendorf. No pressure. And this is the point where Franz muttered his immortal and off misquoted words. He said, Come on, come on, Jones. If last Christmas I gave you Mozart, but the very next day you wanted reggae. This year, to save me from tears, I was gonna do heavy metal. He wrote that on the back of a flag packet and put it in his post.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

Okay, Jonathan.

SPEAKER_04 27:33

Yeah. Yeah, just go on with it, said Joseph, leaving him all alone to compose his masterpiece.

SPEAKER_03 27:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

Do you think he'd do it? He's then he got limited amount of time.

SPEAKER_03 27:43

Yes. Of course he did.

SPEAKER_04 27:46

Joseph knew the congregation well. They were mainly boat workers transporting salt along the river.

SPEAKER_03 27:54

Is that what it was called Salzburg?

SPEAKER_04 27:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Oh, there you go then. There you go then.

SPEAKER_04 27:59

But they were poor, and he knew poor because he'd come from a very poor background, hadn't he? Yes he was. But also shared in the hard times under the Bavarian oppression. He was sure that with a decent tune behind his words, their performance later that day would be a success. But what he didn't know was that the melody Franz Gruber hurriedly scrawled out would be such a work of genius it would linger and echo down the centuries.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Really?

SPEAKER_04 28:28

Yes. Now Neil, you're a multilinguist.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:33

Hello, Neil. Still there? Yeah. Can you translate this please for the listener? Are you still there, listener? Merry Christmas to you, listener. I hope you are still there and thank you for spending time with us during this festive period. Whether you've got your fist up a turkey or whether you're merely rolling out some stuffing balls, we do appreciate you being with us. So Neil, if you could use your multilingual genius to translate this for the listener, please. Stillernacht Hillisnacht.

SPEAKER_03 29:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:11

What does that translate to, please?

SPEAKER_03 29:12

Well, I can actually do that. That's um Silent Night Holy Night.

SPEAKER_04 29:16

I should hope you can actually do that because you are multilingual and you speak many languages. So yes, you're right, Silent Night, Holy Night. That was the poem that our Joseph had scribbled out onto his little bit of paper. Wow the tune that our Franz had bashed out rather quickly because of a broken organ, allegedly.

SPEAKER_03 29:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:39

With Joseph on guitar handling the tenor, while Franz sang the lower bass notes, it was an instant smash with the congregation. A smash hit.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

Yeah. Wow. Did it get to number one? It did. In the hit parade.

SPEAKER_04 29:54

Yes, it was number one, and then Christmas time, mistletoe and wine, children singing, Christian rhyme.

SPEAKER_03 30:00

Yeah, by Mr. Richard. He was around back then, anyway, sort of era.

SPEAKER_04 30:03

It probably was around back then, yeah. He must have been in his forties by that time, I think. Despite this Franz, the old big head, described the melody as merely a simple composition.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

Oh, look at me, I've written a smell through together.

SPEAKER_04 30:17

Yeah, I've written a classic Christmas carol in about two minutes. And it's just a sip just a simple composition. Oh, don't don't you go worrying yourselves in me immortals. In fact, right, here's some little facts. The song you know today is slightly different from the original version of Stille Nacht. Folk singers and choir groups altered the original melody a little as they perform the carol throughout Europe in the ensuing decades. To add them to the popular story of a broken organ and the need to write a hurried song for the Christmas Eve service, it is said that an organ builder and repairman working at the church took a copy of the six-verse song to his home village. There it was picked up and spread by two families of travelling folk singers who performed around northern Europe.

SPEAKER_03 31:07

A bit like uh the Bee Gees in.

SPEAKER_04 31:09

If you go back to episode one of Honourable Mentions, listener, very much like the Bee Gees.

SPEAKER_03 31:15

The Nolans, if you will.

SPEAKER_04 31:16

Yes, we were talking families, so the Jacksons. Yeah, that'd have been cool, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_03 31:20

Yeah. Put a dance routine to it.

SPEAKER_04 31:23

Oh, the Jacksons would have been cool. But again, Franz Gruber himself claims differently. He's a bit of a downer, isn't he? He said that the composition was picked up by surrounding parishes and spread organically that way. Both could be true.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

Yeah, well it doesn't matter, does it?

SPEAKER_04 31:38

No, whatever the truth, the Strasser family performed it for the King of Prussia in 1839. The Rayner family of singers, who sound like a real bunch of dull ads, debuted the carol outside of Trinity Church in New York City in 1839. The English version was written by the Reverend John Freeman Young. And he reduced it to just three verses.

SPEAKER_03 32:07

John Freeman, was this John Freeman or John Freeman Yarr? Are you just saying yes, trying to be like posh?

SPEAKER_04 32:13

John The Reverend John Freeman Young.

SPEAKER_03 32:18

Oh, I thought you meant Yar. Oh yeah, yah, yaw, yaw, yah, yah, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_04 32:21

I think the English version was written by the Reverend John Freeman Young.

SPEAKER_03 32:25

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_04 32:27

And reduced to just three verses. Only verses one, two, and six from Moore and Gruber's original version are sung in the English.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

In your English language.

SPEAKER_04 32:37

In your English languages. Do you speak that?

SPEAKER_03 32:40

Yeah, d well, not very well, but uh But you got that one as well nailed down. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:46

Perhaps at no time in the song's long history was its message of peace more important than during the Christmas truce of nineteen fourteen.

SPEAKER_03 32:56

Yes. When they played football.

SPEAKER_04 32:58

Well done, Neil, they did, yes. And the Germans won on penalties.

SPEAKER_03 33:03

Yeah, as usual.

SPEAKER_04 33:04

Height of World War One, German and British soldiers on the front lines in Flanders laid down their weapons on Christmas Eve and together sang Silent Night across the trenches.

SPEAKER_03 33:16

There you go.

SPEAKER_04 33:17

Three verses only, of course, because you know standards. Excuse me, I say Fritz. Excuse me. Tommy over here. We only sing we only sing the three verses, don't you know? So yeah. Yeah, so what? We showed down what's what there. Yeah. But wrote this, sung it, performed it, went down well. Boxing day 1818, went back to normal.

SPEAKER_03 33:40

It's cleaning toilets.

SPEAKER_04 33:41

Whenever limited it.

SPEAKER_03 33:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:44

Joseph Moore left Obendorf in 1819. He went on to hold positions in several parishes before being named pastor of Hintersey in 1827. And in 1837, the Alpine village of Vargrain.

SPEAKER_03 34:00

Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:02

You know that, do you?

SPEAKER_03 34:03

Nope.

SPEAKER_04 34:04

That's why they grow. You know you have a uh Christmas tree-shaped alpine scented air freshener in your car.

SPEAKER_03 34:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:11

That's why they grow 'em they've got a whole forest.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

Have they? I thought that's where they made Toborone.

SPEAKER_04 34:15

No, no, that's Switzerland.

SPEAKER_03 34:17

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 34:18

No, no, this is where they grow those air fresheners.

SPEAKER_03 34:21

Oh, magic trees.

SPEAKER_04 34:22

Yeah. Oh right. Loads of them. Smells nice when you go. Here he created a bit overpowering though. Here he created a fund which allowed children from poor families to attend school and he set up a system to ensure the elderly receive proper care.

SPEAKER_03 34:38

I'm going back to them air fresheners, they're only powerful for a day and then they run out. Not if you've got a whole forest. Well, yeah, if you put loads of them in your car, you'd be right, but if you put one in, you can't smell it. You can smell it for like five minutes and it's gone.

SPEAKER_04 34:49

That's because of your offensive body odor. Anyway, Joseph Moore died of respiratory disease at the age of just 55 on December the 4th, 1848.

SPEAKER_03 34:59

So he's just when you stop breathing, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_04 35:02

Stephen managed to keep that within a Christmas thing. Yeah. After Elizabeth Engelsberger died in 1825. You can remember she was the wife of Franz.

SPEAKER_03 35:12

Murderer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:13

Yeah. Franz married a former student of his.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

Yeah, dirty pig. What was his name? John Osmitt.

SPEAKER_04 35:20

Maria Brightfoos.

SPEAKER_03 35:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:23

Maria Brightfoos, they would live together for 15 years and have ten ch ten children. Ten children. In fifteen years.

SPEAKER_02 35:30

Wow. Fit like a skydiver's mouth.

SPEAKER_04 35:35

But only four lived to reach adulthood.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

That is sad.

SPEAKER_04 35:42

They just kept replacing them, I should imagine.

SPEAKER_03 35:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:44

Franz Gruber resigned his post in Arnsdorf at Obendorf in 1829. So he had on about a bit longer, didn't he?

SPEAKER_01 35:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:52

To later become choir director, singer, and organist in a parish just outside of Salzburg.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Maria died in childbirth, I think she bloody did. I think she did, exactly. Yeah, it's like a welly top, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_04 36:07

The rather eye tunnel. She died in Charlburgh in 1841, and the following year Franz married Catherine Vimmer.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 36:15

Only for himself to die of natural causes on June 7, 1863, at the age of 76. Anyway, Merry Christmas, listener, with all the deaths. But Franz and Joseph went to live with the baby Jesus and have Christmas all year round with the Pixies and the Fairies. And they left us with what I must admit is probably my favouritest Christmas tune of all.

SPEAKER_03 36:46

I like little drummer boy.

SPEAKER_04 36:48

Did you hear about when David Bowie went round Bing Crosby's house?

SPEAKER_03 36:52

No.

SPEAKER_04 36:53

Bing said, Hello, David, you look rather glum. And David said, Well, being someone's let all the air out of my inflatable buttocks. And being said, well don't worry about that, David. You can borrow my rubber bum pump. Rubber bum pump?

SPEAKER_01 37:09

Rubber bum pump.

unknown 37:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 37:18

Okay. I'll tell you what else I'm doing over Christmas. Um, what's that, please, Neil, please? I'm going to be listening to House of Cards by Pepe and the Bandits.

SPEAKER_04 37:28

Well, that's a very good shout. I should imagine most people will be doing the same. I've heard that it's up for the Grammys and it's a shoe-in for the Mercury Prize and probably Sports Personality of the Year.

SPEAKER_03 37:40

Sports Personality, I think, yes, it's definitely got a shout.

SPEAKER_04 37:43

That's how good it is.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:45

And watch that again, please.

SPEAKER_03 37:47

It's House of Cards by Pepe and the Bandits.

SPEAKER_04 37:50

And I should imagine it's available wherever you stream your music.

SPEAKER_03 37:53

I think so, yes.

SPEAKER_04 37:54

Very good call, that one, Neil. Well, listener, me and Neil will wish you a very Merry Christmas.

SPEAKER_03 38:04

Oh honourable mentions.

SPEAKER_04 38:07

That wasn't horrible mentions. Merry Christmas, very good.

SPEAKER_03 38:09

I wish you all the fluffiness in the world.

SPEAKER_04 38:11

All the fluffiness in the world. How much fluffiness is in the world. However much fluffiness there is, Neil wishes it upon you, listener. And I wish you a happy Christmas, a happy new year, and thank you for listening to Honourable Mentions. And we'll leave you with me and Neil in our own rendition of the popular Christmas carol Silent Night. Merry Christmas and see you again for our New Year episode next week.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

review for honourable mentions, please, and get everybody else to do the same. If they won't, tell them Blitzen here would like a word. See if he can't make their nose glow so bright. Now I follow honourable mentions on social media, and sometimes I get in touch by email at honorable mentions pod at gmail dot com. They always answer eventually It's important to know that Hoho Honourable Mentions is researched by Stephen Webb and is an uncover brothers production. They don't have a script or anything, you know, they just chat a right load of shiz. You may have noticed maybe I'll leave an extra brain cell or two in their stockings this year. One thing I'll definitely be delivering is a little toy trumpet for Pepe and the bandits. Did you know Pepe wrote and performed the theme tune? Please give them a listen wherever you stream your music. Anyway, I must fly Be nice and Merry Christmas one and all