STILL, HE KNOCKED

We need Christmas! Today, I want to talk about an unusual song I came across called “Still, He Knocked”. 

I love and am a big fan of Christmas music. I own a bunch of Christmas music. I’m hoping to  eventually build a collection that will just blow people's minds. And so I've heard a lot of different songs sung in a lot of different ways.

UNFAMILIAR SONG?

The other day I came across a song that wasn't too familiar to me.The first two lines went like this: 

“Still, he knocked. 

How he knocked?” 

I was sitting there scratching my head and asking if it was Christmas song? Was it a sacred song orsecular song? Was it Jesus knocking? Santa knocking? Some neighbor you don't know knocking?

I didn't understand it. And I get it, songs speak to different people in different ways. But this one I just felt like it wasn't even speaking my language, literally. 

LIKE A FOREIGN LANGUAGE....BECAUSE IT WAS

You see, “Still, he knocked” was really “Stille Nacht!”. Which if you don't know what that is, it's “Silent Night!”  "Silent Night!” was originally written in German.

CHRISTMAS EVE 1818

Let's flashback to Christmas Eve, 1818, in the town of Oberndorf, Austria. There is a young priest named Joseph Mohr. Two years prior, Joseph had written these words in a poem. But on that Christmas Eve day he wanted it set to music. 

So he went to a nearby town to meet with composer and organist Franz Xaver Gruber. And he asks Franz if he could set it to music.

Now, I can just imagine Franz’s response, he's like, “Sure, I could set that to music. When do you want it?” Father Morh responds something life “If you could have it by tonight's Christmas Eve mass, that be great.” 

But you know what? Franz did.  “SIlent Night!” got its music and had its first public performance on the very same day. And it went on to be one of the greatest Christmas songs of all time.

WHY SO POPULAR?

Why was this song so popular? Well, I definitely have some theories on that, but we're going to get into that tomorrow. We're going to dive into the lyrics and I'm going to show you what I think is the part that most resonates with people. 

DON'T LEAVE EMPTY-HANDED!

But I don't want to leave you empty-handed. Wouldn't it be a great party trick if you could actually sing the first two lines of “Silent Night!” in the original German? It's really not that hard. Let me show you.

Take "Still, he", combine the words together and add an “sh” in the beginning. “SHtilly” 

For “knocked” instead of ending it with a “D”, end it with a hard “T” and really emphasize the word “KNOCK-T”. “SHtilly KNOCK-T” 

For  “how he knocked ”, instead of “how he” think of this  in terms of sports. "How he" becomes "high league". And then add the word “KNOCK-T” again. 

Put it all together and you get "SHtilly KNOCK-T, High League KNOCK-T" (“Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht”)

And there you have it. You can sing the first two lines of “Silent Night!” in German, which of course, you know, means.... well, you know what that translation is. 

Don't forget, we need Christmas. Have a great day!