Q 01/05

Silent Night was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 in a village church near which Austrian city?

A) Vienna

B) Graz

C) Innsbruck

D) Salzburg

Answer · why

D) Salzburg

Oberndorf, where Silent Night was first sung at St Nicholas church in 1818, lies about 17 km north of Salzburg; the flood-damaged church was later rep...

Q 02/05

In Good King Wenceslas, whom does the king trudge through the snow to help?

A) A lost shepherd

B) A poor peasant

C) A wounded knight

D) An orphan boy

Answer · why

B) A poor peasant

The king spots a poor peasant gathering winter fuel and sets out with flesh, wine and pine logs; his page keeps going by treading in the king's footpr...

Q 03/05

Who wrote the words to Silent Night, two years before it was set to music?

A) Karl Mauracher

B) Johann Hiebl

C) Joseph Mohr

D) Franz Xaver Gruber

Answer · why

C) Joseph Mohr

Joseph Mohr, a young assistant priest, wrote the six-verse poem in 1816; a manuscript in his own hand, found in 1995, is the earliest known copy of th...

Q 04/05

Silent Night's tune was long credited to famous composers such as Haydn, Mozart and whom?

A) Beethoven

B) Schubert

C) Brahms

D) Bruckner

Answer · why

A) Beethoven

With the original manuscript lost, the melody was variously credited to Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven; the real composer was Franz Xaver Gruber, a villag...

Q 05/05

In 2011 Silent Night was declared an intangible cultural heritage by which organisation?

A) The Austrian Parliament

B) The European Union

C) The Vatican

D) UNESCO

Answer · why

D) UNESCO

The Austrian Commission for UNESCO added Silent Night to its national inventory of intangible cultural heritage in March 2011, honouring the carol fir...