The world around Gruber, however, was anything but ideal at the time. Hallein was the province\u2019s second biggest town back then with around 3,500 inhabitants. The salt trade, which had blossomed under the reign of Salzburg\u2019s archbishops, had come to an end when the Habsburg Monarchy moved salt production to Hall in Tyrol, Aussee and Hallstatt. It was not just the salt workers that lost their employment, as the entire environment around salt production was negatively affected by changes in the labour market. Hallein\u2019s coopers (barrel makers), for example, were left without work because the salt could now be transported in the more practical and also cheaper gunny sacks. Sailors were also suffering as a result of the decrease in goods to be transported (from originally 20,000 to barely 7,000 tons per year). The town\u2019s linking to the railway system in 1871 meant that the time of shipping goods up and down the Salzach river had come to an end completely.<\/p>\n
Those interested in the history of the Celts in Hallein, the Salzach river shipping industry and Salzburg\u2019s archbishops, should pay a visit to the\u00a0<\/span>Keltenmuseum<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>in Hallein. At the D\u00fcrrnberg plateau, you will also find the Hallein Salt Mine, the oldest exhibition mine in the world.<\/p>\n Choirmaster Gruber was certainly anything but overwhelmed by money and funding during these economically troubling times. When it came to music, however, there was always a way for him. The trails between the villages and towns were long and cumbersome. There were few public stagecoaches and the journeys were expensive. From various letters, we know that Franz Xaver Gruber regularly walked the 13-kilometre-long journey to Salzburg or Maria Plain to attend musical events there. There is also proof that he received visits from his friend Joseph Mohr in Hallein: A day\u2019s walk to Wagrain from Hallein was not a rare endeavour back then, or he would simply take the stagecoach. In 1841, Franz Xaver Gruber\u2019s second wife Maria Breitfu\u00df\u00a0 died. One year later, he got married to his third wife, who was also his second wife\u2019s friend, the shoemaker\u2019s widow Katharina Rieser (widowed Wimmer) from B\u00f6ckstein.<\/p>\n Franz Xaver Gruber\u2019s sons followed in their father\u2019s musical footsteps. The oldest, Franz (*1826), founded a choral society in 1847 and the Halleiner Liedertafel musical group in 1849 which still exists to this day. The second son, Felix (*1840), emulated his father and became the choirmaster of Hallein. In Hallein, Franz Xaver Gruber published a document that clarified the question of authorship concerning \u201cSilent Night\u201d on 30 December 1854. Within it, he elaborated on the origins of the song\u2019s lyrics and melody and cleared up false assumptions about the creation of the song, such as that it had originated from the Zillertal valley or that it had been composed by Michael Haydn.<\/p>\n Three of the four \u201cSilent Night! Holy Night!\u201d Autographs of Gruber are available and displayed in Hallein.<\/p>\n Franz Xaver Gruber died of old age in Hallein in 1863 as a respected and relatively affluent man.<\/p>\n Hallein during Franz Xaver Gruber\u2019s time The world around Gruber, however, was anything but ideal at the time. Hallein was the province\u2019s second biggest town back then with around 3,500 inhabitants. The salt trade, which had blossomed under the reign of Salzburg\u2019s archbishops, had come to an end when the Habsburg Monarchy moved salt production […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":102320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wl_entities_gutenberg":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wl_entity_type":[5663],"class_list":["post-545555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein","wl_entity_type-article"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA life for music<\/h2>\n
On the traces of \u201cSilent Night\u201d in Hallein<\/h2>\n
\n