[ Ref. previous thread, "Common Cylinder Box Tunes" ]

In addition to the response already received to the question
concerning the frequency of "Silent Night" on cylinder musical boxes,
the following results have been obtained after further extensive
searching of "The Arthur D Cunliffe Register of Cylinder Musical
Boxes" [The Register].

Overall, only 11 cylinder musical boxes of the 12,499 registered to
January 2020 have a musical programme that includes "Silent Night".
(Note: Given that just under 50% of the 12,499 boxes registered do
not have details of their musical programmes, it is not unreasonable
to extrapolate the above figure to say that a total of around 20
musical boxes might have been pinned with "Silent Night".)

Of the 11 that do have musical programmes on The Register, 6 were
registered with the title in German, "Stille Nacht. Heilige Nacht",
on 4 of which it was part of musical programmes all in German;
4 of the 11 are small tabatiere movements, 3 being fitted into
Christmas Tree Stands.

None of the 11 boxes were made by early makers, e.g. Nicole Freres,
Ducommon-Girod and the Lecoultres; those registered are all by makers
active in the last quarter of the 19th century: Mermod(2), Heller(2),
Lador(2), Junod(1), Ami Rivenc(1), Cuendet(1) and 2 Unknown makers.

This is very surprising given that the carol was written, composed
and first performed in 1818, was subsequently performed widely with
English translations of the words available from 1859 onwards and,
finally, its subsequent popularity as well as the myth and legend
surrounding its origins and history, all culminating in its present
day status.  "Silent Night" was declared "an intangible cultural
heritage by UNESCO in 2011.

Growth in popularity of "Silent Night" during the 19th century in
the English speaking world at least, must have been very slow, a view
supported not least by the surprising absence of "Silent Night" from
the musical programmes of 19th century cylinder musical boxes referred
to above.

Furthermore, there is its noted absence from several hymn books of
mainstream churches, the Sankey and Moody collections in "Sacred Songs
and Solo", all published in the very early part of the 20th century
and finally, from "Abide With Me - The World of Victorian Hymns",
a definitive work on the subject by Ian Bradley, published in 1997.

The Arthur D Cunliffe Register of Cylinder Musical Boxes is an on-going
project and the Registrar welcomes receiving new data on cylinder boxes.
Please refer to the Musical Box Society of Great Britain website for
further information, including how to contact the Registrar, at
https://www.mbsgb.org.uk/ 

Alison Biden - Musical Box Society of Great Britain