A
brief history of Silent Night
Silent Night has been
claimed to be the country's favourite Christmas carol in a recent
poll
The Austrian tune was written to tide
over a midnight mass after mice put a church organ out of action.
In The Bleak Midwinter was second in
the nationwide poll - one place lower than last year.
Silent Night – which was first
translated into English in 1863 – was written after mice
nibbled through the bellows of the organ at St Nicholas Church
in the Austrian village of Obendorf.
With no time to fix the instrument for
the midnight mass on Christmas Eve, the priest Father Joseph Moir,
wrote a poem, Stille Nacht Heilige Nacht, which was arranged for
choir and guitar.
It was performed that night for the first
time and later became so popular that the King or Prussia, Frederick
Wilhelm IV, demanded it was sung throughout the kingdom at Christmas
pageants and services.
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