one of the many versions on how this Christmas fav came abt
(might be fictional):
How the world's most famous Christmas carol came to be
written
While we were serving as missionaries in Europe we visited a small
little church in Austria. That church was the birthplace of "Silent
Night." Here's the story how this most famous of Christmas carols
came to be written:
In 1818, a roving band of actors was performing in towns throughout
the Austrian Alps. On December 23 they arrived at Oberndorf, a
village near Salzburg. There they were scheduled to perform the
story of Christ's birth in the Church of St. Nicholas.
Unfortunately, the St. Nicholas' church organ wasn't working and
would not be repaired before Christmas. (Note: some versions of the
story point to mice as the problem; others say rust was the
culprit) Because the church organ was out of commission, the actors
presented their Christmas drama in a private home. That Christmas
presentation put assistant pastor Josef Mohr in a meditative mood.
So, instead of walking straight to his house, Mohr took a longer
way home. The longer path took him up over a hill overlooking the
village.
From that hilltop, Mohr looked down on the peaceful snow-covered
village. Reveling in the wintry night's majestic silence, he gazed
down at the glowing scene. His thoughts about the Christmas play
caused him to remember a poem he had written a couple of years
earlier. That poem was about the night when angels announced the
birth of the long-awaited Messiah to shepherds on a hillside.
Mohr decided those words would make a good carol for his
congregation the following evening at their Christmas eve service.
However, he didn't have any music to which that poem could be sung.
So, the next day Mohr went to see the church organist, Franz Xaver
Gruber. Gruber only had a few hours to come up with a melody which
could be sung with a guitar. However, by that evening, Gruber had
managed to compose a simple musical setting for Mohr's poem. It
didn't matter that the organ was broken. They now had a Christmas
carol they could sing without it.
On Christmas Eve, the little Oberndorf congregation heard Gruber
and Mohr sing their new composition to the accompaniment of
Gruber's guitar.
Weeks later, well-known organ builder Karl Mauracher arrived to fix
the St. Nicholas church organ. When he finished, Mauracher stepped
back to let Gruber test the instrument. When Gruber sat down, his
fingers began playing the simple melody he had written for Mohr's
Christmas poem. Deeply impressed, Mauracher took the music and
words of "Silent Night" back to his own Alpine village, Kapfing.
There, two well-known families of singers -- the Rainers and the
Strassers -- heard it. Captivated by "Silent Night," both groups
put the new song into their Christmas season repertoire.
Silent night! holy night!
All is calm, all is bright,
'Round yon virgin mother and Child!
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.
The Strasser sisters spread the carol throughout northern Europe.
In 1834, after they had performed "Silent Night" for King Frederick
William IV of Prussia, that king ordered his cathedral choir to
sing it every Christmas eve.
The Rainers brought the song to the United States in 1839, singing
it (in German) at the Alexander Hamilton Monument located outside
New York City's Trinity Church.
In 1863, nearly fifty years after being first sung in German,
"Silent Night" was translated into English (by either Jane Campbell
or John Young). In 1871 the English version was published in an
American hymnal: Charles Hutchins' Sunday School Hymnal.
