In 1818, on Christmas Eve, the words to Silent Night, Holy Night were put to music for guitar. The words had been written in 1816 by Josef Mohr. Then in 1818 Mohr, who was then an assistant pastor at St. Nicholas Church, asked fellow church member, and organist and choirmaster, Franz Xaver Gruber to put it to music for guitar. The next day, Christmas 1818, the song was sung in St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria for the very first time. It was sung by Mohr and Gruber to the music of a guitar, and they were accompanied by the church choir. Can you imagine that, a Christmas Song sung to the music of guitar back in 1818! All this supposedly because the two men had been struggling with a broken church organ on Christmas Eve in preparation for Christmas Mass; or so the story goes - and I like the story. Actually, the fact of its authorship, and of its musical score have been fairly well documented, and so have the date(s) of its creation (words/music thus dates), and so to was the date it was first sung in church. The part about the broken organ is possibly a stretch, but I guess we can make allowances for it being the Christmas season.
See:
http://www.visit-salzburg.net/surroundings/silentnightchapel.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Joseph_Gruber
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Night_%28song%29
Enjoy the song when you hear it or sing it; and Merry Christmas to all.
All the best,
Glenn B
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