Lyrics
The song was first performed on Christmas
Eve 1818 at
St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf,
a village on theSalzach river.
The young priest, Father Joseph Mohr, had come to Oberndorf the year before. He
had already written the lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" in 1816 at Mariapfarr, the hometown of his father in the
Salzburg Lungauregion, where Joseph had worked as a coadjutor.
The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, schoolmaster and organist in the nearby village of Arnsdorf. Before Christmas Eve, Mohr brought
the words to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the church service.[1] Both performed the carol during the mass on the night of December 24.
The original manuscript has been
lost. However a manuscript was discovered in 1995 in Mohr's handwriting and
dated by researchers at ca. 1820. It shows that Mohr wrote the words in 1816
when he was assigned to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria, and shows that
the music was composed by Gruber in 1818. This is the earliest manuscript that exists and the only one in Mohr's
handwriting.
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