Comprehension  (Page 2/5)

Mohr had a natural instinct for music. As a boy, the illegitimate son of a seamstress and a soldier, he had earned money singing and playing the violin and guitar in public. At school, and then at university, he had lived on money he earned as a performer. Then Mohr entered the seminary, was ordained in 1815 and posted to Oberndorf in 1817.

Realising that the traditional Christmas carols would not sound right on a guitar, he decided to produce a new song. Bending over a sheet of blank paper, his quill pen poised, he thought about a parish family he had recently visited to bless their child. The memory of that mother holding her infant wrapped snugly against the winter cold, took Mohr’s thoughts to another modest birth almost two thousand years earlier.

Tentatively, he began writing. His pen moved as if guided by an invisible hand. A haunting refrain, “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht!” appeared on the paper.

In phrases as simple as a poem for children, the young curate told of the Christmas miracle in six stanzas. It was as if the words flowed directly from Heaven. Time was growing short by the time he had finished. The verses still had to be set to music in time for Midnight Mass. Mohr decided to seek out his good friend, Franz Xavier Gruber, 31, the schoolmaster at nearby Arnsdorf, a more skilled composer than he.

Mohr visited Gruber and his large family at their modest living quarters above the school. Mohr told his friend of his dilemma. Handing over his newly written words, Mohr asked Gruber whether he would be able to compose a tune to fit them, suitable for two voices, chorus and guitar, and in time for Midnight Mass.

As Gruber read Father Mohr’s words, he was really struck by their beauty and innocence. He went to his piano to begin work while Mohr returned to his church. Drawing on three of the most basic harmonies in the musical repertoire, the organist wove a plain, hauntingly evocative melody. He took it to Father Mohr late that evening. With barely time for a rehearsal, the two men agreed that Mohr would play his guitar and sing tenor while Gruber sang bass. Following each stanza, the church chorus would chime in on the refrain.

At midnight, parishioners filed in, probably expecting the organ to fill the church with the resounding notes of Christmas hymns. Instead, the building was silent as they crowded into the narrow wooden pews. Father Mohr stepped into the nave and beckoned the schoolmaster to stand by his side. Holding his guitar, the curate must have explained to the assembled flock that, although the old organ was broken, the Midnight Mass would include music nonetheless: he and Gruber had prepared a special Christmas song for the congregation.

With Mohr strumming the guitar, two mellow voices soon filled the church. The choir joined the four-part harmony at each refrain. The parishioners listened in awe to a carol that was as pure and fresh as an Alpine stream. Then Mohr proceeded with the celebration of the Mass and the congregation knelt in prayer. Christmas Eve at St Nicholas had been a success.