----- Original Message -----
From: JohnJ ©
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.jiffy-club
Sent: Monday, December 24, 2001 2:55 PM
Subject: Silent Night
I had been using CompuServe and Delphi until sometime in October or November of 1997, I decided to try the MSN service. Loaded it up but couldn't get their web site to finish the setup. Called customer service and waited on hold and finally got fed up. Was trying to figger out how to dump all the MSN stuff from my computer and somehow got into the NG named msn.msn25.msn and asked for help. Two guys jumped in and helped me out right quick, one called himself a PODCB claimed he was from Canada (Al Bundt) and another guy that claimed to be in Hawaii (Manny). Pretty soon, everything was working except the sound which I didn't really worry about at the time. Right before Christmas I had time to work through the sound card IRQ conflict and logged in to the msn25 and low and behold there was a neat christmas card entitled "The Story of Silent Night". It had color and sound and a nice story. I copied and saved it and just ran across the words for it in one of my old files. Didn't have the stationary and sound attached but is still pretty neat. Here it is.
Merry Christmas to you, too. Manny.
JohnJ
(Sorry, I can't embed the sound so it's attached.)
----- Original Message -----
From: manny
Newsgroups: msn.msn25.msn
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 1997 8:59 PM
Subject: THE STORY OF SILENT NIGHT
The young priest was worried. Within 24 hours he was supposed to lead a Christmas Eve service. but he had no music. The Salzach River that flowed near the village church of Oberndorf, Austria, caused chronic moisture which had rusted the pipe organ. Without the organ there would be no music. and what was Christmas Eve without music?
Father Josef Mohr had but recently come to this tiny village. the night of December 23 he had attended the town Christmas play. But instead of going home afterwards, he had climbed the small mountain overlooking the town and soaked in the beauty and quiet of the darkness. It was nearly midnight before he reached his room. So in the wee hours of December 24, 1818, he sat down to pen a new song, one which could be played on guitar - at least that wasn't broken.
"Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!" he wrote. "Silent Night, Holy Night." The nighttime peacefulness of Oberndorf was fresh in his mind; beyond it he could imagine Bethlehem, bathed in moonglow.
"All is calm, all is bright. Round yon Virgin Mother and Child! Holy Infant so tender and mild. Sleep in heavenly peace.
The words were flowing now. He could visualize shepherds quaking, shaken from the quietness of their vigil by the glories streaming from heaven. He could see the child's countenance: "Son of God, love's pure light, Radiant beams from Thy holy face, With the dawn of redeeming grace. Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.
It wasn't long 'til the simple poem was finished. Now, perhaps he could sleep. the next morning he brought the poem to his organist, Franz Gruber. "I know it's the last minute." he said, "but could you put a tune to this song for the service tonight? Something simple that I could accompany on the guitar?" Father Mohr was new to the parish, and to the church's chief musician. But then, Gruber was being paid, and at that moment his beloved organ wouldn't work. Gruber set about the task quickly and in a couple of hours he was done. Just in time to rehearse with the choir before the service. Mohr sang tenor, Gruber sang bass, and the services went off beautifully with the new song. "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!"
A master organ builder eventually came to Oberndorf to repair the rusted organ and there learned of the carol. He copied the song and sang it as he worked on organs in the neighboring villages. From him, two families of traveling folk singers, similar to the Trapp Family Singers fame, learned of the song and sang it in concerts all over Europe. In 1834 the Strasser family performed it for the King of Prussia, who ordered it sung every Christmas Eve by his cathedral choir. The Rainer family singers brought it to America in 1839. By mid-century it had become popular around the world, but no one could recall its composer.
The story of its fame was long to reach the tiny villages of Austria. But in 1854, Franz Gruber sent a letter to the leading musical authorities with his claim to have written the tune. In 1848 Father Mohr had died of pneumonia, but Gruber still had the original manuscript to show, and gradually he was recognized as Composer.
Sometimes the smallest churches make the biggest contributions. In this case a wonderful carol was presented to the world from a tiny congregation which happened to be called St. Nicholas' Church of Oberndorf.
On a current note, recorded sales of "Silent Night" long the all time leader was recently surpassed by Elton John's "Candle in the Wind.
Merry Christmas, Maluhia, Aloha, Hau'oli
manny
