For the second of our Word Wench Christmastide posts, I wanted to tell you about a wonderful article on the history of the beoved Christmas carol Silent Night, which ran in the Baltimore Sun on Christmas Day. Written by Youngsuck Kim, a music professor at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania, it commemorates the 200th anniversary of the song and starts with the lovely story from WWI when three armies in the trenches sang Silent Night in German, English, and French for a moment of Christmas peace.
I knew that story, though not that a Scottish piper in the British army chimed in on his
bagpipes to accompany the singing. Nor did I know the song was written because the composer, a priest called Father Joseph Mohr, was having trouble with his church organ and had to quickly come up with a song that could be accompanied on a guitar. And a miracle of music it was as church organist Franz Xaver Gruber composed a melody to go with the music!
I recommend reading the whole article, and may it invoke peace--
Mary Jo, who took the pictures at her local mall, where there are many lovely Christmas things