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Music

The splendour of the English carol

Why do carols move us? Because they speak to us of innocence, and childhood. Here's my favourite carol...

14 December 2013

9:00 AM

14 December 2013

9:00 AM

The most celebrated Christmas carol, ‘Silent Night’, belongs to Austria. Father Joseph Mohr, the priest at Oberndorf, a small village near Salzburg, wrote it in 1818. Set to music by Franz Xaver Gruber, it was sung on Christmas Eve at the church of St Nicholas: Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht. It is the most celebrated carol for it captures the stillness of a winter night, the wonder of Christ’s birth, and the hope of all mankind for peace.

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