O
n 24 December 1818, hours before Christmas Mass in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Joseph Mohr, assistant priest of the local church, passed a six-stanza poem over to parish organist Franz Xaver Gruber, and asked him to compose a melody to accompany it. The simple song that resulted – Stille Nacht – has since sold 30 million copies in over 300 different languages, and has become the planet’s definitive Christmas carol.
Step one: DISCOVER DIVINE INSPIRATION IN MARIAPFARR
With a view of crystalline lakes and a crown of colossal snow-capped mountains, I half expect to see legions of landscape artists setting up their easels in the meadows of Mariapfarr. It is, however, a portrait that gets the attention here. I step inside the Church of Our Beloved Woman, and track down a painting depicting the Three Wise Men visiting Jesus. It’s thought to be the inspiration behind the line ‘Holy infant, so tender and mild’. Initially penned as a poem by Joseph Mohr when the assistant priest was stationed at the village, the original reads ‘Holder Knab im lockigen Haar’ (‘The lovely boy with curly hair’).