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Silent Night, perhaps the most tender of all Christmas carols, was written by a German priest, Father Josef Mohr, and composed by an Austrian headmaster, Franz Zaver Gruber. It was translated into English by John Freeman Young in 1859.

The popular legend of the song’s genesis – that it was written as a simple guitar and vocal arrangement because the church organ was not working – has given rise to dramatizations, stories, and countless musical arrangements, and has helped to make it one of the world’s most popular carols.

The message of the hymn lies in the contrast of the two images it projects: the ordinary, private joy of new mother and baby gazing at each other in delighted recognition in the silence of a deserted stable, and the heavens above them blazing in terrifying glory as the whole of creation shouts the significance of this birth.

In this version the richness of the unobtrusive orchestration adds cosmic significance to the intimate humanity of the hushed vocals.