Many will be familiar with the sadly untrue story of how the organ in St Nicholas Church in Oberndorf was rendered unplayable for Christmas 1818. Joseph Mohr, the priest, asked Franz Gruber to compose a melody for words which he had written a couple of years earlier. The resulting little masterpiece was Silent Night. It had its first performance that Christmas, with Mohr on the guitar.

The harp is the nearest orchestral equivalent to a guitar, hence its use here with the choir and soloist(s).