When his parish organ broke down in 1818 at St. Nikolas Church in Austria, the story goes, the Rev. Joseph Mohr asked organist Franz Gruber to quickly compose a guitar melody for the carol that Mohr had written and could sing at that evening's Christmas Eve Mass.
With the church choir singing in the background, Mohr and Gruber performed "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht."
The original version of what has become one of the world's most recognized Christmas carols, "Silent Night, Holy Night," will be performed in German in an annual concert that celebrates the music and history of famous and obscure Christmas carols. "Christmas Carols Around the World" will be presented at 4 p.m. Dec. 8 at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Fulton.
"I love it," said the Rev. Rod Ronneberg, St. Paul's pastor. "It's a wonderful way for people to start off the holiday season."
This year's program will showcase about 20 carols from England, France, the United States, Italy, Austria, China, Poland and the Balkans, with a narrative explaining their history.
"It's very well done," said Irena Mirecki, a former Columbia translator who lives in McLean, Va. She first attended the concert more than seven years ago. "I am from Europe, but sometimes there are carols I've never heard before."
The program was scripted and directed by Alina Kozinska, a professional singer and music director of St. Paul's who has performed in the concert since it began a dozen years ago. She will begin the program with a Christmas prayer from an untitled Robert Louis Stevenson poem.
"The whole idea is to embrace everyone," said Kozinska, who lives in Columbia with her husband, Stan Plecha, and their two daughters. "I want to focus on the birth of Jesus and how many nations celebrate it. Stevenson wrote, 'Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world.' That's what I want to do with the concert. I want it to be something that unites people and opens them to the beauty of many different cultures."
Other performers include baritone Jozef Surowiec; Kozinska's sister, Krys Kozinski; bass-baritone Andrew David Levy; St. Paul's Chancel Choir; and youth choir members Dayna Jorgenson and Amanda Plecha, Kozinska's younger daughter.
Initially sponsored in 1990 by Baltimore's Polish Community Association at the ballroom of the Polish National Alliance Building in Fells Point, the first concert was conceived and scripted by Kaya Ploss. She narrated a program that focused on the various Christmas traditions and invited Alina Kozinska to sing to piano accompaniment and offer her input.
Kozinska has performed throughout Europe and sang at the papal Mass in Baltimore and at a luncheon on Capitol Hill. She also performed with the Baltimore Opera Company, Washington Opera and at Columbia Festival of the Arts.
For the concert's second year, Surowiec and a harpist joined, and new carols were added. Over the next several years, the concert was presented at churches in Fells Point and at St. Paul's in 1999, where it has been performed since.
Although the carols varied, the script remained the same for years until Jeannette Krol, a Fells Point fan who has attended nearly every year, told Kozinska that she could recite the program by heart. Kozinska edited the script, incorporating the history of the carols into the narrative and selecting more elaborate music that was "challenging technically and beautiful to sing," she said.
In 1999, Kozinska enlisted fellow congregant Anne Bentz to write another script that focuses on the carols. Kozinska rewrote the script last year and then rewrote it for this program. "I wanted to highlight songs from as many different cultures as possible," she said.
Christmas carols, said Kozinska, originated in the Middle Ages and were sung between scenes of Medieval plays. The Chancel Choir will perform the dark "Coventry Carol," which dates to a 15th-century English play.
Kozinska and Surowiec also will sing "Silent Night, Holy Night" to guitar in German from a copy of the original manuscript. The choir's English rendition of the classic Christmas carol will be performed against "Night of Silence" by Dayna Jorgenson and Amanda Plecha.
The girls also will sing a Chilean folk song and a Czechoslovakian carol with the choir.
"The concert is beautifully done," Krol said. "It really connects you to all the different cultures celebrating. It's just very uplifting and something we look forward to. It's become one of our traditions."