Silent Night

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The greatest Christmas song of all time was composed in the Austria of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, and clearly some echo of their genius had reached its composer, FX Gruber (some of whose other work is still played in his native land). But there is something else that lives at the heart of this masterpiece: the song is essentially a lullaby for God asleep as a child - and Gruber had lost four of his eight children in infancy. I think there is a connection, and when I think of it, I feel tears in my eyes.