A perennial holiday favorite, “Silent Night” was first performed in 1818 on Christmas Eve in a small church in Austria. At the request of the lyricist Father Joseph Mohr, the music for this song was composed by Franz Gruber, an organist who wrote the original version in the key of D major.
This solo-guitar arrangement is set in the key of A major. The melody (the first eight bars of which are shown below) starts on the open E string, setting up a sustaining, lyrical approach to the song.
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Holiday Songs for Fingerstyle Guitar.
