Pictured are families and friends building together during LEGO Club at the Warsaw Community Public Library, which will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 17. Photo provided by Warsaw Community Public Library.

By Amy Mann, Children’s Services
Warsaw Community Public Library

WARSAW — From the melodic guitar strains of “Silent Night” to the electronic gyrations of the Chipmunks, the music of Christmas will be heard again this year. Christmas music can be heard over the radio, on commercials and television programs and in stores. Children sing tunes that they’ve learned in school or at church. Those attending lighting displays may hear songs of the season, and holiday concerts abound.

Austria was the birthplace of “Silent Night.” The lyrics were written by Josef Mohr, who was spurned in his hometown because his father, who wasn’t married to his mother, took off and left his family. Young Josef was taken into the local Catholic cathedral as the curate’s foster child and later became a priest. In 1815, Mohr was sent to Oberndorf, Austria, just north of Salzburg, Austria, where he met a schoolteacher and church organist named Franz Gruber. The two friends needed a worship carol and decided to create one together. Since the church organ was broken, the first public performance of the song, which was actually livelier than today’s carol, was by guitar and congregational voice. A rebuilt Silent Night Chapel now resides in Oberndorf, Austria. A replica, close enough for Hoosiers to visit, exists in Frankenmuth, Mich.

In 1958, Ross Bagdasarian, a talented actor and musician also known as Dave Seville, sped up his voice electronically and laid vocal tracks to create “The Chipmunks.” Alvin, Simon and Theodore, characters named after Liberty Records executives, saved the failing company. Their first official recording, released in the fall of 1958, was a massive hit. Number one on the billboard charts for four weeks, “The Chipmunk Song”, originally listed as “The Christmas Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late),” eventually won multiple Grammy awards. The Chipmunks would become celebrities on TV, in the comics and in movies — and they weren’t even real people.

If you have a Warsaw Community Public Library card, you can find free musical and other resources in the library or online at warsawlibrary.org.

The library’s winter reading challenge for all ages will take place in January and February 2023.