A Cinematic Approach to Silent Night, Holy Night

When I decided to do an arrangement of Silent Night, Holy Night, I, of course, wanted to approach it in a different manner than just a restatement of its well known melodic theme.  To understand why I approached composing this arrangement of Silent Night, Holy Night in the way that I did, close your eyes and imagine taking a holy journey or pilgrimage to visit the Holy Nativity. I musically conveyed what I imagined it would have been like to start and make this long journey, like the Three Wise Kings who followed the Star of Bethlehem to see the Blessed Child that prophets had foretold. The song begins with an unexpected yet distinctive minor key that is grave and poignant indicative of the quest such travelers of that time were about to face. Before composing the song with orchestra, I first composed it for piano.  To musically paint the song’s sense of travel or journey, I used rolling triplets an sextuplets.  When I orchestrated the piano piece, I transformed the musical canvas of rolling triplets and sextuplets as rolling woodwinds and strings.  Soon thereafter one hears brass instruments build gloriously heralding one's approach to the Holy Nativity coupled with the commencement of Gruber's Silent Night, Holy Night theme upon one's arrival to the Holy Nativity.

 The music Silent Night, Holy Night was originally composed in 1818 by Franz X. Gruber. The original lyrics were written in German by James Mohr also in 1818. This Christmas Classic was translated to English in 1859 by John Young.  From my re-imagined versions of Silent Night, Holy Night, Section A begins with an introduction in C Minor, then modulates to C Major for the main Silent Night, Holy Night Christmas Carol theme in Section B. Section C returns to a new version of its introductory C Minor motif. The song segues back to its "Silent Night, Holy Night theme, but with more splendor, grandeur and renewed energy by modulating to D Major for its closing. Although both piano and orchestral arrangements follow this pattern and chord progression, the differences in instrumentation convey different emotions and feelings.  On the one hand, the simplicity of the piano piece Is intimate and poignant.  On the other hand, when the piano arrangement is orchestrated, the timbre of the orchestral instrumentation gives the piece a whole different set of feelings that are more profound.  This music score video contains both orchestral and piano arrangements to illustrate what I just described.

The music and its sheet music scores are available at the links below. 

Silent Night, Holy Night (For Orchestra)

ORCHESTRA - Digital Download = 70 pages. Duration = 4 minutes 42 seconds.

INSTRUMENTATION - Piccolo 1.2\n\Flute 1.2.3\n\Alto Flute\n\Oboe 1.2.3.4\n\Cor Anglais 1.2\n\Clarinet in E^b\n\Clarinet in D\n\Clarinet in B^b 1.2.3\n\Clarinet in A 1.2.3\n\Bassoon 1.2.3.4\n\Contrabassoon 1.2\n\Horn in F 1–8\n\Trumpet in D\n\Trumpet in C 1.2.3.4\n\Bass Trumpet in E^b\n\Trombone 1.2.3\n\Tenor Tuba in B^b 1.2\n\Bass Tuba in F\n\Timpani 1.2\n\Cymbals\n\Tubular Bells\n\Harp\n\Violin I\n\Violin II\n\Viola\n\Violoncello\n\Double Bass

Silent Night, Holy Night (For Piano) 

PIANO - Intermediate Piano solo | Digital Download = 6 pages Duration 4 minutes 42 seconds

Both arrangements for Piano and Orchestra of Silent Night, Holy Night will be on Tito’s upcoming Christmas album O Holy Night scheduled for release on December 11, 2019. Pre-save the album links on http://bit.ly/OHolyNight-album-links. The song list includes:

FOR LIMITED TIME AS PRE-RELEASE SPECIAL, early birds can get the O Holy Night album now plus FREE Christmas sheet music collection, which includes all the above music on the album as well as a collection of Easy Piano Solos for Christmas on BandCamp.

Contact info: Tito Abeleda
Visionary Quest Records
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Email: tito@visionaryquestrecords.com
Publisher page: http://bit.ly/VQR_SheetMusicPlus

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