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 a 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…