Lyrics We Need a Silent Night Again by Joel
The Story of Dark of Silence
Nighttime of Silence is my one composition that continues to evoke questions from all over the earth. While many of these questions have been addressed through diverse media channels (newspaper interviews, magazine articles, online reviews), the full narrative has never been told in i place, and never in my ain words. I've been waiting for the correct platform to share this story, one in which the telling could serve a bigger idea. This website provides that platform.
Night of Silence is unlike whatever of my other compositions. Its conception is a tale of longing and belonging, for Dark of Silence belongs, in part, to and then many. Information technology took a tribe to compose Night of Silence and those involved, directly or indirectly, deserve recognition.
the genesis of an idea
The story begins in autumn 1981, while I was a inferior at the Higher of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN (now the University of St. Thomas). I was 21 years old. As a music/piano major, I had completed the requisite 4 music theory courses but I was hungry for more than, so I enrolled in a graduate music theory course. The four courses leading up to this graduate course played a major role in my composing Dark of Silence. Analyzing and deconstructing music is a skill every pianist and composer needs if i aspires to any level of innovation. I have college professors Francis Mayer and James Callahan to thank for instruction me these skills. I also have Joe Kozak to thank, one of my early on piano teachers, who introduced me to improvisation and composition at a young historic period.
Note: Dr. James Callahan, my piano professor for iv years at St. Thomas, was instrumental in helping me acquire a grant to develop Apple tree IIe software for the music theory department. This opportunity would somewhen lead to a job with Wenger/Coda Music Software and a fundamental role on the development squad for the Finale music publishing platform.
The idea to compose Night of Silence came to me during the autumn semester. I was attending an off-campus weekend retreat, and we were given the opportunity to spend some quiet time in a small chapel. Information technology was during this time I realized I was losing bear on with why I had chosen music as a degree-path. I was experiencing music more intellectually than e'er before, and I missed the emotional component.
Something else occurred during this time in the chapel—I was struck by the ambient light that was streaming in through some translucent drinking glass blocks. Fifty-fifty though it was autumn, it looked very much like the reflected white light of a winter snow scene. For that moment information technology felt like Christmas. The chemistry of this wintry light combined with my inner struggles with music created the spark, the thought to etch a piece that could be sung simultaneously with Silent Night (I didn't realize it at the time, but this type of song is called a quodlibet).Composing partner songs was non new to me. I'd done it a few other times—even once in high school, and then Night of Silence was a logical progression of my involvement in this form of composition.
st. thomas & liturgical music
During my iv years at St. Thomas I was actively involved in the music ministry program, having been recruited by Rob Strusinski, who lead the St. Thomas/St. Catherine Liturgical Choir and Campus Music Ministry building program at St. Thomas. One of my roles was to play for midnight Mass on Saturday nights. I would pack up my Yamaha electronic piano, drag it from the 3rd flooring of Ireland Hall to the lower sanctuary of the chapel, and meet up with a singer and a guitarist. The many musicians and composers I collaborated with for these services included David Haas, Jeanne Cotter, Peter Mayer, John Seiwert, Joanne Wagner, Debbie Denman, Paul Fried, and many others.
Rob Strusinski, Director of College of St Thomas and St. Catherine Liturgical Choir
Rob Strusinki was my accidental mentor, always open to considering any music I composed. I would not accept composed Night of Silence were it not for the culture of innovation and opportunity he created. During my sophomore year Rob produced the InSong album featuring the Liturgical Choir, which included my Lord's Prayer. Newly ordained Mike Joncas provided the solo voice on the spoken intercession of my piece. David Haas (who also had a piece on the album) and Marty Haugen were also actively involved with the liturgical music plan at St. Thomas, drawing upon campus talent for their early on album projects. A new era in liturgical music was emerging and Minnesota was a key contributor, if not the leader of this movement. The influences and experiences I enjoyed that year shaped my evolution and perceptions every bit a young liturgical music composer. It was a bang-up fourth dimension to be at St. Thomas.
InSong album composers: Front row, L to R: Mark Rumpza, Ron Noecker, Daniel Kantor; Back row, L to R: Mike Joncas, David Haas, Paul Rysavy, Jay McHale, Dr. James Callahan, Rob Strusinski
composing begins
It was a busy semester academically so spending time to compose just for myself was impractical, if not irresponsible, since piano majors were expected to practice three hours a 24-hour interval. Yet, I establish composing therapeutic...and it was freeing. Dissimilar college coursework there was no one grading my every thought, no one scrutinizing every note I produced, no ane judging the musical instincts I wanted to follow.
Composing Dark of Silence was a healing, integrative act for me. Information technology leveraged both intellect and emotions in a way that validated the choices I'd fabricated upwardly to that indicate in my life, reconnecting me to the joy of creating music. Though composing is a solitary activity, it offers the potential for a powerful social feedback machinery. The operation of a new work connects the composer with hundreds of people at one time. There'south a compelling energy to this kind of feel. Visualizing the possibility of this while composing Night of Silence was enlivening.
In hindsight I at present realize I was depressed during this time, struggling with my sense of self. Am I good enough? Why am I not enjoying this? Can I survive through graduation? What if people discover I'thou a faux? Tin I go through my inferior and senior solo recitals? What if I bomb? How exercise I make choices now that will impact the residual of my life? Though I didn't realize it at the time, composing Night of Silence was my manner of dealing with the anxiety of a hard time.
Yamaha CP-30
I was lucky plenty to take a Yamaha electronic pianoforte in my Ireland Hall dorm room. I acquired the keyboard while still in loftier school. The piano gave me the luxury of quietly composing and practicing through the utilise of headphones in my dorm room (My roommate and brother, Bob, would fence the rhythmic thunking of the weighted keys was hardly quiet).
Republic of ireland Hall dorm room, 1980; 50 to R: Joe Willet (in chair), Bob Kantor, Dan Kantor
My compositional procedure began not with the text just with the music. The first challenge was to reharmonize Silent Nighttime and then compose a new melody for the new harmony, which took a few weeks to perfect. The new melody had to be more than than a simple countermelody to Silent Night. It had to stand on its ain to mask its connection to Silent Night. It also had to artfully partner with Silent Dark while adhering to certain rules of function-writing (avoiding too much parallelism, for instance).
Next came the lyrics. The text to Night of Silence was the product of both enquiry and personal expression. One'southward art speaks first to oneself, as I would acquire over the years. My need for a message of hope which would eventually come through in the second draft of the lyrics.
the first draft
Past early on November I thought I had a reasonable offset typhoon of Night of Silence (though it was not yet titled), so I showed it to Rob Strusinski. I recall him using the words schmaltzy and cliché in his feedback. Bottom line: the text was horrible.
Rob challenged me to lean heavier into Advent. He also suggested I consider the apply of metaphor rather than the purely literal when crafting text. To illustrate his point, Rob pulled out a slice from his files that beautifully demonstrated this. Information technology was Mike Joncas' Stars Flung Like Diamonds. I still take the image in my mind that was produced by Rob'south reading of those lyrics.
Rob besides suggested I depict from my own experiences of Advent and Christmas to make the piece more personal, more than intimate.
Then, back to the drawing board. There was no Google at this fourth dimension. No e-mail. No internet. Just phones and snail post. I did some research in the higher library and as well wrote to an acquaintance, Dennis Kurtz, whom I knew to be a skilful resource on matters of ritual. The packet of information Dennis put together for me was invaluable. I have Dennis to give thanks for his insights on the symbol of the rose, which led to the line "Frozen in the snow lie roses, sleeping."
I too drew upon my life growing up in northern Wisconsin. Winter had e'er been magical to me, especially Advent and Christmas. My family'due south home was merely a short walk from the stunning landscape of the northwoods where I would oftentimes indulge in the quietude of night snowshoeing. There is no other silence like wandering wintertime woods. Deep snow absorbs sound in a way that makes even a vast wilderness feel intimate and embracing. When seen under a moonlit sky, the calorie-free was ofttimes bright plenty to cast a shadow. The snow would actually sparkle in this moonlight. This effect is depicted in the cursory dissonance that can be heard in the piano introduction to Night of Silence (the A against the G-abrupt). References to air current, cold, shadows, night, shimmer, and sky are all celebrated in the lyrics, drawn from the mystical imagery of my Wisconsin domicile.
My sister, Mary, who was so a music and liturgy student at The Higher of St. Catherine, also offered some insights on the history of Advent and its symbology. She inspired me to craft language that was more than poetic and prayerful. Mary e'er had the knack for creating a voice with both gravitas and approachability. I accept her to give thanks for elevating the imagistic theology of Night of Silence.
the final typhoon
A few weeks after Rob's diplomatic rejection of my first draft I presented him with my 2nd typhoon. To my relief he loved it. Over the adjacent few weeks a few small changes would be made. David Haas, for example, suggested I change the words "my ear" to "the ear" in the line Gentle on the ear you whisper, softly—a subtle, merely perfect edit. Only a vocaliser of his caliber would accept sensed the need for this nuance. I remember him singing it to me to make his point. Beautiful.
The piece was completed in December 1981. It was also belatedly to use in whatsoever services or concerts on campus so I gathered some musician friends to test and record information technology. Ireland Hall, the dorm where I lived, was just beyond the upper quad from the chapel where the recording would be fabricated. All I needed was some recording equipment. Across the hallway from my dorm room lived an substitution educatee from Nippon, Terufumi "Teri" Futaba. Teri was a lover of music and owned some great audio equipment, which he was always willing to share. So nosotros used his high-end Sony boombox to produce a rough, but constructive cassette tape recording.
L to R: Joanne Wagner Pauley, Dan Swason, John Siewert
Very much similar the story of Stille Nacht, we recorded Night of Silence in a cold, dark chapel on a winter'south nighttime. I was on piano, with John Seiwert on guitar, and Joanne Wagner and Dan Swanson on vocals. My get-go feel of the slice that night was heartening. Up to this point information technology had all been in my head. To hear it with live voices (and actually working) was thrilling. I retrieve bringing the boombox to the cafeteria the following night to play the recording for the regular dinner gang: Pat Dorn, Ann….Mike Peller, Terufumi Futaba, my blood brother Bob and his soon to be fiancée, Monique Thouin. The piece was yet untitled at this bespeak. That evening in the deli the title Night of Silence was proposed by Mike Peller. It was his thought to reverse the words Silent and Dark. While the words Night of Silence are never sung in the piece, it made for the perfect title.
Ireland Hall, equally seen from the Chapel
Terufumi's boombox would make it home to Spooner for Christmas. There were four Kantor kids in college that year, three of the states at St. Thomas, one at St. Catherine. We shared a unmarried, very big, 1969 Bonneville station wagon. Our luggage, combined with gifts, was enough to all but overload the auto'south stupor absorbers during the bulldoze home for Christmas. During the trip, we listened to the record over and over again.
The St. Thomas arches on Tiptop Avenue
appearance 1982
One twelvemonth later Rob Strusinski used Nighttime of Silence for the first time in a public setting: the college's annual Advent Lessons and Carols. For this performance, which took identify in the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel, Rob asked me to compose string quartet and oboe parts for Nighttime of Silence, which I was thrilled to do.
Annotation: During the fall semester of 1982, I got to know a young freshman piano major, Jeanne Cotter . It didn't take long to discover we had a shared involvement in pianoforte improvisation and composing. Jeanne and I would spend hours riffing on ideas and possibilities. I eventually tapped her for her thoughts on my new string scores for Night of Silence. She had a hand in the fluid, sustained nature of that score. Even as a freshman Jeanne had great musical instincts. It'southward no surprise she went on to a have a historic career as a pianist/vocalist/songwriter.
With my new string score consummate,Night of Silence was ready for its premiere. It was programmed equally the final slice of the Appearance Lessons and Carols service. Instrumentation featured a small ensemble of unison voices and a solo guitar (but every bit Stille Nacht is said to have been performed the first time). Strings and piano were added over verses two and three, with Silent Night coming in toward the terminate of the piece. While Rob Strusinski conducted the choir, he turned around on the podium to invite the assembly to add Silent Night. I was sitting in the assembly with some friends, and Rob managed to catch my eye. He had tears in his eyes. Night of Silence was officially born, a slice conceived a year prior in a minor dorm room just a few hundred feet away.
The Chapel of St. Thomas the Aquinas
a surprise in the mail
Having survived my senior pianoforte recital I graduated in the jump of 1983 and moved back home to Spooner. Not sure what to practise with a degree in music, I taught piano lessons and worked a job as a teller at the Banking company of Spooner. Sometime during that twelvemonth at dwelling I received an unexpected package in the mail from a company I'd never heard of: GIA Publications. It was a contract for publication of Dark of Silence. As information technology turns out, Rob Strusinski submitted it to GIA without my knowing, along with his strong recommendation. Of course I signed the contract and dedicated the piece to my family, the source of my love for Advent and Christmas.
Had Rob not submitted Dark of Silence to GIA, information technology's probable it would nonetheless be sitting in a storage box somewhere, lost and forgotten.
Until the GIA contract arrived I'd never paid any attention to the business of music publication. Had it occurred to me to submit any of my music I wouldn't have know where to start. Information technology is this naiveté, this youthful innocence (and, yes, ignorance), that contributed in to the tone and spirit of Nighttime of Silence. At that place was no agenda. No vision for distribution. No intended publisher. No profit motive. Only the raw want to introduce an expression of Advent and the need for some cocky-healing. This state of mind is something I have since found difficult to recreate. Once a composer is published and has experienced even a hint of success they risk being less free. It is difficult to ignore things like marketability, industry trends, and customer needs. Of course these are valid things to consider when composing only they tin also get in the way. A lot of noise is introduced to the process that can take ane from their heart to their head. I wasn't burdened by any of these tensions when I composed Night of Silence.
Shortly after signing the contract I was approached past the Wenger Corporation to work in their newly formed music software division, which would eventually be rebranded equally Coda Music Software. I was a member of a small-scale team including Phil Farrand, John Borowicz, James Romeo, and Lowell Fisher to develop and launch Finale, a software production that would revolutionize desktop music publishing. My publisher, GIA Publications, fifty-fifty fabricated a visit to our offices during its development. They were curious about the work we were doing. I recall a member of the GIA entourage telling us "publishers will never employ this." He doesn't work at GIA anymore.
the music grows up
In the late 1980s Marty Haugen would record Night of Silence as the title track to his classic Christmas/Appearance CD, introducing information technology to thousands of his followers. A few years later John Ferguson of St. Olaf Higher would premiere his arrangement at the almanac St. Olaf Christmas Festival, putting Night of Silence on the national stage with broadcasts on PBS telly and NPR. I accept John to thank for seeing the potential Night of Silence had for larger concert settings.
Recordings and performances by singers, orchestras and choral ensembles from all over the world before long followed. Near recently the St. Olaf Choir featured Night of Silence on its Kingdom of norway tour, a concert experience now available on Blu-ray DVD.
St. Olaf Choir, Trondheim, Norway
Around the world Australia's famed soprano Yvonne Kenny featured a lush arrangement of Night of Silence on a CD titled A Christmas Souvenir.Night of Silence was starting time its crossover from liturgical music to a much broader audience, a tendency that continues to this day.
More recently, Philip Brunelle's VocalEssence included Nighttime of Silence on its Christmas CD, Behold this Heavenly Night,a masterful drove oftentimes heard on NPR each vacation season. And for choral music purists, an a cappella arrangement by Jocelyn Hagen was premiered recently by Matthew Culloton's group The Singers, 1 of the finest professional choirs in all the state. Jocelyn's provocative adaptation of Night of Silence is a mystical re-imagining of the piece, further expanding the Advent soundscape. At that place are even two dissimilar handbell arrangements for Nighttime of Silence.
Nighttime of Silence is no longer my own. Was it ever simply mine? Its origins belong to and then many, both during its conception and after. It is a piece people love to make their ain, as demonstrated by the numerous published arrangements bachelor. My function is at present that of a steward which is one of the reasons I congenital this website.
Equally I look back at the twelvemonth I equanimous Night of Silence, I'm struck that one of my almost successful pieces would be produced in the thin margins of a busy college semester. There were some who argued I shouldn't have been spending any time composing. Why hadn't I been practicing piano instead? Simply when logic dictated I had a responsibility to more pressing academic concerns, I listened to my middle. I followed an inner vocalization that guided me to a limerick that would transcend virtually everything else I would accomplish while at St. Thomas. I needed a taste of joy and freedom to create on my ain terms and I didn't await to anyone for permission to practise information technology. This turned out to be a slap-up life lesson.
We are all pilgrims on a journey and sometimes we find ourselves in places we'd rather non be. Information technology is through ritual that our journeys may exist deepened and enriched. Nosotros live from 1 flavour to the next, through cyclical traditions that help us marking time, that footing usa to the familiar while connecting us to our past and to those with whom nosotros share our pilgrimage. Of all the ritual seasons, Advent is the one that will e'er resonate with me on a deeper level—a season that encourages u.s. to embrace a style of being that is out of sync with what our civilisation tells us.
Yes, Advent is about preparation and anticipation, but information technology is also about making room for the new. When I composed Dark of Silence I cleared a space for what now feels like a fountain that never runs dry. I proceed to be filled past connections with amazing people, and the blessings of new and surprising experiences. That is the power of Advent. Information technology outset calls usa to a spiritual presence grounded in serenity emptiness and expectant hope, and then asks us to trust in this silence.Night of Silence is my expression of this. Outset in the darkness information technology guides us to that moment when dawn breaks and a morn of endless possibility awaits.
– Daniel Kantor
Source: https://www.nightofsilence.com/blog/story
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