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Silent Night, Holy Night (Piano Solo)

from O Holy Night by Tito Abeleda

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This music arrangement of Silent Night, Holy Night was played and recorded on a Steinway Grand Piano.

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 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 these 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 the aforementioned discussion.

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from O Holy Night, released December 11, 2019

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Tito Abeleda Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Tito Abeleda is music composer and producer at Visionary Quest Records creating a wide range of music from Modern Classical to Cinematic music with a growing following of over 20,00 followers on Spotify.

With over 30 years of professional experience in the entertainment industry, Tito has worked as composer, music director, choreographer, Broadway performer, and producer. ... more

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