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This Night
Subtitle: Hymn for Band
General Info
Year: 2012 / 2021
Duration: c. 7:30
Difficulty: III (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Choir
Publisher: Bent Space Music, through Murphy Music Press
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $125.00 | Score Only (print) - $25.00
Instrumentation
Full Score
Flute I-II
Oboe
Bassoon (optional div.)
Contrabassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Contrabass Clarinet (optional)
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass (optional)
Timpani
Percussion (optional), including:
- Bass Drum (large)
- Glockenspiel
- Marimba
- Mark Tree
- Suspended Cymbal
- Triangle
- Vibraphone
Players singing (optional)
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
This Night is a Christmas hymn that was originally written for Minneapolis-based choir VocalEssence. This arrangement for band was created for Alex Kaminsky and the VanderCook College of Music Symphonic Band. The text for the choral version is a setting of the text Dies ist die Nacht, da mir erschienen, (this night is a wondrous revelation), which was written in 1683 by Caspar Friedrich Nachtenhöfer. I used an English translation of the original German poem by Anna B. Hoppe from 1922, which also serves as the text for the Christmas hymn of the same name, commonly set to the tune O Dass Ich Tausen Zungen, written by Johann B. König in 1738. I chose this text because of the beautifully vivid imagery and metaphors for light in the poetry, and because I really enjoy the simple, common rhyme and phrase structure that encouraged me to write simple, clear music.
This night a wondrous revelation
Makes known to me God's love and grace;
The Child that merits adoration
Brings light to our benighted race;
And though a thousand suns did shine,
Still brighter were that Light divine.
The Sun of Grace for thee is beaming;
Rejoice, my soul, in Jesus' birth!
The light from yonder manger streaming
Sends forth its rays o'er all the earth.
It drive the night of sin away
And turns our darkness into day.
This Light, which all thy gloom can banish,
The bliss of heaven glorifies;
When sun and moon and stars shall vanish,
Its rays shall still illume the skies.
This light through all eternity
Thy heaven and all to thee shall be.
- Program Note by composer
Media
(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Michigan State University (East Lansing) Wind Symphony (Mary K. Schneider, conductor) - 2 March 2023 (88th Annual ABA National Convention)
- Central Michigan University (Mount Pleasant) Symphony Band (Robert Lindahl, conductor) - 23 February 2023
- La Sierra University (Riverside, Calif.) Wind Ensemble (Giovanni Santos, conductor) – 15 May 2022
- VanderCook College of Music (Chicago, Ill.) Symphonic Band (Kevin Sedatole, conductor) - 17 December 2021 (2021 Midwest Clinic)
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Cerulean (2014/2017)
- Cipher
- Concerto for Wind Ensemble
- Cyclotron (2017)
- Daybreak Crossing (2014)
- ...dream of ember, dream of star (2021)
- Dreams in the Dusk (2012)
- Ghost Apparatus (2017)
- Goof Groove from Cerulean
- Kyrie (arr. Austin) (2015/2019)
- Luminescence (2009)
- Melodious Thunk (2012)
- The Night (2021)
- Red Vesper (2014)
- Schism (2010/2015)
- Severance (2020)
- Shell and Wing (2018)
- Stomp (2008)
- Their Eyes Are Fireflies (2018)
- This Night (2012/2021)
- Unquiet Hours (2017)
- What Is Written on the Leaves (2019)
Resources
- David Biedenbender website Accessed 15 December 2021
- Perusal score