Description
Essay on Silent Night is an original piece based on the traditional hymn “Silent Night” by Franz Gruber. The work was commissioned by Dr. Karl Moyer for and premiered at midnight mass, December 24th, 1998 at Grace Lutheran Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The piece begins with a variation of the initial gesture found in the original piece by Gruber. That gesture forms the basis for the variations which follow. The motion of the piece picks up with a change in time signature and musical gestures are passed back and forth imitatively. ASCAP