Finished up A Christmas Lullaby today- it’s a new version of A Basque Lullaby, with Christmas lyrics by the best lyricist I know- Charles Anthony Silvestri. It’ll be premiered at Christmas At The Cathedral in Sioux Falls, SD, this Christmas, and will be available from Hinshaw Music next spring.
Ordinarily, neither I nor Hinshaw would want to get anywhere near re-texting an existing match of text and music….but in this case, the music really seemed to beg for it, and I’ve had multiple requests for a Christmas version. And, this isn’t the first time Tony has been called upon to re-text an existing choral piece (if you read this blog, you probably know the story of Whitacre’s “Sleep”). I was happy to entrust this project to Tony, who nonetheless called it the most challenging project he’s had yet. If you read below, you’ll see why; retaining the short, unusual line lengths, preserving the rhymes, and yet saying what we wanted to say, in the style we wanted, was insanely difficult! I’m still chuckling at the fact that Tony and I hashed out the details of the new text via Facebook Chat, late one night. An unusual way to collaborate! But, happily, we worked it all out.
So- if you’re one of the ones who asked for a Christmas version of Basque Lullaby, keep your eye out for it next spring…or take a listen in Sioux Falls this December!
Here’s the first stanza of Tony’s work. The man is a.maz.ing.
Lullaby, Lullaby,
Rest now my darling,
Close your eyes, dreaming is nigh
Lullaby, Lullaby,
Angel voices softly singing
Carols for their newborn King.
Lullaby, Lullaby,
Whisper and sigh,
Lullaby, Lullaby, Lullaby.
