scored for string quartet, clarinet (b-flat) and piano

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duration 8 minutes 

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Silent Night, Crazy Night, Starry Night takes as its point of departure one of the most recognizable melodies in our musical heritage: Silent Night. The melody serves as the starting point for a series of transformations.

In Silent Night, the melody appears in an intimate, restrained guise, supported by the warmth of the strings. Crazy Night releases this sense of calm. The melody is distorted, stretched, and pushed in unexpected directions. Rhythmic and harmonic shifts generate a subtly unsettling energy, playful and restless, as if the familiar contours briefly lose their footing. With Starry Night, the music unfolds across a broader sonic field. It is as though the music frees itself from its earthly origin and begins to hover in a hushed, contemplative space.

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'Silent Night, Crazy Night, Starry Night' was commissioned by Roeland Henderikx Ensemble and was first performed and filmed on Christmas 25, 2020 at piano's Maene in Ruiselede, Belgium.