In collaboration with Terry MacArthur, I have translated Friedrich Spee's chorale "Bei stiller Nacht" into English and made a four part setting. Actually, I already made a first version in 2019, but after singing some of Othamyr's Bicinia recently and enjoying his final "flosculos" (the Iittle flowers in one voice after the other has come to rest), I have reworked it slightly. Score and a machine generated sound file are attached.

The chorale in its original form is little known. Better known is a setting by Brahms with a different melody. Brahms only took the first and last stanza and thereby deprived the text of the context of Christ's prayer in the Gethsemane Garden, thus transforming it into a secular song with a diffuse mood of sadness. It seems to me, however, that Spee's original is much more touching and thus worth to be remembered and used.

The words of Christ are set apart by a two part setting. To make his forlornness even more audible, these two stanzas can optionally be sung by soloists.

Should anyone find the time to make additional translations, for instance to Spanish, that would be highly welcome. I fear however that Spanish is particular challenging because the poem has in each stanza four rhymes or assonances on male endings (i.e. with meter "v-"), wich are rare in Romanic languages like Spanish, Portuguese or Italian.