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“Unsilent Night” Rings Out
by Melinda Tuhus | Dec 12, 2008 8:44 am
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Posted to: Arts
Last year it was a blizzard. This year it was rain. Neither stopped Unsilent Night , which went on as scheduled Thursday night much to the delight of the 50 revelers of all ages who showed up at the Shubert theater.
“Unsilent Night” is a four-part composition celebrating the holiday season, composed in 1992 by Phil Kline and now performed in more than a dozen cities around the world. In New Haven, it’s an off-season part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, most of which takes place every June.
Folks gathered in the lobby of the theatre for hot chocolate and marching orders — how to play one of four parts of the music on a boom box or MP3 player. The only trick, really, was pushing the button at the exact same time as everyone else, and voil√°, the synthesized notes poured forth. Click here for an audio sample.
Then it was out for a stroll down Chapel Street and through part of the Yale campus, through Phelps Gate (click at the top of the story watch a video sample), across the Green past the lovely purplish glowing Christmas tree, and to the English Building on lower Chapel Street for two varieties of eggnog (spiked and sober) and a chance to hear the composer talk about the genesis of “Unsilent Night.”
“The initial impulse was a combination of a love of electronic music and playing with my tape recorders and playing with my instruments,” Kline (pictured above) said, “inspired perhaps by my memories of being a kid in Ohio and Christmas caroling in the village where I grew up. I was always fascinated by Christmas, and by the mystery of the darkest time of the year, and seeing all the lights in the windows.” He said he originally wrote the piece for a private party in New York, where he lives, and it’s now performed in many different outdoor venues, including the Big Apple, where he said sometimes more than 1,400 people come out to stroll through Manhattan carrying boom boxes.
Carol Orr (pictured) owns the English Building and the Markets therein. The scene evokes, with its overflowing shelves and tables offering china, glassware, table coverings and much, much, much more — a modernish Nutcracker Suite Christmas Eve feeling of gifts and good cheer. The prices are reasonable, and she said there is truly something for everyone, some antique, some new. She said, “We have a ton of space here and we’re happy to give it away to groups here. It gives more attention to downtown and it gives these folks a destination.”
Mary Lou Aleskie (pictured), Art & Ideas artistic director, was on hand Thursday night, enjoying herself immensely. She said the walk through the streets of downtown during Unsilent Night, no matter the weather, “is the essence of New Haven, where people come together, enchant each other,” and show the kind of friendly solidarity that she loves about the Elm City.
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