Brandon Nelson

Commissioned by the Gwinn High School Jazz Band (Gwinn, MI), this is a colorful, dramatic setting of Silent Night. With this project, I wanted to compose something “outside the box” for a holiday tune–really see where I could go with jazz expression. The students and audience alike seemed to really appreciate it and I hope you will too!

About the Piece

Silent Night: Spiritus Mundi was inspired by the darkly-moving W.B. Yeats poem The Second Coming. The carol tune was couched in a variety of contexts to reflect the idea of hope gradually emerging through the misery and cynicism of the present age.