About
Night Song is a regular Sunday evening liturgical music event at First Church in Cambridge that fosters meditation and contemplation through the stillness of the night, burning candles and incense in the comfort of darkness, with bells, sacred art, and especially music.
It can be viewed via live stream or attended in person. Night Song brings serene beauty and quiet peace into human lives, and offers a unique Divine time out.
The music is typically an interesting fusion that can include ancient and modern chant, contemplative modal instrumental and vocal improvisation, organ music based on chant themes and psalm texts, choral psalm settings and Renaissance polyphonic choral music. Periods of silence add to the tranquility and stillness. While Christian in content, Night Song is open to all and seems to speak spiritually in various ways to diverse populations. It does not include creeds, sermons or participatory elements.
The general themes of compline, which we call Night Song, are spiritual peace, deep silence, reflection over the day. rest, sleep, the comfort of darkness, trust and protection. In monastic life compline is the liturgy held immediately before retiring for the night. We ask those who attend to enter with reverence and to maintain complete silence while in the church. For individuals in religious orders it is customary to begin the “Great Silence” after this office, which we encourage following attendance at Night Song.
Tapers can be lit for special intentions at the rear of the church and placed upright in a stand. Many have special concerns in mind for specific individuals, those who have contracted the COVID virus and those caring for them, the environment, climate change and the victims of its dangerous effects, social justice issues, and more.
Our schedule is:
September through May, Every Sunday at 7:30 PM
First Church in Cambridge, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, Mass.
Check our Facebook page for any cancellations due to inclement weather or holidays.
Support Night Song with a tax-deductible donation to keep this wonderful program going. Thank you!
About the Chant
We are currently singing chant from The Liber Usualis, a large collection of Gregorian chants in the Catholic tradition, compiled by the monks of the Abbey of Solesmes in France. We normally select chants from the propers for the Mass, and also use some hymns from this collection, all in Latin. The music is modal and monophonic. On occasion chants from this great treasury and other sources serve as the basis and inspiration for vocal or instrumental improvisation.
In regard to modern chant, Daryl Bichel has created six settings of the compline liturgy text for use at Night Song. All but one are in English. Two of these settings were adapted by Bichel from existing plainchant hymns. Four are freely composed settings. One is in the Lydian mode, and occasionally breaks into two parts. Another employs extensive use of the haunting interval of the tritone. A third uses the Latin text for compline from The Liber Usualis, and occasionally breaks into three parts. The fourth, completed in December 2016, is in the Phrygian mode and moves back and forth between chant and four-part homophony. All of these settings have significant roles for a cantor. At times they are sung with improvised instrumental accompaniment, which gives them a magical and mystical aura that is truly inspiring.
About the Choral Music
In regard to psalm settings, we generally employ material composed by Daryl Bichel and Patricia Van Ness, composer in residence at First Church in Cambridge. Bichel’s settings alternate verses between plainchant tones and Anglican chant. Van Ness, who has undertaken the project of setting all of the psalms, creates choral psalm settings that hearken to medieval and Renaissance music, resulting in ethereal music that seems both ancient and new.
Polyphonic motets from the Renaissance period are a staple of our repertoire, and stand out as gems with their stunning contrast to the simplicity of chant. Often this literature is in five or more parts, and even includes double choir pieces. Toward the close of each Night Song there is usually a Marian themed Renaissance motet or chant, in accord with the seasonal guidelines prescribed for the following antiphons at compline on Sundays in the Liber Usualis: Alma Redemptoris Mater, Ave Regina caelorum, Regina caeli laetare and Salve Regina. Sometimes we process to wherever in the church we have placed an appropriate icon to sing these pieces.
In additional to improvisation by instrumentalists, we are striving to incorporate more improvisation by our vocalists. At times we have improvised psalms and the lessons. This can involve following some guidelines provided by the artistic director, or at times total freedom. We occasionally improvise on our final “Amen” as we exit the space at the conclusion of Night Song. As well, we employ singing in alternation from various parts of the building, such as the rear balcony, the side aisles, the transepts, from behind the organ case, in the chapel (which is an adjacent room), and from the apse.