Written by Anna Lapwood and The Pembroke College Girls’ Choir
Text: English (Joseph Mohr, trans John Freeman Young)
Duration: 3½ minutes
Difficulty: 2/5

“Silent night is the piece which started a new tradition at Pembroke! At the end of each term we hold a little party for the families of our girl choristers after our final rehearsal. We have always learnt a fun new piece in the final rehearsal and then performed it to the families an hour or so later. A couple of years ago we were discussing what to learn in the final rehearsal and the girls suggested it might be fun to write our own arrangement of a carol. We quickly agreed that Silent night was our top choice, and settled on the key of D flat almost instantly, as it’s such a lovely key to sing in. We had a great deal of fun seeing how we could write an arrangement that was manageable for our youngest singers whilst stretching our older ones with some slightly jazzy harmonies. We wrote the whole arrangement in one 75-minute rehearsal, and performed it to the parents straight after. We’ve written a new piece at the end of every term since!” – Anna Lapwood