Night Song (Compline) is the inspiration of its artistic director and founder, Daryl Bichel, Boston organist, composer, and singer. Night Song reflects his Anglo-Catholic faith as well as his affinity for ancient and contemporary chant, Renaissance polyphony, and jazz. Participation in Night Song is through listening and silent prayer. It is not meant to be a performance but rather a “transformance” encouraging an inner journey toward peace, clarity, centering, and spiritual renewal. Set apart from the sights, sounds, and values of current culture, Night Song helps participants enter a mystical sphere to experience the Divine. While Christian in nature, it speaks to a diverse cross-section of people entirely through music, punctuated by three long periods of silence. Bichel’s tri-tone chant setting for compline, his Anglican chant psalm setting, his setting of the compline hymn text “Jesus, Redeemer of the World,”, and three pieces of Renaissance polyphony are sung by Beneficia lucis, an ensemble of a dozen men led by James Busby. Jazz instrumentalists offer musical meditations and improvised accompaniments to plainchant under the direction of Ben Schwendener, an influential voice in contemporary creative music and a leading authority on George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization.
