Friday, December 17, 2010

O Holy 'Unsilent Night'


The Wall Street Journal writes today about one of the cooler traditions around... Phil Kline's "Unsilent Night," now in its 18th year... happens tomorrow night... Here's the Journal:

The premise is simple: On Saturday at 7 p.m., people of all kinds will gather in Washington Square Park, and everybody with the means to do so will press play on a tape or CD or MP3 of music composed by Mr. Kline for the occasion. Then the whole mass will walk — more than a little majestically— to Tompkins Square Park, where the affair comes to a gentle end 45 minutes later. The music is wordless, made up mostly of what sounds like bells and chimes swirled together into something communal. The effect of it moving down city streets is mesmerizing.

"It's an overwhelming physical experience," said Luc Sante, author of the fabled book of New York lore, "Low Life," and a friend of Mr. Kline's. "Listening to it echo back and forth and ripple through the crowd — it's a collective activity, like being in a choir without singing."


Find all the details at the official site.

Image via.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Or avoid the scene altogether and see/hear how it went last year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYP4ke9_vqM&feature=related

I was curious to hear what it was all about so I checked it out on youtube.
-H

Anonymous said...

That picture is beautiful!

Marty Wombacher said...

It sounds like it'll sure beat SantaCon all to hell!