Silent Night was my grandmother’s favorite Christmas carol.  Every Christmas, she always asked me or my brothers to sing it for her, and while she spoke no more than a handful of words in English, she knew Silent Night when she heard it.  In 2013, my grandmother was bedridden from stage 4 lung cancer.  She was staying in our house in the bedroom adjacent to the room with the piano, and because she knew her time was coming soon, she called individual family members into her room to talk privately.  When she called me in, she told me to never stop playing, singing, and sharing my music.  I was in 8th grade at the time.

Days later, she was taken to the hospital and in the moments leading to her death, an ICU unit full of her children and grandchildren sang Vietnamese folk songs and religious songs to her despite the fact that she was in a coma.  It was May, and Silent Night was one of those songs we sang for her.  She passed soon after at 3am peacefully with her family around her, and I was holding her hand.

For years, I have wanted to honor her memory, and finally in 2021, I wrote this arrangement of the beloved and timeless Christmas carol. Because it is such a well-known and beloved carol, I was conservative with my arrangement, but I feel that I am still true to my harmonic language and style. Each verse expands in harmony before concluding with three gentle chords on the words "Silent Night."