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Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation; Darkness stirs and wakes imagination; Silently the senses abandon their defenses;
Slowly, gently, night unfurls its splendour; Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender; Turn your face away from the garish light of day; Turn your face away from cold, unfeeling light; And listen to the music of the night;
Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams; Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before; Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar; And you'll live as you've never lived before;
Softly, deftly, music shall caress you; Hear it, feel it, secretly possess you; Open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind; In this darkness which you know you cannot fight; The darkness of the music of the night;
Let your mind start a journey through a strange, new world; Leave all thoughts of the World you knew before; Let your soul take you where you want to be; Only then can you belong to me;
Floating, falling, sweet intoxication; Touch me, trust me, savour each sensation; Let the dream begin, let your darker side give in; To the harmony which dreams along can write; The power of the music of the night;
You alone can make my song take flight; Help me make the music of the night.
The Music of the Night
"The Music of the Night" is a song from the musical The Phantom of the Opera. The music was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber with lyrics by Charles Hart.
Initially made famous by Michael Crawford, the actor who originated the role of the Phantom both in the West End and on Broadway, the popular song has sold millions of copies worldwide and has been translated into many different languages. The Really Useful Group filmed a video starring Crawford and Sarah Brightman (who did not sing), which featured the original lyrics to the song. Crawford later recorded the song as duet with Barbra Streisand for her album "Back to Broadway" (1993).
In the musical, it is sung after the Phantom lures Christine Daaé down to his lair beneath the Opera House. He seduces Christine with "his music" of the night, his voice putting her into a type of trance. He sings of his unspoken love for her and urges her to forget the world and life she knew before. The Phantom leads Christine around his lair, eventually pulling back a curtain to reveal a life-size doll of Christine dressed in a wedding gown, causing her to faint. The Phantom then carries Christine to a bed, where he lays her down and goes on to write his music.
Sarah Brightman declared at the London's Royal Albert Hall Concert in 1997, that the song was originally written by Andrew Lloyd Webber for her, the first time he met her. That version had different lyrics and was called "Married Man". The lyrics were later rewritten and the song was added into The Phantom of the Opera. After her run as the original Christine, she began using the song in her solo concerts.
A year before The Phantom Of The Opera even opened at Her Majesty's Theatre, the original version of the song was performed at Andrew Lloyd Webber's own theatre at Sydmonton, along with the first drafts of the show. The audience were a specially gathered group of Webber's acquaintances. The Phantom was played by Colm Wilkinson, who sang "The Music Of The Night" in Act One. As Charles Hart had not yet become involved in writing the song, in places the lyrics were very different from the ones used in the three variations of the song.
One version of "The Music of the Night", as performed by Sarah Brightman, has alternate lyrics, as well as an alternate ending, replacing the line "To the power of the music that I write," with "To the harmony which dreams alone can write".
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article The Music of the Night.
