The Sound Of Silence by Paul Simon Full Orchestra - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1687171

"Sound of Silence" by Paul Simon from 1964 has earned its place in the Hall of Fame as one of the songs that shaped rock ’n’ roll. Simon & Garfunkel performed this song at their concert in Central Park, New York in 1981, accompanied only by a guitar. This underscored the whispering narrative style of the lyrics: People have lost their way by creating a religion-like cult, centered solely around technical and economic progress. The song is a fundamental critique of the spirit of the 1960s in the United States.
It compared the situation of the society to a biblical scene of the Old Testament: The Babylonian king Belshazzar saw writings on the wall of his palace, drawn by a ghost. A prophet tells him that his reign will end and his kingdom will be destroyed because of his sacrilege. By and by, a warning message, written "on subway walls" becomes clearer to the protagonist by having by further visions: "And in the naked light I saw ten thousand people maybe more. People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening." And later: "And the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made."
What is the neon god of our time, sixty years later? Well, there may be several ones, but an influential one may be seen in the overcommunication by the ubiquitous presence of social media and mobile phones. And the lyrics by Paul Simon already pointed warningly to this kind of communication without meaning.

In this verison, the role of the choir is to illustrate the archaic pagan incantation, performing a ritual ceremony of bowing and praying, praising the self-created god of communication. Therefore, the choir sings in a strange and incomprehensible language. The lyrics are created by rearranging the syllables of the word communication. This Babylonian confusion of tongues spells disaster for the people. Thus, the drama of the pagan scene, which Simon & Garfunkel had previously portrayed in a quiet and restrained manner, now becomes audible, and we can hear these ten thousand people „bowing and praying“ as they perform their pagan ceremony ‒ as if the warning message of the vision had drawn closer to us and become more urgent over the past sixty years.
I hope you like the outcome.

This arrangement was performed in a live concert by a professional German orchestra (Staatsorchester Oldenburg).

I am a professional composer and arranger from GERMANY and work together with many orchestras from Germany and international orchestras. If you are looking for an arrangement or a composition, that is not listed, feel free to contact me. For more information have a look at my website: www.ingo-laufs.de.

Orchestra
Flute 1‒3
Oboe 1‒3
Clarinet in B♭ 1‒3
Bassoon 1‒3

Horn in F 1‒4
Trumpet in B♭ 1‒3
Trombone 1‒2
Bass Trombone
Tuba

Timpani
Cymbal, Pair, Suspended

Strings

Band
E-Bass
E-Guitar

Singers
Lead Voice (Tenor)
Mixed Choir

Duration: 6'03''