''If on a Winter's Night...'' is the ninth studio album from British musician

Sting Stimulator of interferon genes (STING), also known as transmembrane protein 173 (TMEM173) and MPYS/MITA/ERIS is a regulator protein that in humans is encoded by the STING1 gene. STING plays an important role in innate immunity. STING induces typ ...

. The album is a collection of Christmas and winter-themed songs mostly written by others, including

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th centuries) and early Baroque (1580–1650) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the ...

s and religious

hymns A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

from past centuries. Dozens of musicians appear on the album in various configurations, including jazz, folk and classical players. It was released in most countries on 26 October 2009, on 27 October 2009 in the United States and 2 November 2009 in the United Kingdom. The album was released in several formats: vinyl LP, a single-disc CD, a limited edition CD and making-of DVD entitled ''The Genesis of 'If on a Winter's Night...' in Six Chapters'' in hardback book packaging, an Amazon exclusive version, as well as various import editions (of note is the Japanese edition). The limited edition and Amazon exclusive both include bonus songs; the Japanese edition includes them as well but adds "The Coventry Carol." The album includes a reworking of "The Hounds of Winter" from his album '' Mercury Falling''. The title of the album is based on the novel ''

If on a winter's night a traveler ''If on a winter's night a traveler'' () is a 1979 novel by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. The Postmodern literature, postmodernist narrative, in the form of a frame story, is about the reader trying to read a book called ''If on a winter's n ...

'' by

Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, ; ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian novelist and short story writer. His best-known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosm ...

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

– vocals, arrangements,

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

(3), guitars (5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14),

snare drum The snare drum (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often u ...

(5), percussion (2, 8, 10, 17) * David Hartley –

harmonium The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ (which employs a va ...

(3) * Julian Sutton –

melodeon Melodeon may refer to: *Melodeon (accordion), a type of button accordion *Melodeon (organ) The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reed aerophone, free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal ...

(6, 8, 10, 13, 14) *

David Sancious David Sancious (born November 30, 1953) is an American musician. He was an early member of Bruce Springsteen's backing group, the E Street Band, and contributed to the first three Springsteen albums, and again on '' Human Touch'' (1992), '' Tr ...

–

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

(10) *

Dominic Miller Dominic James Miller (born 21 March 1960) is a British guitarist. He has worked most of his career as a sideman and guitarist for, among others, Julia Fordham, Eddi Reader and notably Sting. He has also released several solo albums. Career Mi ...

– guitars (1, 4, 5, 7, 10, 13, 17) *

Dean Parks Weldon Dean Parks (born December 6, 1946) is an American session guitarist and record producer from Fort Worth, Texas. Parks has one Grammy nomination. Albums Parks was member of the North Texas State One O'clock Lab Band before moving to Los A ...

– guitars (2),

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

(2) *

David Mansfield David Mansfield (born September 13, 1956) is an American musician and composer. Mansfield was raised in Leonia, New Jersey. His father, Newton Mansfield was a first violinist in the New York Philharmonic. David played guitar, pedal steel guita ...

– mandolin (2, 8), 12-string guitar (5), lap dulcimer (5, 8),

mandocello The mandocello () is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It is larger than the mandolin, and is the baritone instrument of the mandolin family. Its eight strings are in four paired courses, with the strings in each course tuned in ...

(8) *

Edin Karamazov Edin Karamazov (born Edin Džananović in 1965) is a Bosnian musician, lutenist and guitarist. Biography Karamazov studied lute with Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He has worked with such ensembles as Hesperion XX, L'A ...

– lute (15) *

Ira Coleman Ira Coleman (born April 29, 1956) is a French-American jazz bassist. Educated at the Berklee College of Music, he appears on four albums by Paris-based pianist Laurent de WildeCarr, Ian; Fairweather, Digby and Priestley, Brian''Rough Guide ...

– bass (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 13, 15) *

Kenny Garrett Kenny Garrett (born October 9, 1960) is an American post-bop jazz musician and composer who gained recognition in his youth as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and for his time with Miles Davis's band. Garrett's primary instruments are ...

– soprano saxophone (8) * Chris Dudley – trombone (2) *

Ibrahim Maalouf Maalouf (, ; born 5 November 1980) is a French-Lebanese trumpeter, producer, arranger, and composer. In 2022, he became the first Lebanese instrumentalist nominated at the Grammy Awards for his album ''Queen of Sheba'' in collaboration with Ang� ...

– trumpet (1) * Chris Gekker – trumpet (2) * Brent Madsen – trumpet (2) *

Chris Botti Christopher Stephen Botti ( ; born October 12, 1962) is an American trumpeter and composer. In 2013, Botti won the Grammy Award in the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album, Best Pop Instrumental Album category, for the album Impressions ...

– trumpet (11, 17) * Leslie Neish –

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

(2) *

Marcus Rojas Marcus Rojas (born February 23, 1963) is an American tubist from New York City. Early life Rojas was born in New York City on February 23, 1963, and grew up in Red Hook, Brooklyn. His early influences included Eddie Palmieri, Willie Colón, and ...

– tuba (2) * John Clark –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

(2) * Bassam Saba –

ney The ney ( ; ) is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in traditional Persian, Turkish, Jewish, Arab, and Egyptian music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. The ney has been played for over 4,500 ye ...

(3), oud (3) * John Ellis –

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common Soprano clarinet, soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays no ...

(7, 10) * Daphna Mor –

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...

(7) *

Mary Macmaster Mary Macmaster (born 22 November 1955, Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish harpist and singer. She performs on the clàrsach and the Camac electroharp, and she sings in English and Gaelic. She has worked with Sting, Kathryn Tickell, Norma Waterson, ...

–

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

(5, 8, 13, 17), vocals (5) * Dov Scheindlin – viola (9) *

Kathryn Tickell Kathryn Tickell, Order of the British Empire, OBE, Deputy Lieutenant, DL (born 8 June 1967) is an English musician, noted for playing the Northumbrian smallpipes and fiddle. Music career Early life Kathryn Tickell was born in Walsall, to parent ...

– violin (2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 13),

Northumbrian smallpipes The Northumbrian smallpipes (also known as the Northumbrian pipes) are bellows-blown bagpipes from Northeastern England, where they have been an important factor in the local musical culture for more than 250 years. The family of the Duke of ...

(6) * Peter Tickell – violin (2) * Svetlana Tsovena – violin (7) * Daniel Hope – violin (9, 14, 17) *

Vincent Ségal Vincent Ségal (born 1967 in Reims, France) is a French cellist and bassist. He studied at the National Music Academy of Lyon and the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. He is mainly known for the variety of his collaborations and unusual proj ...

– cello (6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 17) * Melissa Meell – cello (9) * Charles Curtis – cello (11) * Robert Sadin – arrangements, string conductor (6, 11, 15, 16), percussion (7), soundscape (9) * Allen Bluestein – string contractor (6, 11, 15, 16) * Strings of the Musica Aeterna Orchestra – strings (6, 11, 15, 16) * Joe Sumner – backing vocals (2, 3) * The Webb Sisters – backing vocals (2, 3) *

Stile Antico ''Stile antico'' (literally "ancient style", ), is a term describing a manner of musical composition from the sixteenth century onwards that was historically conscious, as opposed to '' stile moderno'', which adhered to more modern trends. ''Prim ...

– vocal ensemble (6) *

Lisa Fischer Lisa Melonie Fischer (born December 1, 1958) is an American singer and songwriter. She found success with her 1991 debut album '' So Intense'', which produced the Grammy Award–winning hit single " How Can I Ease the Pain". She has been a back ...

– backing vocals (8, 11), vocals (10) * Jasmine Thomas – backing vocals (11) *

Jack DeJohnette Jack DeJohnette (born August 9, 1942) is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. Known for his extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians including Charles Lloyd (jazz musician), Charles Lloyd, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, B ...

– drums (8) * Daniel Druckman – snare drum (8, 11) *

Cyro Baptista Cyro Baptista (born December 23, 1950) is a Brazilian-born percussionist in jazz and world music. He creates many of the percussion instruments he plays. Career Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Baptista arrived in the U.S. in 1980 with a scholarship ...

– percussion (1, 8, 10, 13, 17) * Bijan Chemirani – percussion (3, 10) * Daniel Freedman – percussion (3) * Rhani Krija – percussion (3) * Donald Hay – percussion (5) *

Bashiri Johnson Bashiri Johnson (born May 12, 1955) is an American percussionist, whose work has appeared on many records, as well as in commercials, films, television, video games, and concert performances. He is known to be one of the most recorded percussio ...

– percussion (5, 10),

frame drum A frame drum is a drum that has a drumhead width greater than its depth. It is one of the most ancient musical instruments, and perhaps the first drum to be invented. It has a single drumhead that is usually made of rawhide, but man-made mat ...

(11)

Production

* Sting – producer, mixing * Robert Sadin – producer, mixing (1, 3–17) * David Darlington – engineer, mixing (1, 3–17) * Clark Germain – engineer * Donal Hodgson – engineer, mixing (2) * Tim Mitchell – additional engineer, assistant engineer * Todd Whitelock – additional engineer * Mark Crowley – assistant engineer * Joshua Cutsinger – assistant engineer * Martin Hollis – assistant engineer * Royce Jeffres – assistant engineer * Adam Miller – assistant engineer * Mark Wilder – mastering (1, 3–15) * Maria Triana – mastering assistant (1, 3–15) *

Bob Ludwig Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...

– mastering (2) * Dave Sandford – production coordinator * Dana Wise – production coordinator * Joseph Hutchinson – package design, artwork * Jim & Anne Gable – Executive Producers, Directors: "If on a Winter's Night", Recording Studio Documentary Film * Tony Molina Filmworks – LP photography cover, LP liner notes package photography. Director of Photography "If on a Winter's Night" Documentary Film. Studios * Recorded at Steerpike Studio (Wiltshire, England);

Villa Il Palagio Villa Il Palagio is a villa and farm estate in Figline Valdarno, in the province of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany. The estate has belonged to the musician Sting and his wife Trudie Styler since the late 1990s. History Il Palagio was buil ...

(Florence, Italy); The Source (Malibu, Florida); Clinton Recording Studio, Manhattan Center Studios and Seven Seas Studio (New York City, New York). * Mixed at Steerpike Studio; Villa Il Palagio; Clinton Recording Studio, Burning Kite Digital and Bass Hit Studios (New York City, New York). * Tracks 1 and 3–17 mastered at Battery Studios (New York City, New York); Track 2 mastered at Gateway Mastering (Portland, Maine).

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control Sting (musician) albums 2009 Christmas albums Classical albums by English artists Pop Christmas albums Folk Christmas albums