''Winter's Knight'' is the third album by
gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
duo
Nox Arcana
Nox Arcana is the American neoclassical dark wave, dark ambient musical project of Joseph Vargo. It was founded in 2003 as a duo with William Piotrowski, who left in 2008 to pursue a career in film score composing but still acts as its studio eng ...
. The album peaked at #8 on
Billboard Magazine
''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...
's Music Charts for Top Holiday Albums of 2006 and 2007.
The soundtrack is predominantly instrumental with a few traditional holiday songs performed with a darker medieval flair. The music is accented with
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe durin ...
ing, pipe organs, violins, and acoustic guitar. Some of the tracks contain vocals, such as the minstrel's rendition of "
Past Time With Good Company". Other songs feature narration describing a tale of a ghostly knight who wanders the ruins of a haunted cathedral at wintertime. The story is set in the mythical Ebonshire forest. The booklet is decorated to look like an
Illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...
and features the artwork of
Joseph Vargo.
Nox Arcana, already popular in the
gothic music genre, wanted to carry the gothic mood into the Christmas season, along the lines of Dickens' classic ghost story, ''
A Christmas Carol
''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas C ...
.''
Track listing
# "Vigil" — 1:41
# "Ghosts of Christmas Past" — 3:40
# "Ebonshire" — 2:53
# "Solitude" — 2:51
# "Crystal Forest" — 3:17
# "First Snow" — 4:36
# "Evening Star" — 3:21
# "Reflections of Long Ago" — 2:25
# "December Winds" — 2:49
# "Phantom Toccata" — 1:12
# "Hallowed Ruins" — 2:28
# "Gregorian Hymn" — 1:16
# "Spirit of the Season" — 3:13
# "
Coventry Carol
The "Coventry Carol" is an English Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. The carol was traditionally performed in Coventry in England as part of a mystery play called ''Coventry Mystery Plays, The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors''. ...
" — 3:23
[''New recordings of 5 traditional carols as indicated in cd liner notes.'']
# "Lullaby" — 2:06
# "Winter's Knight" — 3:53
# "
Past Time With Good Company" — 3:33
[
# "]God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
"God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" is an English traditional Christmas carol. It is in the Roxburghe Collection (iii. 452), and is listed as no. 394 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It is also known as "Tidings of Comfort and Joy", and by other varian ...
" — 3:02[
# " Veni, Veni, Emmanuel" — 3:01][
# "Redemption" — 3:44
# "]Carol of the Bells
"Carol of the Bells" is a popular Christmas carol, with music by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914 and lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky. The song is based on the Ukrainian folk chant " Shchedryk". The music is in the public domain; Wil ...
" — 5:21[
* The song "Carol of the Bells" ends at 3:25. An untitled hidden track begins at 4:15.
]
References
External links
Nox Arcana official website
* Billboard Discography* ''Winter's Knight''at Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
Nox Arcana albums
2005 Christmas albums
Christmas albums by American artists
{{2000s-album-stub