The “Dark night of the soul,” as described by the 16th century Spanish mystic and poet San Juan de la Cruz in the commentary to his eponymous poem, is “a phase of passive purification of the spirit in mystical development.” It is followed by a second phase, illumination, in which God’s presence is felt, but this presence is not yet stable. The author himself does not give any title to his poem, but together with this commentary and The Ascent of the Mountain it forms a treatise on the active and passive purification of the senses and spirit leading to mystical union.
The dark night of the soul is a stage of personal development in which one goes through a difficult and significant transition to a deeper perception of life and one’s place in it. This heightened awareness is accompanied by a painful rejection of previous conceptual frameworks such as identity, relationship, career, habit, or belief system that previously allowed him to construct meaning in his life. The Indian musician , Sufi philosopher and propagandist Hazrat Inayat Khan said, There can be no rebirth without a dark night of the soul, a complete destruction of all you believed and thought you were.
In modern times, the expression “dark night of the soul” has taken on a broader meaning of spiritual emptiness and existential doubt and loneliness. Under this title in 2010, Ola Gjeilo wrote his work for mixed choir featuring piano and string quartet. The work is based on the English translation of San Juan de la Cruz’s poem and lasts about 14 minutes. It was premiered the same year by the Phoenix Chorale chamber choir . About it, Ola Gjeilo says: Dark Night of the Soul” was composed on three stanzas of San Juan de la Cruz’s magical poem. Joel Rinsema, the artistic director of Phoenix Chorale, suggested them to me, and I immediately fell in love with their passionate spirituality. One of the things I wanted to achieve in this piece was to make the choir and the piano equal, as if participating in a dialogue. Quite often the piano accompanies the choir, but sometimes the choir accompanies the piano (or violin) and acts as a soft but rich-sounding “string orchestra.” I just love the sound of voices playing chords, and the choir creates a sonority that can be so evocative and warm , especially when doubled by a string quartet. To me, this sound combination has an effect similar to a great synthesizer, only perhaps even more organic and alive.