Christmas Harp Selections

[Sarah Mullen]

After recording four albums of harp music I’m finally bowing to the desires of my fans and recording a Christmas CD.

[kailee-price]

Hmm, I’d say my favourite Christmas tunes on the harp are In the Bleak Midwinter, The First Noel, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, I Wonder As I Wander, and Noel Nouvelet.

Good luck with making the CD!

[Sid Humphreys]

Back in ’94 I asked Ellenor Fell about “White Christmas”, as I couldn’t find a harp arrangement for it, she jotted down her version for me. What a treasure!

Peices that are “winter” songs include, Sleigh Ride and

[Sid Humphreys]

Second paragraph in parenthesis should read, “no reference to Christmas”

[kreig-kitts]

“Lady of the Seasons’ Laughter” is a song from the Unitarian hymnal. It focuses more on summer/fall imagery (not to mention feminine imagery as the title suggests) in the lyrics, but I think it has some potential in a winter solstice/Yule album with its theme of changing seasons. The melody is rather tricky to sing since the harmonies aren’t traditional and don’t sit on the ear the same way most hymns do, but it has a way of getting under one’s skin and sticking around (probably due to said unfamiliar harmonies), and of course you’re not asking people to sing along with it. I think it’s an original composition and would require a permission to record.

[kay-lister]

My suggestions would be to have selections that would be centered around . . . CHRIST!

[jessica-wolff]

I like Mediaeval carols and not so well-known ones–old German carols–advent carols–anything but “Jingle Bells” and other done-to-death modern secular carols. Here are three you don’t hear that often:

The Boar’s Head Carol

Maria durch ein Dornwald Ging

Leise Rieselt der Schnee

The first is gay, the second is somber, and the third is poetic.

[shelby-m]

Go Kay!

I like “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” (not a common one that I know of, and very pretty). My other favorites include:
“Angels We Have Heard on High”
“O Little Town of Bethlehem”
“It Came upon the Midnight Clear”
“I Wonder as I Wander”
“Far, Far Away on Judea’s Plains”

Maybe making a Christmas CD will help your heart “grow a few sizes”!
Wishing you all the best!
~Shelby

[harp guy]

I agree Kay! People forget that Christmas is supposed to be Christ centered. It is first and foremost a Christian holiday that has sadly become secularized. For Christians, Christ is the reason for the season. So if you do a Christmas album, have religious selections. If that isn’t the way you want to go, then do more festive and less religious selections.

I’m a big fan of the Ukrainian Bell Carol and the story behind it (legend that at midnight when christ was born every bell in the world rang).

I think a lot of the suggestions so far have been great. I think that a holiday album full of old pieces would be fantastic. We’ve all heard too many renditions of silent night and what child is this!

[kreig-kitts]

I was responding to the part of her question where she asked for other seasonal songs not specifically about Christmas, so I wasn’t attacking anybody’s faith or trying to be politically correct, but just answering the question with a song I find beautiful and thought would fit.

[kay-lister]

My response was only to the original question.

[kreig-kitts]

Thanks. I thought it was a response to my post, since I suggested a non-Christian song. So much of the Christmas repertoire gets overplayed and I like to make outside the box suggestions to get the juices flowing.

And not just Christmas – I don’t think my iPhone shuffle will let me play one more Chanson dans la Nuite or Claire de Lune.

[David Ice]

Kay,

One never knows where one will find spiritual meaning or a Christmas Carol.

[diana-lincoln]

“Walking in the Air”,by Howard Blake, was written for the animated film “The Snowman”. It

[patricia-jaeger]

Marias Wiegenlied (The Cradle Song of Mary)

[Author]

Posts