Welcome to the Piano World Piano Forums Over 3 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments. Over 100,000 members from around the world.
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
Almost everything I've found so far (and I've searched for quite a few Christmases) has been far too simple. It doesn't have to be extremely advanced technically, a la Liszt or something, but at least late intermediate. Are there any nice arrangements that you know of--for free? <-- That's the hard part!
"Where words fail, music speaks." --Hans Christian Andersen
I have a huge collection of very nice "advanced" arrangements(but I can't include the Garson) that I can send to anyone if you PM me your email address.
I like the Reger, the Katsaris and some of the Deford arrangements. However, being very much of a traditionalist, and while I like some jazz versions of Christmas songs, I do somewhat cringe at hearing sacred carols played in a jazz style.
What is really missing from the Garson arrangement of "O Holy Night" is the triplet accompaniment which gives the song more than just its impetus; it adds "message" to the music and for me this arrangement is a real mis-match in a simple 4/4 with occasional syncopation.
One of the more interesting (or maybe just peculiar) arrangements is the one of "Greensleeves" done by Busoni. It's the fourth of his Elegies, and is subtitled "Turandot's Boudoir", which has zilch to do with the holiday - I read that he thought it was a Chinese tune! Nonetheless, it's a cool and pretty advanced arrangement (it and the following are both at IMSLP).
Busoni also did a lovely and little-known arrangement called "Nuit de Noel" -
I like the Reger, the Katsaris and some of the Deford arrangements. However, being very much of a traditionalist, and while I like some jazz versions of Christmas songs, I do somewhat cringe at hearing sacred carols played in a jazz style.
What is really missing from the Garson arrangement of "O Holy Night" is the triplet accompaniment which gives the song more than just its impetus; it adds "message" to the music and for me this arrangement is a real mis-match in a simple 4/4 with occasional syncopation.
Regards,
Have you played the entire Garson arrangement of O Holy Night or just listened to the snippet available at the website? I do have an arrangement of O HoLy Night that preserves the triplet accompaniment, so just send me your email if you're interested.
