Serving Michiana with Elegant Music
For the twelve Days of Christmas, I’m creating twelve mini streaming concerts! Check out the Chicken Dance to the Panther in the henhouse–Enjoy Three French Hens for the 3rd Concert!
Send an owl or messenger pigeon and enjoy the love songs from the Four Calling Birds!
I’ve had fried chicken—I’ve never had French fried chicken.
To celebrate day three of 12 days of Christmas, I played some favorite bird brained tunes like The Chicken Dance, set a panther in the Hen house with the impeccably French Pink Panther and brought some sweet romance with Alicia Keys’ If I Ain’t Got You Babe. Watch the whole stream on my Youtube Channel here!
From polka to Jazzy movies to wedding romance!
Quick, what song do you think of when I say the word “Chicken”?
When I put together programs for clubs, public events or senior communities, I love to play “song association” a sort of version of word association where differents genres and artists are linked together by only the slightest relationship!
Themes keep the audience awake and involved. Every song, I will change styles from classical to rock and roll, involving all ages and backgrounds in the enjoyment of guessing and recognizing their favorites.
But in 2020, I haven’t been able to do any of this public concerts! But I have enjoyed the very steep learning curve of sharing more of my music online. Mostly enjoyed…
So to send off this year and welcome in a new 2021, I put together 12 mini concerts, each a collection of love songs inspired by the gifts described in the Christmas Carol.
The Twelve Days of Christmas was originally a symbolic song where a Lover gives his True Love several gifts as a coded description of Christ. So as we uncover the hidden meaning in this old Christmas Love Song by associating it with love songs all the way today.
Here is the links to days one and two. We associated Blackbird by the Beatles with a Partridge in a Pear Tree and mixed Married Life from the movie Up with the image of two turtle doves.
Day three is three french hens… and yes, there will be the chicken dance!
Follow along or leave a suggestion for the 12 days of Christmas!
There are two common tunes to this carol–and I couldn’t choose!
You’ve probably heard these lyrics with multiply melodies. The common one in America is the British Tune Regent’s Square. But in England it’s more commonly sung to a French tune, Gloria, the tune also used for Angels We Have Heard on High.
I loved both! Gloria’s bursts with excited longing compared to the stately Regent’s Square. So I used both! When I arranged this piece for my Christmas CD The Sounding Joy, I combined Gloria as a bridge between the second and third verse of Regent.
A shimmering angelic arrangement pulls together the two common tunes for these holiday lyrics, Regent’s Square and Gloria.”
While the carol focuses on the Angel appearance in Luke 2, the melody of Regents walks up a sort of stair step, reminding me me thing of Jacob’s shining staircase with Angels running up and down. To evoke the connection between earth and realms of glory, I filled each of those steps with falls of sparkling arpeggios.
Now I’ve refined the arrangement to fit on Celtic Lever Harp and recorded it on YouTube! The sheet music is also available here on my store to add some angelic shimmer to your holiday repertoire! You can hear this combination of tunes and see the score here.
Rich chords match with a simple finger pattern that is easy to pick up at any level but rings impressively as a solo or performance piece. Great assignment for students to practice downward arpeggios. Whether you need angelic background at a Christmas event, party or church service, adding to your solo repertoire or just looking for some soothing seasonal instrumental harp, this arrangement helps you shine!
A shimmering angelic arrangement A classic Victorian Christmas hymn shines with a fresh feeling of glory. Brimming with ethereal arpeggios, this three minute medley pulls together the two common hymn tunes for these lyrics, Regent’s Square and Gloria. This arrangement helps you shine!
Subscribe to hear more instrumental Christmas Harp!
I’m uploading the songs I’ve arranged on my website on YouTube! With a few lights and microphones in my living room, I’m finally making videos of the songs that I recorded on my CDs. Plus, I’m uploading the sheet music on my store website. So now you can see the fingers working behind the notes!
Classic angel carol in a sparkling arrangement for solo Celtic lever or pedal harp.
I am learning so much trying to make videos, learning about technical things like limiting or white balancing, but also learning to fall in love with lever harp again!
Sept 26th at 11am, I will be performing at the Lerner Lunchtime Live concert at The Lerner Theatre! Three harps, two hours, one woman. I am so honored to be back on that beautiful stage sharing all the variety of music possible on the harp. From Bluegrass to Jazz, from Bach to the Beatles, it is going to be a fun concert! It’s free and open to the public, you can even bring your lunch. I’ll see you there!
#harplife #Lerner #thelernertheatre#lernerlunchtimelive #annahagenharpist
