Everyone enjoys Celtic Folk Songs and Folk Hymns but not all realize that often they can be one and the same. A hymn text has often found its home in a folk song and a secular text sometimes finds a home in a hymn tune. This collection has a little of both. All but one of the tunes in this collection are of Celtic origin. The exception, ?Amazing Grace,? is a folk hymn of unknown origin that has all the markings of a Celtic Tune, including a pentatonic harmonic foundation.
For the harpists who also like to understand the history of a tune or even sing along, a variety of texts along with information about the tune and the lyrics can be found in the back of this book in the ?Notes on the Tunes.?

Titles: Ad Hyd y nos, Annie Laurie, Auld Lang Syne, Bunessan, Brother James' Air, Down By the Salley Gardens, Greensleeves, Iona Boat Song, Rorate (Rorate Coeli Desuper), Londonderry Air, New Britain, O Waly Waly, Slane, Scots W' Hae, The Ash Grove, Royal Oak, The Twenty-Ninth of May, St. Denio, Skye Boat Song, The Bard of Armagh, The Streets of Laredo, The Caledonian Hunt's Delight, St. Columba, The Road and the Miles to Dundee, The Rowan Tree, Ye Banks and Braes O' Bonnie Doon

One of the nicest things about this book is that each song has a short but lovely introduction!

The Children's Album is dedicated to Tchaikovsky's favorite nephew, Vladimir Davydov. On 12/24 December 1878, Tchaikovsky wrote to Lev Davydov: "Tell Bobik that the music has been printed with pictures, that the music was composed by Uncle Petya, and that on it is written Dedicated to Volodya Davydov. The silly little fellow will not understand what dedicated means... Even so, Bobik is an inimitably delightful figure when he's playing, and he might look at the notes, and think that a whole symphony is dedicated to him?.

In a letter of 30 April/12 May 1878 to Nadezhda von Meck, the composer wrote: "A while ago I thought that it would not be a bad idea to make a small contribution to the stock of children's musical literature, which is very modest. I want to create a series of little individual pieces just for children, and with an attractive title, like Schumann`s.

Some months before this letter was written, while staying in Florence on 14/26 February, Tchaikovsky told Pyotr Jurgenson that he wanted "to write a number of easy pieces, like Kinderstück?. Evidently, the idea of creating a collection of pieces for young people had not been abandoned by the composer, and after his return to Kamenka in April he decided to begin composition. In the aforementioned letter to Nadezhda von Meck, he informed her: "Tomorrow I shall start working on my collection of miniatures for children".

On 1/13 May the composer wrote to Anatoly Tchaikovsky: "I'm working well and have done rather a lot". On 4/16 May the sketches for all 24 pieces were ready. Shortly afterwards, Tchaikovsky accepted an invitation from Nadezhda von Meck to stay at her Brailov estate until the end of May/beginning of June, before spending a few days in Moscow; from there he went to spend five days with his friend Nikolay Kondratyev at Nizy, and in mid/late June he called at Kiev, before returning to Verbovka. In the days following his arrival, he began to put the finishing touches to all the pieces written in April and May. The fair copy of the Children's Album was begun, it seems, on 13/25 July.

By 20 July/1 August the copying out was completed, and on 21 July/2 August the composer told Nadezhda von Meck that he was working on the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom.

On 29 July/10 August the manuscript of the Children's Album, along with a number of other compositions, was sent to Pyotr Jurgenson in Moscow. In October, after the proofs had been corrected, the album was published.



P.S.- Other than a modest suggestion for an interpretation, this arrangements remain absolute faithful to the original composition.

The first version is in the original key of g minor, the second is transposed to ?a minor?, the third one is intended for a little lap harp and transposed to d minor. It sounds better in the original key of g minor. I used a lot the d minor version and performed it with my little harp very often, always experiencing a very deep musical feedback.

A little nuance was added to the arrangements, thus obliged by its minimal use on the original manuscripts.

I included the original long and expressive leggato bows and left out the staccatos for the left hand between the bars 17 and 20. I felt somehow awkward when applying this technic on the harp myself.

May be the staccatos suites you best, and you should try it.

The score was written on Finale.

The sound file was produced with samplers from Garritan,

intended as an audio support for the presentation of the score.

A reproduction of Tchaikovsky`s original manuscript is added to the file as a reference to the original sources of this composition, it is an extra bonus intentionally didactic and obviously not included in the price of the arrangement itself.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read this text and to listen to the file.

I hope you enjoy the music.

ISBN 9781619118362.

Beautiful, sparkling, lyrical harp solos on 40 Christmas songs and carols gathered from around the world. The arrangements are wonderfully scored and may be played by non-pedal or pedal harp.