Your audience?s memory of this Eighties rock anthem by Journey will be playing along in their head?from the original album, a live performance, The Sopranos, Glee, karaoke, or all of the above. But they?ve never heard it before on a harp.

This arrangement makes good use of the double-strung by using both sides for repeated notes and letting the accompaniment hand overlap the melody. The result is beautiful but still ballsy.

Range and key: F major (one flat). 23x2 strings. C below middle C through D.
Lever changes: None.

Good for: Weddings, parties, performance, therapeutic settings.

Double-strung effects: The LH accompaniment frequently overlaps the RH melody range. Finger placements are suggested for playing echoed notes with alternating hands to work around or emphasize ringing strings. Since the alternate-hand echoing is not required, it?s a great piece to learn this technique on.

Characteristics: Arpeggios and a syncopated melody. The RH never places more than an octave spread; the LH places 1-9 twice. There are a few four-note chords (LH 1-3-5-8); the rest of the chords are three notes, usually not inversions. The RH has almost no chords. There are two bars of sixteenth notes that can easily be substituted for eighths. The LH has two long-run patterns (1-5-8-9-10 and 1-5-8-9) which can be played with cross-unders or a wandering thumb. The RH has only two cross-overs.

Finger placement: Finger number suggestions are provided for key phrases. Numbers above the notes are suggestions for the RH (marked with ?R? or ?R#? when they occur in the bottom staff). Numbers below the notes are suggestions for the LH (marked with ?L? or ?L#? when they occur in the top staff). To see what I mean, view the PDF of finger placement examples in ?Don?t Stop Believin?: www.EnjoyTheHarp.com/s/dont-stop-believin-notes-enjoy-the-harp.pdf

Notation: Chord symbols and lyrics are provided. Treble clef in both staves. To avoid switching between bass clef and treble in the accompaniment, 8vb lines are used for the low Cs, Ds, and Es (which means that you play an octave below what?s written). Low Fs use 8vb sometimes, so if you see a lot of low ledger lines, don?t worry: it?s that F below middle C. Instead of counting the lines, you can look at the chord symbols to confirm.

Length: 6 pages. 106 measures. 4:00?5:00 minutes, depending on tempo.

Page turns: If you are printing, double-side pages 2-3 and 4-5 to minimize page turns. Line breaks have been made with printed or single-page-tablet turns in mind; you can pick up some accompaniment notes in the RH to turn with the LH.

Analysis and performance notes at www.EnjoyTheHarp.com/dont-stop-believin

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.