This collection includes nine familiar Christmas favorites: Jingle Bells, We Three Kings, O Christmas Tree, Russian Dance (from "The Nutcracker"), Deck the Halls, Joy to the World, Away in a Manger, Silent Night, and Carol of the Bells. These student-friendly arrangements feature large print and have fingerings clearly marked.

This collection is appropriate for students in level 1 and 2 of most method books. Some of the concepts encountered include: simple position shifts, finger crossings, intervals up to a fifth, root position chords, and eighth notes. There is also one piece each in F major, G major, and A minor. See samples of each piece and hear each piece performed in its entirety in the sample video.

Need an even easier Christmas collection? Take a look at my "First Christmas Favorites" for beginner piano!

Feast of Favorites, Vol. 2 is a lovely book for you and your harp. You need a harp with C below middle C and 24-26 strings. Larger harps can play too. These arrangements include chord symbols.The book contains 40 pages of music. The music hovers around intermediate.

You can view several sample pages above. The audio sample is an excerpt from "Fur Elise."

The book includes these sections and song titles:

The Quiet Side: "All the Pretty Little Ponies," "Sakura," "Barbara Allen," "Loch Lomond" and "Carolan's Dream."

Classical: "Merry Widow Waltz," "To a Wild Rose," "Minuett II," "O Mio Babbino Caro," "Polovtsian Dance," "Barcarolle," "Santa Lucia" and "Fur Elise."

Holiday: "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," "Infant Holy," "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," "While Shepherds Watched," "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Toyland."

Sounds like: Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, Vince Guaraldi, Liz Story's "The Gift", George Winston's "December", early Windham Hill solo piano artists, and "A Winter's Solstice" compilations.


Transcribed by: David Shenton ( https://www.shentonmusic.com/ ) verbatim to the sound recording

Contents:
1. Bring A Torch (Bring A Torch, Jeanette, Isabella)
2. Children Go Where I Send Thee / The Holly & The Ivy
3. Star Of Wonder (We Three Kings of Orient Are)
4. Silent (Silent Night, Holy Night)
5. Midnight (It Came Upon the Midnight Clear)
6. What Child Is This?
7. Greensleeves (homage to Liz Story)
8. Three Ships (I Saw Three Ships, Come Sailing In)
9. The Coventry Carol (Lully, Lulla, Lullay)
10. Sing We Now Of Christmas (Noël Nouvelet)
11. Carol Of The Bells

Album & Songbook review by: Kathy Parsons (MainlyPiano.com):

I have discovered a real wealth of great solo piano Christmas CDs this year! Isadar?s In Search For the Meaning of Christmas definitely falls into this category! Thoughtful, introspective, and a bit moody, Isadar?s arrangements are true to the carols (with some small melody changes in ?Bring a Torch? and ?Carol of the Bells? that bother me just a little) and still seem very personal. ?Bring a Torch?, ?The Holly and the Ivy?, and ?I Saw Three Ships? are given a lighthearted, joyful treatment. ?Star of Wonder (We Three Kings)?, ?What Child Is This??, ?The Coventry Carol?, and ?Sing We Now of Christmas? are all minor, somber, reverent pieces, and all four are given loving arrangements that keep the dark, mysterious nature of the songs and reflect Isadar?s own sensibilities. ?Carol of the Bells? and Isadar's take on Liz Story?s arrangement of ?Greensleeves? are energetic without losing all abandon. ?Silent Night? and ?It Came Upon a Midnight Clear? present us with a very cold, deep solitude - both feel like late night with moonlight reflecting off the snow. Both are moody, but very beautifully so. George Winston?s ?December? is one of my all-time favorite holiday albums, and I feel In Search For the Meaning of Christmas holds up exceptionally well next to it. This is an excellent collection of Christmas music, and I highly recommend it!

In Search For the Meaning of Christmas is the companion songbook to Isadar?s 1999 solo piano release by the same name. Meticulously transcribed note-for-note by David Shenton of New York Music Publishing, the music is faithful to the recording in every way (except for the pianist - YOU!). The scores are clear, concise, and easy to read, and also include chord indications for improvisation or the use of instruments other than or in addition to the piano. Isadar?s arrangements cover a whole range of emotions, from very dark and somber to joyful and buoyant. All of the pieces from the CD are here, including Isadar?s homage to Liz Story and her beautiful version of ?Greensleeves.? My personal favorites of the eleven songs in this book are the bright and cheerful ?Bring A Torch,? ?What Child Is This??, ?Greensleeves,? the darkly gorgeous ?The Coventry Carol,? and ?Sing We Now of Christmas.? Other titles that I really like are ?Children Go Where I Send Thee/The Holly and the Ivy,? ?Star of Wonder (We Three Kings)," ?Carol of the Bells,? and the effervescent ?Three Ships.? ?Silent? (Silent Night) and ?Midnight? (It Came Upon a Midnight Clear) are a bit too dark for my own holiday tastes, but are interesting and very personal arrangements. This book will make a great addition to your holiday sheet music collection and is available from isadar.com and amazon.com.

Isadar is an artist on both Enlightened Piano Radio & Whisperings Solo Piano Radio, the latter featuring some of today's biggest names in solo piano music, including Ludovico Einaudi, David Nevue, Brian Crain, Kevin Kern, Robin Spielberg, Michele McLaughlin, Philip Wesley and over 300 more...

Also available as sheet music in physical songbooks, digital downloads, as well as software for Yamaha Disklavier player-pianos.

For more information, visit his website at: http://www.isadar.com

Volume 3 in the Pure Cello series has 30 classic Christmas carols that both you and your audience are sure to love. This is over 40 minutes of non-stop Christmas carols, specially arranged for solo cello.

[NOTE: If you purchased any of the "Christmas Carols for All" books for solo cello, those are all included in this volume]

These holiday favorites are a special arrangement for solo cello. This is not just another copy of the same old melody lines. Each carol is expanded with double stops to add a rich harmony for solo performance. Many of the carols are entirely in first position, and fingerings are included for anything that extends beyond that. Each carol is in its original key, so it is easy to combine these with your own choir or piano/organ parts.

Volume 3 contains the following:
1. Angels from the Realms of Glory
2. Angels We Have Heard on High
3. Auld Lang Syne
4. Away in a Manger (Cradle Song)
5. Away in a Manger (Mueller)
6. Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella
7. Coventry Carol
8. Deck the Halls
9. God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
10. Good Christian Men Rejoice (In Dulci Jubilo)
11. Good King Wenceslas
12. Hark! The Herald Angles Sing
13. Here We Come A-Caroling (Wassail Song)
14. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
15. I Saw Three Ships
16. It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
17. Joy to the World
18. Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming
19. O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum)
20. O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)
21. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
22. O Holy Night
23. O Little Town of Bethlehem (Forest Green)
24. O Little Town of Bethlehem (St. Louis)
25. Silent Night
26. The First Noel
27. The Holly and the Ivy
28. We Three Kings
29. What Child is This (Greensleeves)
30. While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks

Please check out the other two volumes in this series:
Pure Cello Volume 1: Ten Concert Pieces for Unaccompanied Cello (S0.853829)
Pure Cello Volume 2: Ten More Concert Pieces for Unaccompanied Cello (S0.853843)

ISBN 9781513470320. 8.75x11.75 inches.

This second volume of The Classical Guitarists Gig Book contains 63 intermediate to advanced solo arrangements of pieces in various styles. From The Water Is Wide and Christmas and patriotic favorites to opera arias, Julia Florida by Agustin Barrios and Cello Suite No. 1 by J. S. Bach, all of the music in this book is written in standard notation only. Award-winning composer, university professor, 2013 Winfield Fingerstyle Champion and 2022 Indiana State Fingerstyle Guitar Competition winner, Mark Cruz, has added a few of his own engaging compositions to this exceptional collectionideal for the performing classic guitarist.

2nd edition - new and improved.

Volume 2 of our Christmas collection (the \"Red Book\") contains ten classic Christmas carols that both you and your audience are sure to love.

Be sure to also check out Volumes 1 and 3, each with 10 different Christmas carols! [You might also like \"American Patriotic Music for All, Volume 1\" with four classic patriotic tunes and three complete Sousa marches.]

These holiday favorites can be played with anywhere from 1 to 7 parts, suitable for a single solo, a chamber group, a pickup group for church choir accompaniment, or a full band or orchestra (school, community, or professional). This is one of the most versatile collections you\'ll ever use! The audio clip has an excerpt of one carol performed as a full orchestra, a string quartet, and a woodwind duet.

The carols included in Volume 2 are:
I Saw Three Ships
Angels We Have Heard on High
Away in a Manger (Cradle Song)
Deck the Halls
Good Christian Men Rejoice (In Dulci Jubilo)
Lo, How a Rose E\'er Blooming
O Little Town of Bethlehem (Forest Green)
The First Noel
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
O Holy Night