The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) for Advanced Piano Solo

This Christmas classic has music and lyrics by Mel Torme and Robert Wells. I have always loved this piece--it brings the spirit of all the good things that the season can bring! There is a reason why there are so many arrangements of this piece--it has a beautiful melody and invites oodles of creativeness when it comes to the harmony and arranging.

This arrangement is a challenging jazz piece that is played freely, with rubato. Challenges include jazzy runs, two against three rhythms, accelerandos and ritardandos, and should be played with great feeling and expression.
Feel free to pause where you want to spend a little more time, or where you want your audience to enjoy some different harmonies. Take your time learning the fast runs--there are patterns to discover! Work out a fingering that works for you.

YouTube video is available at: https://youtu.be/XE3Tbdzh2eU

You can see this piece (and others) on my YouTube Channel, "the-piano-studio.com", or visit me at www.the-piano-studio.com

Enjoy!

Angels We HaveHeard on High (minimalist)

Christmas carolarrangement for piano solo with narration by Stephen R Dalrymple

sequenced by thecomposer

© 2018, ℗ 2020 Stephen R Dalrymple

In 2017 I began researching andwriting a university level music textbook explaining contemporary classicalmusic composition techniques. In 2018 I finished the 300+ page manuscript and usedit to teach two university music course in Haiti that year.

It had been many years since I hadtaken the course myself, and needed to add to my knowledge of late 20thCentury and early 21st Century classical music composition techniques.During my research I grew interested in a classical music minimalist styleinfluenced by Terry Riley and Philip Glass. I have tried to use some of theirideas in this composition. There are 10 sections that can be repeated,reordered, and combined so that the performer actually makes a contribution tothe creation of the work.

Playing the piano at church behind areading of Luke 2, was my first experiment in this new form of music. When Ireturned home, I began to experiment in writing down the experience andrefining the work according to these minimalist ideas. The composition could beperformed with or without the narration, with a single narrator in a singlelanguage, or with the narration in multiple languages and/or with multiplevoices.

Suitable for preludes,offertories, concerts, personal meditation. Includes 2 versions 1) piano score,letter size 2) piano score, small pageformat for performing from 10.1 inch tablet. UpdatedDecember 2020.

(Note: Tell your computer whichpages you want to print. There are programs online that will allow you to splitpdf files so that you can choose the correct part of the pdf for your tablet.)