My setting of a traditional medieval melody arranged for cello and piano, score and part available on sheetmusicdirect and sheetmusicpus, although originally a Christmas text the same tune is used in some hymnals with an Easter text. I also have the same setting arranged for trumpet and pipe organ which you can hear at I made a trumpet and organ of the same arrangement. You can hear it at https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/puer-nobis-organ-trumpet.
Category: Holiday music
A Christmas Concert for Solo Piano
On Christmas Eve, at Lakewood United Church of Christ, I’ll be doing the above selections at 6:30pm as a musical prelude to the 7pm service of candlelight and communion. These selections are all arrangements of mine. The sheet music for them is available as a collections at Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus. The individual movements are also available. See the end of this post for their links.
You may stream the audio of this collection, for free, at https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/sets/a-christmas-concert-for-solo-piano. There’s nothing to download. Clicking on that link takes you to the webpage and you can play it from there. Each selection of the collection is playable from that link.
These are not highfalutin recordings, all slickly mastered and recorded with expensive microphones. They are just spur of the moment recordings on my cellphone! My emphasis these days, at may age, is solely upon writing the sheet music and rhw live performance of that music. Anything else–recordings, videos, internet posts–is just in support of that effort using whatever means I have at hand.
Hope to see you on Christmas Eve if you can make it.
Here’s the links for the sheet music individual pieces, but I highly recommend the collection. It is a considerable savings over the individual pieces.
| Come, O Come, Emmanuel | Sheet Music Direct | Sheet Music Plus |
| What Child Is This | Sheet Music Direct | Sheet Music Plus |
| Wexford Carol | Sheet Music Direct | Sheet Music Plus |
| O Little Town of Bethlehem | Sheet Music Direct | Sheet Music Plus |
| Good Christians, All Rejoice! | Sheet Music Direct | Sheet Music Plus |
| The Babe of Bethlehem | Sheet Music Direct | Sheet Music Plus |
| Lo, How a Rose | Sheet Music Direct | Sheet Music Plus |
| God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (or, as I prefer to call it, “God Rest Ye Merry, Y’all!“) | Sheet Music Direct | Sheet Music Plus |
The Babe of Bethlehem (solo piano)
A parallel piece of completely original music begins the setting as the musical foreground and later in the arrangement the traditional public domain melody becomes the focus, then both interplay in continuously changing counterpoint.
SHEET MUSIC available at
https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1424900/Product.aspx
and
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/the-babe-of-bethleham-digital-sheet-music/22623018
#music
#christmas
#piano
Good Christians, All Rejoice!
Good Christians, All Rejoice! (solo piano) A familiar Christmas classic 14th Century German melody arranged in an extended form with sections of counter melodies and a center section influenced by jazz harmony. Fun to play and a good, uptempo piece with which to end a set.
Click https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/good-christians-all-rejoice-solo-piano to listen (nothing to download, free streaming).
Sheet music available at the following sites:
Wexford Carol (solo piano)
A favorite Irish Christmas song, it’s also satisfying to play. Here’s my arrangement of the familiar melody. The harmonization is slightly different from the usual interpretations, and I’ve invented an independent bass line. The sheet music available at the following sites:
- https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1389234/Product.aspx
- https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/wexford-carol-solo-piano-digital-sheet-music/22585976
A Gaelic Christmas Trilogy
These are “nothing fancy” arrangements, just me how I play them…basically just improvised. Written down eventually, but way after the fact! It’s good to remember that at one time, the piano in the living was the “entertainment.” Even radios didn’t exist. And, if you’re the piano player — “Play us tune, Hilton!” — you sit down a play ’em a tune. And maybe somebody else has a violin and they pick it up and join in. Or, maybe the whole crowd starts singing. I truly believe this is what music’s all about. Three of my favorite Christmas tunes from the isles: Curoo Curoo, ‘s Umbo Aera, and The Holly and the Ivy. I call it A Gaelic Christmas Trilogy.
The Babe of Bethlehem (cello & piano)
Sunday morning, December 17th, 2023, my friend of many years, Scott Kluksdahl will play this with me at the church where I’m music director, Lakewood United Church of Christ. I’m looking forward to this tremendously.
The “cello” on this recording isn’t Scott, it’s just sampled sounds on a computer. The video and the sound track are just for demo purposes at the two websites where I self-publish my sheet music: sheetmusicdirect and sheetmusicplus. The score will be available there mid-September. Below is the miniature score version if you want to follow along with the video.
O LIttle Town of Bethlehem (piano solo)
Same guy, same baggy yellow shirt, same fuzzy hair, same morning, same piano, recorded with same iPhone with no external microphone…different piece in my recent group of piano arrangements: “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Sheet music available at SheetMusicDirect and SheetMusicPlus sometime after September 5th…check here back for links after that date. Yes…the familiar tune you know is in there, it’s just hidden in an inner voice all the time. This was my dad’s favorite Christmas song.
God Rest Ye Merry, Y’all!
Another one in my series of Christmas carol arrangements for solo piano. The sheet music will be available on at SheetMusicDirect and SheetMusicPlus by September 5th or so. Check back here for links anytime after that.
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (solo piano)
Sheet music available at the following sites: