Kawai Piano Prices: Glory to the Newborn King (Book & CD) (Sacred Performer Collections) [Paperback] Review

I have a quite a collection of Christmas sheet music, from adaptations of carols that sound like Chopin or Handel (fun!), the Guaraldi Charlie Brown Christmas suite to hymnal standards. Marilynn Ham's arrangements, however, are a step above any I've played before.

The 10 songs include Hark, The Herald Angels Sing, Sussex Carol, Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabelle, Ding, Dong, Merrily on High' It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, Still, Still, Still, O Little Town of Bethlehem, What Child is This, and a Huron Carol. All of them have a certain structure; generally the introductory page is the familiar carol in a relatively high tessatura (usually at or above Middle C), with simple arrangement, followed by a transition and key change to a more broad arrangment, either keyboard-spanning chords or arpeggio accompaniement (either treble or bass) with the melody in the other hand. The logic of these arrangements is so beautifully thought-out that if you are a moderately advanced pianist, you can sight-read these with little trouble. If you are below intermediate, you will have a bit of trouble; there are a lot of keyboard-spanning arpeggios and big chords plus key changes requiring quick thinking. However, the openings are playable by any intermediate pianist, even advanced beginner (take a look online at the sample pages to get an idea.)

These are beautiful arrangements, well worth learning and they are traditional enough for most church performances as they stay very true to the original melody and harmony. Gorgeous work and pure pleasure to play.

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Product Description:
These contemporary arrangements make up the second addition to Alfred's best-selling Sacred Performer Series. Original introductions and postludes, large colorful chords, octave displacement and rubato are infused into favorites including "Ding, Dong, Merrily on High," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" and more.