Category: Christmas and Holiday Music

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All Sheet Music Christmas and Holiday Music Church and Hymn Music

Silent Night

Music by Franz Xaver Gruber, Lyrics by Joseph Mohr; Arranged by Elena Fortin

Silent Night Cover

Our family relocated to the South just before Christmas and I was sitting at the piano feeling homesick and missing snow! I love our new place, but it seems really strange to be seeing Christmas decorations going up in December and green everywhere!! I thought I would get in the mood for holiday celebrations by sitting down and playing old Christmas favourites.

Silent Night is one of those beautiful carols where the peace and spirit of the season just settle in your heart. As I sat and played, the arrangement formed itself in my mind and in my fingers. I worked backwards on this arrangement–normally I sit down with an outline of the music in mind and work from there.

This time, I let my fingers wander (luckily I was recording!) and then transcribed my own arrangement.

About the arrangement

This arrangement explores some different harmonies in the intro and the outro. The verse and chorus are repeated four times in this arrangement. The first verse sticks pretty close to the original, with some suspensions and interesting rhythms thrown in to keep it interesting.

The second verse introduces several countermelodies and different right hand harmonies. The third verse is a sweet melody in the treble register of the piano. The final verse is an improvisation based on the harmonic structure of the verse and chorus.

I hope you enjoy this arrangement and that playing and learning it brings you peace and joy during the holiday season.

Video Performance

Purchase Information

Clicking on the link below will bring you to a new site: Sheet Music Plus. Silent Night is in the public domain, but this arrangement is under copyright by Elena Fortin Music.

Sheet Music Plus – Silent Night

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Silent Night Sheet Music Sample

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All Sheet Music Christmas and Holiday Music Film Music

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

(from “Meet Me In St. Louis”)

Words and music by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane; Arranged by Elena Fortin

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas Cover

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane) is a gem of a Christmas song first written in 1943. It was used in the 1944 film “Meet Me In St. Louis“. Judy Garland introduced this song in a scene where she is comforting a younger sister when they learn they are moving away from their beloved home in St. Louis, just before the highly-anticipated World’s Fair is coming to their doorstep!

A well-beloved holiday favourite, the song has been performed by several different recording artists including Frank Sinatra, Micheal Bublé, Josh Groban, and Sam Smith.

It’s funny that this song turned into a holiday favourite–in the movie, Judy Garland sings it to her little sister (played by Margaret O’Brien) to comfort her because their family is moving to New York City just before the holidays. The song has undergone a few lyric changes since it’s first incarnation–lyrics that were considered to be “depressing” were changed to be more uplifting.

About the arrangement

This arrangement is a nod to classic film–think old style soundtracks with lush orchestrations. I chose to write this song in 12/8 time, so the left hand triplets are accompanying the melody throughout. The triplets give the melody a nice lilt and writing it in 12/8 time instead of 4/4 time with triplets is just easier for editing and hopefully easier to read.

Listen for the surprise change of harmony with a trick chord near the end!

Video Performance

Purchase Information

Clicking on the link below will bring you to a new site: Sheet Music Plus. This arrangement is under copyright with the ArrangeMe program by Hal Leonard.

Sheet Music Plus – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

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Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas Sheet Music Sample

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Categories
All Sheet Music Christmas and Holiday Music

Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town

(…and He’s Rockin’ the Blues!)

Music by J. Fred Coots, Lyrics by Haven Gillespie; Arranged by Elena Fortin

Santa Claus is Comin' To Town Cover

Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town is a Christmas classic! And one that comes to mind as being a carol that is often “re-imagined” in different styles. It’s been recorded by a lot of different artists in varying styles–I hear the rock version quite a bit during the holiday season.

The arrangement grew out of my awe for blues pianists and early rock n’ rollers. I love the sound of the blues and how the pianists mimic (to the best of their ability) the blue notes, slides, and motifs that seem so easy on the guitar! Their playing is almost at polar opposites from my classical upbringing but still so fun to play!

The original piece was written by J. Fred Coots with lyrics by Haven Gillespie.

About the arrangement

I thought it’d be fun to write a version of Santa Claus coming to town and having a great ole rollicking blues time! So I set out to write a blues version of this classic. Take the carol, add a thumpin’ left hand bass line, throw in some blues scales/runs/tremelos and blue notes (grace notes to us classical players), and you get a Christmas carol that is showy, fun to play, and makes you want to dance.

In blues playing: the style of playing blue (grace) notes is a little different than in classical playing. For blues–the notes “mash” together, sometimes you use the same finger to slide off from a black key to a white key, and generally add a little more dissonance.

I thought it was really fun how well the blues genre fit in with Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town. One of my little students that loves the blues heard this version and his eyes lit up and he said, “I didn’t know you could turn that song into a blues song!”

Video Performance

This video is a little different than my other ones. My recording equipment went on the fritz and I ended up just doing a video of Christmas images with the Musescore playback recording doing the playing. That’s why the playing sounds robotic–but it gives you an idea of what the music is like.

Purchase Information

Clicking on the link below will bring you to a new site: Sheet Music Plus. This arrangement is under copyright with the ArrangeMe program by Hal Leonard.

Sheet Music Plus – Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town (and he’s Rockin’ the Blues).

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Santa Claus is Comin' To Town Sheet Music Sample

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Categories
All Sheet Music Christmas and Holiday Music

The Christmas Song

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

Music and Lyrics by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells; Arranged by Elena Fortin

The Christmas Song Cover

This beautiful Christmas piece with music and lyrics by Mel Torme and Robert Wells is a popular one! The beautiful melody raises interesting possibilities for harmonies and arranging. So many legendary performers have recorded this one–I think one of my childhood favourites is the smooth version by Nat King Cole.

Usually if you name this Christmas Carol by the title “The Christmas Song”, people think they don’t know it. But as soon as you say, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” you get instant recognition. The lyrics always make me think about the good things that Christmas brings!

About the arrangement

The arrangement is an advanced Piano solo. Some of the challenges in the song include fast, jazzy runs, two-against-three rhythms, playing expressively and with rubato, and I’ve thrown in some challenging chords too! (I like to describe rubato as an elastic tempo–you can bend and stretch it where you feel it needs it!)

The piece has a lot of jazzy flourishes that are pattern-based. Unlock the pattern and away you go! Make sure that you use both hands to do the jazzy runs on the last page–and try to figure out what chords they are to make it easier to play these flourishes quickly and lightly.

Now and then I will hop on Google and see if any new videos have popped up with my name on it. (I love that people buy my music and love it enough to memorize it and post a video)! Here is a link to a YouTube video of the lovely Jeanne Costello. She did a great job learning, memorizing, and then posting my arrangement.

Video Performance

Purchase Information

Clicking on the link below will bring you to a new site: Sheet Music Plus. This arrangement is under copyright with the ArrangeMe program by Hal Leonard.

Sheet Music Plus – The Christmas Song

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The Christmas Song Sheet Music Sample

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Categories
All Sheet Music Christmas and Holiday Music Church and Hymn Music

The First Noël

Traditional; Arranged by Elena Fortin

The First Noël Cover

Musicians are always preparing music ahead of the season, so after our first snow, it is already time to get out the Christmas music! (Yes, in Canada, it sometimes snows for Hallowe’en–ugh!) I found an e-mail in my inbox, telling me about an arranging contest at Sheet Music Plus. Unfortunately, the contest deadline was in 12 hours. Fortunately, I made it. It’s always interesting to see what creativity can happen when you are under a tight deadline!

The traditional carol, The First Noël, is from the 13th or 14th Century and came out of Cornwall! A testament to its longevity, message, and melody, the carol was published in a collection of ancient Christmas carols, getting transcribed in 1823. This breathed new life into the song and I am doing my part to keep it alive!

About the arrangement

The arrangement is written for Intermediate pianists. The right hand plays in the upper treble register of the piano and begins with the main melody in the left hand. Most often, melodies are put in the right hand with harmony in the left, but flipping this around puts the melody in the “tenor” register of the piano and gives a depth to the melody.

Each repetition of the verse is altered slightly. The second verse returns the melody to the right hand, but written in chordal style. The last verse is slightly slower, and should be played with bell-like tone on the accents.

It is a very sweet, simple arrangement and will hopefully spread hope and joy as it did many years ago when the people of Cornwall would sing it in the streets to express their excitement and wonder at Christmas.

Video Performance

Purchase Information

Clicking on the link below will bring you to a new site: Sheet Music Plus. This arrangement is under copyright with the ArrangeMe program by Hal Leonard.

Sheet Music Plus – The First Noël

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The First Noel Sheet Music Sample

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