Whittle, Christmas Carols

Eight Christmas Carols
Arranged for solo guitar by Rod Whittle

In the Western world, church-going continues to decline while the religious reasons for Christian celebrations are obscured by commerce. For me, Anglican strictures during boyhood were later tempered by a liberal education, and yet some significance remains. One enduring consequence is a liking for many of the carols. Those presented here are my favourites. Six belong to the 19th-century resurgence mentioned above; one, O Come All Ye Faithful, is earlier, and one, Mary's Boy Child, later – written in 1956 by Jester Hairston in calypso style to a Negro spiritual and made popular by Harry Belafonte. O Holy Night (1847), a lovely example of French lyricism, has tremolo carrying the haunting melody.
In the arrangements, I have tried to do justice to the music without calling on advanced playing skills. Of benefit to the exercise was my having played bass for years at the local community band's Xmas outings.

Rod Whittle

• Product: Digital PDF or Print on Demand
• Pages: 20
• Level: Advanced
• ISMN 979-0-706816-39-5
  
• Order number: BE-201102