Today is about my favourite harp arrangements.
I’ve limited myself here. There are so very many of them, with more appearing each year, but these are my enduring favourites I think.
Note - I can’t actually play two of these yet, but they are at the top of my “maybe next year” list. I have promised myself that one year, I will put on a VERY harpy Christmas concert and I will sit down in February and start learning them, but this will require some very tolerant neighbours as it will take months…..
Susann McDonald/Linda Wood - Sleigh Ride and Silent Night
There are three Christmas books by this duo of harp royalty. These arrangements are wonderful to listen to and to play, but they come with a health warning - they aren’t the easiest.
Silent Night is one of my Christmas Day gig staples, but Sleigh Ride remains firmly on my Future Me list.
Brava Melody Lindsay - I really love listening to that and I hope to play it half as well one day! Also - Melody is now a space scientist. https://www.montana.edu/news/16244/msu-scientist-wins-nasa-fellowship-to-explore-early-life-on-earth-other-planets
See, harpists are SO cool.
The three books are widely available from harp sheet music suppliers.
Harriet Adie - Festive Fantasy - this is a beast at 16 pages long! But it’s FANTASTIC!!
I love Harriet’s arrangements, and she is a talented composer too. This arrangement is SO clever - it weaves so many Christmas favourites together and it’s a real concert piece which would surely dazzle even the chilliest of audiences!
Thank you SO much for writing it Harriet, and for recording it too, you truly have nerves of steel.
The sheet music is available (along with a few of Harriet’s other pieces) as a download from the Harp Column website: https://harpcolumn.com/music/all-music/artists/harriet-adie/festive-fantasy/
Ray Pool
Ray Pool is a hero to all harpists who have to spend long hours playing background music in hotels and at weddings. We should all say a prayer of thanks every time we play his music.
His arrangements are wonderful and hugely enjoyable to play. If you are a harpist and you don’t have any of his books, you are missing out.
My two Tea At The Waldorf books are compulsory background rep - I even take the original sheet music of these in case my iPad dies on a gig, as I know I can manage for a good long while with just those two books and my own memory!
There’s a great shopping list of his arrangements here and they are widely available at harp sheet music suppliers. Order early for Christmas as they always sell quickly!
Best of all, many of his publications are also now available as downloads from the Harp Column website - https://harpcolumn.com/music/all-music/categories/artists/ray-pool/
His Winter Wonderland book is a real friend at this time of year - this whole book is amazing but my favourites are Let it Snow and Little Drummer Boy.. oh and his Sleigh Ride is a really clever arrangement of a really tricky tune! I am grateful for his version as I can actually play that one…
There’s quite a lot of background noise in this video - but harpists are used to trying to control all their fingers (and toes if they are playing a pedal harp!) while not being able to actually hear what they’re playing properly… it does take a lot of getting used to, and I find on a long gig, my ears get tired before my fingers do.
I’d love to hear what your favourite arrangements are.
Also if you’re on the hunt for new Christmas arrangements, the Harp Column online shop is BRILLIANT. It’s so easy to search as you can choose what type of harp, what level you are etc. In fact, it’s way too easy, I’ve just spent a fortune!
https://harpcolumn.com/music/all-music/attrs/occasion/christmas/