RESOURCES
Sheet Music
Still Still Still
Still Still Still
Still, still, still,
One can hear the falling snow.
Some Christmas carols are joyous and celebratory. Others reflect the peace that is also characteristic of the season. If “Silent Night” is perhaps the most well-known of those, the closest runner up would have to be the Austrian carol “Still, Still, Still,.”
The carol is a wiegenlied or cradle song with a traditional folk song melody. The tune sets the lullaby mood with a lilting arpeggio that calls to mind a mother’s soothing whispers to her child. The original German lyrics bring those whispers to life, translating literally as “Hush, hush, hush, for the little child wants to sleep.”
Here are the English lyrics used most commonly:
Still, still, still
One can hear the falling snow
For all is hushed
The world is sleeping
Holy Star its vigil keeping
Still, still, still
One can hear the falling snow
Sleep, sleep, sleep
‘Tis the eve of our Saviour’s birth
The night is peaceful all around you
Close your eyes
Let sleep surround you
Sleep, sleep, sleep
‘Tis the eve of our Saviour’s birth
Dream, dream, dream
Of the joyous day to come
While guardian angels without number
Watch you as you sweetly slumber
Dream, dream, dream
Of the joyous day to come
My best wishes to you for a peaceful holiday!
Ps.If you’d like to order the sheet music for my arrangement of this carol, you will find it at:
http://harpmastery.com/still.
Three German Carols
Three German Carols
arranged for harp
by Anne Sullivan
Designed with a harpist’s busy December in mind! The carols are short (and NO lever or pedal changes!) but they can easily be played as a set if you need something longer.These carols are ideal for students. My students are often so busy that it is hard to think of adding holiday music to their practice load. But these carols make it easy. The intermediate level gives a more accomplished student something they can learn and perform quickly, and gives the less advanced student something with just enough challenge to help them grow.
Three German Carols includes:
Kling, Glöckchen (“Ring, Little Bell”), is a favorite Christmas carol of German children. The lyrics were written in the 19th century and set to a traditional German folk tune. I have included two versions of this carol arrangement. One has no lever or pedal changes, but the melody has been slightly altered to allow this. The other version has the correct melody but requires some pedaling or skillful levering.
Susani, Susani is also known as “Vom Himmel hoch, o Engel kommt.” It is one of the oldest, and in my opinion, loveliest German carols, dating back to the 14th century. It has a sweet and gentle rocking rhythm like a cradle song.
In Dulci Jubilo is the familiar “Good Christian Men, Rejoice.” The words and the tune both date from the 14th century. The text is credited to Heinrich Seuse who, in a vision, danced with angels who were singing these words.
Want to hear the carols before you buy? You can see me playing each of the carols on YouTube.
Beautiful additions to any Christmas program
Carol Bundle
Want the English AND the German Carol sets?
Purchase the bundle for only $15 – that’s almost a 25% savings!
Why not???
Three English Carols
Three English Carols
arranged for harp
by Anne Sullivan
Designed with a harpist’s busy December in mind! The carols are short (and NO lever or pedal changes!) but they can easily be played as a set if you need something longer. These carols are ideal for students. My students are often so busy that it is hard to think of adding holiday music to their practice load. But these carols make it easy. The intermediate level gives a more accomplished student something they can learn and perform quickly, and gives the less advanced student something with just enough challenge to help them grow.
Three English Carols includes:
Greensleeves – This well-loved carol tune dates from the 16th century, and some 300 years later, shed its worldly associations and was adapted for the carol What Child is This. This arrangement for lever harp is based on my pedal harp arrangement on my recording Break Forth.
O Little Town of Bethlehem (Forest Green) – The tune Forest Green is an old tune from a ballad called “The Ploughboy’s Dream.” It was used by Ralph Vaughan Williams as a setting for the carol text in the 1906 publication of The English Hymnal. The result is a beautiful blending of the dreamy feeling of original tune and the traditional words.
I Saw Three Ships – The first printed version of this carols dates from the 17th century. The tune is often asserted to be a cheerful variant of “Greensleeves.” The three ships are the camels, the “ships of the desert,” that brought the magi from the east.
Want to hear the carols before you buy? You can see me playing each of the carols on YouTube.
Perfect for a beautiful Christmas program or service!
Away in a Manger Set
Away in a Manger
Two Famous Tunes
Arranged for lever or pedal harp by Anne Sullivan
Like many Christmas carols, the text to “Away in a Manger” has been set to music by multiple composers. These two famous tunes are often identified as “the English one” and “the German one,” but interestingly both were written by American composers.
William Kirkpatrick, a Pennsylvania native, was trained in Philadelphia and worked at various times as a composer, carpenter, military Fife-Major, and church organist. His tune “Cradle Song” was written in 1895 for a musical production called “Around the World with Christmas.” This is the “English” tune for “Away in a Manger,” commonly identified in hymnals as the tune “Kirkpatrick.”
The “German” tune for “Away in a Manger” was said to be an original melody by Martin Luther. In recent years, this has been viewed as a 19thcentury marketing ploy that sought to take advantage of the 400th anniversary of Luther’s birth in 1883. The tune is now credited to composer James R. Murray, born in Massachusetts. Murray worked as a public school music teacher, an editor for a publisher of church school texts and music, and composed many hymns and church songs. He published a melody called “Luther’s Cradle Song” in an 1887 children’s songbook, which resulted in this setting of “Away in a Manger” being falsely credited to Luther. This tune is usually listed in hymnals as “Mueller.”
This arrangement contains both tunes. They are both in the same key (F Major), so you can play them independently or as a set.
They are intermediate level with no lever or pedal changes. The “Kirkpatrick” tune is 2 pages and the “Mueller” tune is 3 pages.
Perfect additions to any Christmas program!
