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Available in CD or Digital
Download
Storybook Advent
Carols Collection includes two albums with 20 classic carols
each and a third album, the Ultimate Carols
Collection, which is a compilation of thirty
of the forty songs featured.
About the Carols Collection
from musician, composer and artist Michael Brech
"There is something about Christmas Carols that
evokes a completely different feeling and emotion to other
music. They stir up waves of nostalgia and happiness, and instil
a sense of peace and goodwill that comes with the season. In
studies, it has been found that the Mozart Effect makes children
more intelligent, perhaps we should play Christmas Carols every
day to make the world a better place.
When I came to arranging the carols, I wanted to
play them in such a way that they could be used in a variety of
settings: to be able to sing to them, to be able to sit down and
listen to them or to have them as soft background music. So,
they couldn’t be too busy, couldn’t be too simple and couldn’t
be too intrusive.
There was also the imagery to bring across, as
many carols paint pictures in the mind. My experience in writing
for film and stage paid off in this sense.
I needed to capture the essence of the carols,
the message and meaning in each one, as well as consider
variations on the tunes. Some have many verses, and to play a
verse the same over and over may make for good singing but not
necessarily good listening. This all involves the moving of the
tune though the octaves and crossing of hands and other little
tricks of playing. I was asked if I had double-tracked the
recordings, but no, they were all played straight.
Then there was the challenge of making them sound
contemporary but keep a feel of their origin, and with the ages
of the carols spanning over many centuries, I needed to keep
within the boundary of their style, be it Gregorian,
Elizabethan, Victorian, but combine soft jazz with them, or a
certain style of playing, to bring them ‘up-to-date’.
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FEATURING
Adeste Fideles
(O Come All Ye Faithful)
Deck the Halls
The First Noel
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Good King Wenceslas
Gloria in Excelsis Deo
Greensleeves
(What Child is This?)
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
I Saw Three Ships
It Came Upon
the Midnight Clear, (Sullivan)
Jingle Bells
O Christmas Tree
O Come All Ye Faithful
O Come O Come Emmanuel
Oh Holy Night
O Little Town
of Bethlehem, (Williams)
Silent Night
We Three Kings
As with Gladness
Men of Old
Away in a Manger (Murray)
Boars Head Carol
Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella
Gaudete
In Dulci Jubilo /
Good Christian Men, Rejoice
Joy to the World
Patapan
Sussex Carol
The Brightest and the Best of the Sons of the
Morning
The Holly and the
Ivy
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Zither Carol
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