CHRISTMAS Alfred s Premier Piano Course Christmas Book includes familiar Christmas pieces that reinforce concepts included in Lesson Book The music continues the strong pedagogical focus of the course hile providing the enoyment of playing familiar music during the Christmas season Christmas Book is not correlated page-y-page ith Lesson Book, ut the pieces use only the concepts that are introduced in Lesson Book They are arranged in progressive order of difficulty, ith the easiest pieces first, though it is not necessary to progress straight through the ook Alloing students to study music they enoy during the Christmas season is highly motivating Consequently, reading and rhythm skills often improve greatly hen studying holiday music The authors hope that the music in Christmas Book rings hours of enoyment to this festive season Merry Christmas! Edited y Morton Manus Cover Design y Ted Engelart Interior Design y Tom Gerou Illustrations y Jimmy Holder Music Engraving y Linda Lusk CONTENTS um, um, um God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen Good King Wenceslas 0 I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day Jingle Bell Rock 6 Jingle Bells Jolly Old Saint Nicholas O Come, All Ye aithful 8 O Little Ton of Bethlehem 8 We Three Kings of Orient Are 0 We Wish You a Merry Christmas 6 Copyright MMIX y Alfred Music All Rights Reserved Produced in USA ISBN-0: 0-790-69-6 ISBN-: 978-0-790-69-7
Jingle Bells Although Jingle Bells as ritten hile James S Pierpont lived in Boston, he eventually moved to Savannah, Georgia While living in Savannah, he served as music director at a Unitarian church here his rother as the pastor Today, there is a commemorative plaque in honor of Jingle Bells near the church Cheerfully Dash-ingthrough the sno, in a one-horse o-pen sleigh, James S Pierpont o er the fields e go, laugh -ing all the ay 9 Bells on o - tail ring, mak -ing spir - its right, hat fun it is to ride and sing a sleigh -ing song to - f Oh! night
8 O Little Ton of Bethlehem Peacefully P The ords for O Little Ton of Bethlehem ere ritten y Phillips Brooks, an Episcopal priest from Philadelphia Inspired to rite the ords y a visit to Bethlehem, he asked Leis Redner, an organist, to compose music for them Redner claims that he as suddenly aakened y the song of angels He rote the melody in the middle of the night and filled in the harmony the next morning The ords and music ere quickly printed on leaflets and sung y Sunday school children and their teachers at the Christmas service Words y Phillips Brooks Music y Leis H Redner O lit - tle ton of Beth - le - hem, ho 7 still e see thee lie! A - ove thy deep and
6 Jingle Bell Rock as first released as a recording in 97, almost 00 years later than the song Jingle Bells, upon hich it as ased It as one of the first Christmas songs to use rock music, ut many today feel that it has a country flavor The original recording as sung y Boy Helms, ut it has een recorded y numerous artists since that time Jingle Bell Rock Happily, in sing rhythm ( ) f = n Bell, Bell, Bell, Bell, Bell Rock, Bell Rock, in-gle ell in-gle ells sing chime Words and Music y Joe Beal and Jim Boothe and in in-gle ells in-gle ell ring, time, sno-indanc- and lo - in and pranc -in in up in ush-els of Jin- Bell gle fun, Square no the in-gle hop has e - gun 9 in the frost - y air What a right time, it s the right time to 97 (Reneed) CHAPPELL CO, INC All Rights Reserved
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day With confidence The ords for I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day ere ritten y the famous American poet, Henry Wadsorth Longfello The poem as originally titled Christmas Bells and as pulished in 867 Almost ten years later, the English organist Jean-Baptiste Calkin set Longfello s poem to music The carol immediately ecame popular in oth Europe and the United States Words y Henry Wadsorth Longfello Music y Jean-Baptiste Calkin f I heard the ells on Christ - mas Day, their 7 old fa - mil - iar car - ols play And mild and seet, the 0 ords re - peat of peace on earth, good ill to men