"In the Bleak Midwinter" is a very popular tune during the holiday season ... Heidi and John recorded it on their "Winter's Turning" album and Heidi has also transcribed it for Autoharp Quarterly about two years ago -- one version in 3/4 time and another in 4/4 time. Here's yet another take on this tune -- a mountain dulcimer version arranged in a finger picking style and a considerably more straightforward version for autoharp. I'm not actually sure they would sound good together but I'm guessing they would despite the need to substitute a chord or two on the autoharp to make it work for me.
Happy holidays to everybody!
My thanks to Wikipedia for the following information ...
"In the Bleak Midwinter" is a Christmas carol.
Although written by Christina Rossetti before 1872, it was published posthumously in Rossetti's Poetic Works in 1904 and became a Christmas carol after it appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906 with a setting by Holst.
The text of this Christmas poem has been set to music many times, the two most famous settings being composed by Gustav Holst and Harold Edwin Darke in the early 20th century. The Holst version has been recorded by a number of popular recording artists, including Bert Jansch, Julie Andrews in 1982, Allison Crowe in 2004, Moya Brennan in 2005 and Sarah McLachlan in 2006, as well as by many choirs including the Robert Shaw Chorale and the choir of St. John's College, Cambridge. The Darke version, with its beautiful and delicate organ accompaniment, has also gained popularity among choirs in recent years, after the King's College Choir included it on its radio broadcasts of the Nine Lessons and Carols. (Incidentally, Darke served as conductor of the choir during World War II.)
Click Here for
an Adobe Acrobat version of the Mountain Dulcimer TAB.
Click Here
for an Adobe Acrobat version of the Autoharp TAB.
Click Here for a simple midi file of the Mountain Dulcimer arrangement.
Click Here to listen to a simple midi file of the Autoharp arrangement.
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