Caroline, an occasional commenter in here (it was lovely to hear from you Caroline!) reminded me last week that a couple of years ago I was hunting for sheet music for the Wheeler and James Australian Christmas Carols. I didn't have any luck finding them back then. So when she mentioned them this time, I went on another internet search and musicroom came through with the goods.
It arrived today. I've been having a lovely time playing my way through Three Drovers, Carol of the Birds, Silver Stars are In the Sky, The North Wind and other old favourites. It's great to have them all together in one book.
Just one teensy criticism (that's not specific to this music book) is that it's not spiral bound. Spiral binding makes page turning heaps easier if you're in the middle of a complicated sequence of notes. And if a song is only two pages long, then it would be great if it could be on two facing pages instead of needing a page turn in the middle. I suppose now that I own it, I could photocopy a few pages to fix that problem.
But otherwise, I'm very happy. I don't know if any of the words of these carols would get through our church music team's criteria for appropriate songs to sing at our church Christmas carol night, but I really love these old Australian songs so I'm happy to potter around playing them and singing them with the family at home.
1 comment:
I love these carols and I wish we were more exposed to them at Christmas instead of the usual supermarket and department store dross. My local Anglican minister is trying to encourage the singing of the James-Wheeler carols. We are singing three tomorrow and I am accompanying; but I have lost the score for three drovers so I am worried and mildly panicking.
I shall wing it.
By the way the carols are hardly new - being around since the 1960s. I guess the Australian cringe factor is part of the reason they are not more popular.
Leon
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