Extra Information
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Not an arrangement since it contains musical material from 3 melodies. In Dulci Jubilo is a German melody, 14th cent.; Klug's Geistliche Lieder, Wittenberg, 1535. "Good Christian Men, Rejoice" is the English language version, freely translated from Latin to English by John Mason Neale in Carols for Christmastide (London, 1853). My piece is a set of 3 variations where the voices always sing the hymn in 2-measure phrases separated by 2, then 4, then 2-measure Harpsichord interludes. In the first variation, the harpsichord has triplet scale passages in between the voice phrases and plays the voice parts when they come in. The second variation quotes "Gesù Bambino", an Italian Christmas carol composed by Pietro Yon in 1917, and "Silent Night", written in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber. Again the Harpsichord plays along with the voices when they enter. In the third variation, the Harpsichord is silent when the voices come in. It has radically different harmonies, some of which modulate far afield and contain dissonances. After this, Gesù Bambino appears brifly as does a brief triplet scale and the piece closes with a modification of Gesù Bambino."
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