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Suites for the Holidays featuring The Nutcracker Suite

by Robert Wadsworth

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    A perennial favorite. Over an hour of acoustic instrumental music for the Christmas and winter seasons. Hammered dulcimer is the featured instrument throughout, with acoustic guitar accompaniment and bowed psaltery accents on some selections. The 21 tracks are grouped into four suites:

    THE NUTCRACKER SUITE: All eight movements of P.I. Tchaikovsky's perennial holiday favorite arranged for hammered dulcimer(s), with acoustic guitar accompaniment on four of the movements.
    MOSTLY CAROLS SUITE: Traditional carol tunes and medleys from England, Ireland, France, Germany, Catalonia, and the Shetland Islands, plus one original composition.
    MOSTLY ANTHEMS SUITE: Instrumental arrangements of an anthem, a hymn, and an organ piece.
    SUITE FOR WINTER: A tribute to the stark beauty of the season.

    Professionally replicated CD in traditional jewel case.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Suites for the Holidays featuring The Nutcracker Suite via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.     ... more
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1.
The Nutcracker Suite: Miniature Overture 03:40
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2.
The Nutcracker Suite: March 02:49
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3.
The Nutcracker Suite: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy 02:02
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4.
The Nutcracker Suite: Russian Dance (Trepak) 01:10
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5.
Christmas, seasonal, The Nutcracker, - The Nutcracker Suite: Arabian Dance 03:08
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6.
The Nutcracker Suite: Chinese Dance 01:05
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7.
The Nutcracker Suite: Dance of the Reed Flutes 02:33
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8.
The Nutcracker Suite: Waltz of the Flowers 07:18
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9.
He Is Born / Sussex Carol: On Christmas Night 02:33
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10.
Ding Dong Merrily on High 01:57
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11.
Carol of the Bells 03:18
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12.
Wexford Carol / Watching for Santa 05:18
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13.
Noel Nouvelet / Bring A Torch Jeannette Isabella 02:20
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14.
Christmas, seasonal, carol, Shetland fiddle tune - Christmas Day Ida Moarnin' / Cold December Flies Away 02:21
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15.
Joseph Dearest / Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day 03:28
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16.
Gesu Bambino 04:19
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17.
Lo How A Rose 03:05
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18.
Noel: Grand jeu et Duo 02:22
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19.
winter seasonal, baroque, The Four Seasons - Largo from The Four Seasons, "Winter" 02:17
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20.
After the Ice Storm 01:59
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21.
In The Bleak Midwinter 02:56
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about

Exploring the feasibility of arranging The Nutcracker Suite for hammered dulcimer had been in the back of my mind as an “I'll get-to-it-someday” project for several years. While Stephen Bennett's remarkable recording, "The Nutcracker Suite for Guitar Orchestra," was undoubtedly an inspiration, the folk-dance quality of Tchaikovsky's work seemed to suggest "hammered dulcimer," and two movements (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Russian Dance) had been a part of my repertoire for a while. After a 2007 holiday concert, my wife suggested I record a Christmas CD, and the time for said exploration was at hand. The shorter movements all fell into place quite readily. Waltz of the Flowers was a more ambitious undertaking but came together after rewriting the guitar part for DADGAD tuning. The Overture, with fast chromatic runs apparently only playable by a hammer-wielding cephalopod, loomed as a seemingly insurmountable obstacle while I arranged and recorded the rest of the CD. A second transposition attempt, to the unbeatably hammered dulcimer-friendly key of G, finally proved to be the charm.

The two already-learned performance-repertoire movements are the simplest arrangements - just solo hammered dulcimer. The remaining movements all use some overdubbing of one or more additional dulcimer parts, acoustic guitar, and in one case (Arabian Dance) a tapped, heavily-reverbed, sand-filled plastic egg. A number of different striking surfaces were used on the hammers for varying effects. Listeners who are very familiar with the Suite will notice some differences in the key transitions (or lack thereof) between movements, since three of them had to be transposed to render them more dulcimer-friendly.

The Mostly Carols Suite (tracks 9-15) is an assortment of traditional melodies from the rich repertoire of European carols, with one original composition thrown in (hence the “mostly” qualifier). No attempt was made to be faithful to geocultural origins when combining tunes into medleys; instead, pairings were made solely on the basis of musical considerations. Perhaps the most curious marriage of the lot is the Wexford Carol / Watching for Santa medley, in which the haunting melody of an old Irish carol leads into my mellifluous first attempt at composing a Christmas novelty tune (the title of which harkens back to a childhood memory).

The “Mostly Anthems Suite” (tracks 16-18) is comprised of three serious Christmas compositions, all of which have carol associations. The refrain of Gesu Bambino, an early twentieth century anthem by Italian-born organist Pietro Yon, is based on the hymn Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful). Lo How a Rose, now familiar as a hymn setting by Michael Praetorius, originated as a 16th Century traditional German carol. Noël Grand Jeu et Duo, a French baroque organ piece by Louis-Claude d'Acquin (technically not an anthem since it was an instrumental composition), was based on a traditional French carol tune. The same noël, transposed to a different key, was the basis for a very similar organ composition a generation later by another Frenchman, Claude Balbastre.

The recording closes with Suite for Winter (tracks 19-21), a tribute to the stark beauty of the season. Largo, borrowed from another suite (Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons) is among the most simply stunning melodies in all of classical music. After the Ice Storm was written following a winter storm which had left the tree branches sparkling diamond-like in the morning sun. Completing the suite is the quiet repose of Gustav Holst’s 1906 setting of In The Bleak Midwinter.

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released November 13, 2009

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Robert Wadsworth Richmond, Virginia

Hammered dulcimer and acoustic guitar player Robert Wadsworth's recording of The Nutcracker Suite has been described as “mandatory Christmas season listening.” After collaborating on an album of baroque hammered dulcimer duets and recording two CDs of original compositions, his latest release, “Dulcet Fayre,” returns to the dulcimer's folk roots with his arrangements of traditional Celtic tunes. ... more

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