Wade – O Come All Ye Faithful (Flute & Piano)

The alternative harmonies in this arrangement by Rebecca Faith make it a highly emotive interpretation. The piano takes control of the main melody, with the flute adding beautiful harmony and decorative features. The phrases O Come All Ye Faithful and Joyful and Triumphant are explored in shifting keys and harmonies adding a unique richness. However, the melody is still strongly present leaving the listener satisfied that they have heard the much loved tune. All of Rebecca's Christmas Carol arrangements are fresh, exciting and uniquely crafted, and are very much for the concert platform rather than a sing-along or play-along at home with Dad playing the piano part. These beautiful arrangements require work on the part of both flautist and pianist as with a demanding accompaniment they are very much a duo. The majority are for the advanced flautist, minimum grade 6-7 standard, as there are some complicated rhythms, flutter tonguing and technically challenging jazzy-style passages. Highly recommended and well received by audiences there is nothing else available like them, and so these challenging yet thoroughly enjoyable arrangements fill a gap in the market and are an effective and welcome addition to the repertoire, providing some festive music with a rather different flavour, away from the usual standard melody with accompaniment. The collection of 10 Christmas Carols was written for the flute and piano duo Tranquillo, who recorded them as their debut album Tranquillo Christmas in 2010, a CD that has attracted some excellent reviews and can be purchased for £10 (plus P&P) from www.tranquilloduo.com

Review: "This is one of our personal favourites out of Rebecca's Christmas arrangements as it breathes new life into this well known carol. One of the things I love about Rebecca's music is that it is so full of passion and emotion, and this piece is another example of that. A great arrangement for every flute and piano duo." – Sarah Waycott & Hannah Mitchell of Tranquillo Duo, November 2012

Review: "This ever-popular carol is a great one to include an arrangement of, even though it may encourage the audience to sing-along! It opens with the tune in the piano part with a lilting but lyrical broken-chord pattern in the left hand, and continues with the tune throughout. The flute joins for the second verse but is always in thirds with the piano and never has the core tune for more than the odd phrase. This may be seen as a shame that it doesn’t even dominate in one verse, but instead it takes on more of an obbligato role accompanying the tune, and using all three octaves of the flute. Although the piano part is one of the more straight-forward and easier of the carol arrangements by Rebecca Faith, it is nevertheless important to carry the tune throughout and would require some practice on the part of the pianist in the more rich chordal sections. Probably around grade 4-5 standard for flute players and suitable for the concert platform, perhaps for a confident student to play in school concert or carol service." – Dr. Rachel Smith DMA, MA, BMus (Hons), FTCL – November 2012

Review: “Don't you just love Christmas music? It is always wonderful to hear and play, I don't think we ever get sick of it, but sometimes it is good to have new arrangements and this is what we've got here. If you are Grade 5 standard and above, I'm sure you will enjoy exploring these excellent arrangements by Rebecca Faith. Each title is a separate edition, very well presented. The arrangements are varied in style and the piano parts not too difficult. If you have a performance coming up this Christmas, one of these will go down extremely well with the audience. They aren't just the tune with the piano accompaniment, but skilful arrangements with imaginative harmonies and key changes. Highly recommended.” – Liz Goodwin on www.flutewise.com October 2013

Biography

Faith, Rebecca

Rebecca Faith was born in Aberdare, South Wales. She was brought up surrounded by music and was taught to play the piano from the age of two. Rebecca went on to study music at Cardiff University, graduating in 2007 with a BMus degree and obtaining a Masters degree in Music Composition the following year.Rebecca is now a freelance composer. Her passion is to write music that crosses the boundaries between genres and appeals to classical and non classical music lovers alike. In 2010 Rebecca was commissioned by the piano and flute duo Tranquillo to compose and arrange their debut album. The music attracted reviews from the British Flute Society and The Musicians Union. In 2012 Rebecca's music was performed at St David's Hall Cardiff as part of the Welsh BBC proms and also at the London Trafalgar Square St Martin in the Fields concert series. Rebecca also gives piano tuition and teaches music theory at Hebron Piano School. Being keen to combine both her teaching and composition skills she writes new contemporary educational piano music. She was commissioned by Alfred Music Publishing to arrange a collection of 60 national anthems in celebration of the London 2012 Olympics.