1 Hour of Peaceful and Beautiful Christmas Carols – Piano Instrumental with Lyrics

0:00 Silent Night 🎶 An understated, relaxed version of Silent Night. I really like the modulation into the last verse. I tried to make my playing beautiful and pure for the line "Son of God, love's pure light." 3:19 Away in a Manger 💖This was one of the first carols I arranged when I was 8 years old. I used the melody that I grew up with for the verses and the other melody as the introduction and transitions. The two melodies sound great together. 6:43 Come Thou Long Expected Jesus🎄A wonderful Advent carol that lends itself to a lilting relaxed arrangement. 9:30 Once in Royal David's City ⭐ As a child I loved the Sound of Music and there was one note that I really loved (in the wedding march at the end, the penultimate note the trumpets played at the end before resolving the chord progression) and as a child I would try and figure out what that note was! I built this arrangement of Once in Royal David's City around the feeling that note gave me! 13:29 O Little Town of Bethlehem ✨I was torn about which melody to use for this arrangement, so I used one melody for most of the carol, but the verse "How silently" uses the other melody. I like how they mix together. 17:57 O Holy Night 🎄This just builds and builds! I always wish that this carol didn't end with O Night Divine, so I decided to do a key change and a big finale repeating the words Christ is the Lord O praise His name forever. ✨Also, three times in this arrangement, I hear harmonics, when different frequencies of that note ring out - and I can hear notes that I didn't actually play. However, I like to think that this is the angels joining in our praise as I really tried to make this arrangement the most worshipful way I could, and I really can "hear the angel voices."✨ 25:38 Joy to the world 🔔 Sometimes an arrangement just goes really quickly and easily and that was true of this carol. As I was arranging, I kept singing the extra words, so I have added them into the video. I just love this arrangement. While I was recording this, our lovely dog came up to me and I knew she wanted to go for a walk. So I took a break in recording and we went on a walk. The photos are from that walk and I think they compliment the music beautifully and are a lovely reminder to me of that day. 🐾 29:33 Go tell it on the mountain ⛰️ In keeping with the carols lyrics, I chose photos of mountains, but I think I encapsulated some classic Canadian winter activities: ❄️ Verse 1 and 3 are taken on a family day out ice fishing at a lake near where we live and you can see husky's pulling sleds Verse 2 was taken on an afternoon trip to Lake Louise and you can see people playing hockey on the frozen lake. 🏒 32:00 Angels we have heard on high 🔔 I love the Christmas bells motif that brings this arrangement together. I took the photos for this video at Lake Louise when we went for a day out to see the ice sculptures one year. The horses pulling the sleds are so Christmassy! 35:26 It Came Upon The Midnight Clear My brother, sister, and I would watch the 1949 version of Little Women and this melody really reminds my sister and me of that classic movie. And see a very old photo of our son and me at a Christmas Eve service and my husband and our daughter at another. I'm not sure they allow open candles anymore! 40:49 Infant Holy Infant Lowly I arranged this around the little tinkly motif that I had written last year. It sounds Christmassy. 43:09 Angels from the realms of glory In the past few years we have had so many amazing northern lights displays around our area and the dancing lights often remind me of the angels, so I used some of those we have taken photos for this carol. 46:45 See Amid the Winter Snow It is very fitting that our lovely dog is pictured in the first photo as she has kept me going on walks this past month as I worked on the carols. I took many of the photos that I used in this hour of carols from walks around our house. I was working on See Amid the Winter Snow and we went on a walk and I saw the buck and doe and I was able to get the video of them. I think the video fits beautifully with the carol. And listen out for the tinkly bit picturing the starry skies. 51:28 In Dulce Jubilo This is cute and Christmassy and evokes Christmases of years gone by. 53:45 Hark the Herald Angels Sing I tried arranging this a couple of ways, but just love the classic big sound of this carol, of course including the descant on the last verse. 56:52 O Come All Ye Faithful This is a worthy finale to the hour of carols with a bit of everything - a nice intro and transition part, a descant for Sing Choirs of Angels, and I especially like the ending with a gentle key change and then the 7 most beautiful chords I could figure out, walking us to a super satisfying end to the hour of carols. #ChristmasCarols #PianoChristmasMusic #instrumentalchristmas All original piano arrangements by Rachel, Harmony Hymns with Rachel © 2025