New Single: "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"

Every Christmas season I end up performing and/or recording a good amount of Christmas music for various concerts or collaborations. Sometimes I also make my own Christmas music projects (like this recording from last year). This year I was inspired to record my own arrangement of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." The idea started with an intro to the traditional carol that I wrote last year for a church service. Then it, along with all the other musical ideas you'll hear in the recording, started bouncing around in my head, demanding to be made into something cohesive.

As I arranged, improvised, and recorded this track, I wanted it to express both the darkness and the light heard in the lyrics of the carol. For me, all the C and G minor harmonies express the longing for Christ's second coming, and the B-flat, F, E-flat, and D-flat major harmonies express the light of "rejoice, rejoice!" that looks forward in hope.

In the track you'll hear both my cello as well as my 1921 Gibson mandocello. I do hope you enjoy it. Merry Christmas!

Seth

Click below to hear the track, or click here to stream/download.