The Heart of Christmas: Inspirational Carol Medleys for Solo Piano

While Tom Fettke is a versatile composer, writing for vocal as well as instrumental solos and groups, his piano-arrangement books are far too few. They are, nevertheless, absolute treasures. "The Heart of Christmas" is my most recent purchase and it is yet another gem among his treasures. Familiar carols are either stand alones or blended with other pieces (assembled with other carols or snatches of classics) to form the lilting, flowing music for which this arranger is known. Whenever I use his books for our evening services, I get rave reviews. Each piece is remarkably accessible without huge amounts of practice, probably at the late intermediate or early advanced level. When I use the term "accessible," I say this not as a professional musician, but as a pianist and organist who has served churches for more than 50 years, with only a few years of actual music training in early life, and an academic major in quite another field. Two wishes: that Tom Fettke would produce more of these wonderful piano-arrangement books in the near future; that other Amazon purchasers of church piano and organ music would evaluate their purchases for the rest of us. In some senses, church organists and pianists (I do not mean worship team "keyboard players") are a disappearing breed, especially in non-liturgical churches. Those of us who remain could very much profit from mutual sharing about products which potentially may well become rarer as time and styles pass.

I really like this Christmas piano book. As church piano players know, all of a sudden Christmas season is here and you may nothave time to work on a complicated offertory or prelude. These sound nice and are pretty easy to play. The book includes Child in the Manger with Away in a Manger, Gesu Bambino with Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, Lo How a Rose E're Blooming with Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, Messiah Suite which combines some " easy " styled music from the Messiah, Oh Come Little Children with Still, Still, Still, Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel with Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, Rise Up, Shepherd & Follow with Behold the Star ( my favorite ) Sing We Now of Christmas with The First Noel, Sussex Carol with It Came Upon A Midnight Clear ( pretty ), Tell Me the Story of Jesus with Who is He in Yonder Stall, There's a Song in the Air with Angels We have Heard on High and We Three Kings with As With Gladness Men of Old. If you don't want to play the whole song it is easy to just select part of it, as some may be longer than desired. I wanted to name the songs as sometimes it is hard to find out what is in a piano book, and we don't need a lot of repeats ! I think you will like this book as much as I do !

I have loved Fettke's other arrangement books but was somewhat disappointed in this one. I believe holiday piano is most enjoyed when the songs are at least somewhat familiar to the listeners. Some of the lesser-known songs in this collection make pleasant listening but won't be recognized, and many listeners will recognize "As With Gladness Men of Old" instead with some confusion as "For the Beauty of the Earth," a more familiar non-holiday hymn with the same melody.Still, there are some gems that I will enjoy playing over the years--just not as many as I had expected from past experience with Fettke's arrangements.

I have not been disappointed with any of the books I have bought by Tom Fettke......He's is just a great music chef....This latest "The Heart of Christmas is another good choice....

The book is fantastic -delivery was not.

I absolutely love this book. I got it a couple Christmasses ago and have performed nearly all the songs out of it. It's easy enough for you to pick up within a week and get it ready for the Sunday service. Plus, they are great combinations of songs for the medleys. I just love this book!

Fettke does it again

This book is both easy enough to play songs through the first time you see them, and yet the details are challenging enough to make each arrangement beautiful.