Music Notes

O Little Town of Bethlehem (instrumental)

My ninth track for "12 Days of "Christmas""  is the Simply Three instrumental version of O Little Town of Bethlehem. This is from their 2013 Xmas album (which featured a lady on violin) which is more traditional than Lux, but this track nonetheless displays a fascinating ingenuity.

The violin, cello and bass interact in complex layers, with dual backing lines and the violin overlaid, tracing the lyrical melody. I'm parsing through it repeatedly as I write… I wish I had adequate musical vocabulary to describe it more technically. It's quite engaging, especially for me as I strive to remember the actual lyrics and thread them through the competing melodies without losing track of everything. I wonder what the production sound chart would look like as it runs across a screen. (See, I don't even know what that's called )

At any rate, this is the kind of track I could play a zillion times and lose myself in, almost forgetting the Christmas carol it's supposed to be. As far as I know, Simply Three's arrangement is unique.

Words: 180.