A Christmas Medley

When I was first "learning" to play the organ, my mother bought me a "Christmas book" at the local K-Mart. It was a red and green book called "Christmas Organ Album Fourteen Characteristic Pieces", and was published by J. Fischer & Bro. Fischer was located in Glen Rock, New Jersey, and the year of publication was 1961.

My guess is that she bought this book around around 1967 or 68, so, it had probably sat on the shelf for quite a few years. Not many sales of organ music in K-Mart!

Anyway, I used to sit and lovingly look through the book. It looked terribly complicated, and, considering that I did not read music, impossible to understand! I was intrigued by the registrations: "Sw. strings, Solo reed, Flute stops, etc.," even though I didn't know what they meant.

I used to say, "Some day, I'm going to do these!"

A year ago, John Pellowe uploaded a "medley" from the book, and this reminded me that I had it.

I dug it out the other day, and decided that my "some day" had come, and that it was time to play these.

My suppositions were correct about the material being worthwhile. These are THE best carol medleys I have ever heard/played! They are done with skill, beauty, taste, and tremendous appeal. Over the next few days, I'm going to play all the "arrangements" in the book, and this is the first.

THANKS to Carson Cooman, I can now say these wonderful arrangements were done by Howard D. McKinney, founder of the music department at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

I hope you enjoy these and find the scores useful. I will attach the scores with each upload!

Also attached is a photo of Kirkpatrick Chapel at Rutgers, where McKinney played an E. M. Skinner organ.

You will get much praise by playing these, and I am pleased to share them with you!

Approximate timings are given in the First Comment.

I wish you all blessings of the season!