The First Noel Piano Arrangement (and a funny Christmas story)

To kick off December’s first blog post, here is my piano arrangement of The First Noel:

You can find the sheet music here:

Christmas Piano – Sheet Music Book

I’ve already talked about the history of this beautiful Christmas carol; check that post out here:

The First Noel: A History

Now I want to share a funny story with you about my arrangement of The First Noel. 

Back in August of this year (2018), I decided to make a Christmas album. I had already arranged O Come All Ye Faithful and Silent Night, so I set a goal to write five more Christmas arrangements and one original Christmas piece (Mary’s Alleluia) by the end of October (I wanted to release the album by Thanksgiving). So for my first piece, I finished arranging The First Noel in mid-September.

Then I forgot about it.

Seriously! I completely forgot that I had arranged this particular Christmas carol, so in the middle of October, I thought I was one piece short of my goal for the album.

*Now I’m going to quote my actual thoughts here because it completes the story:

Then while sitting at my piano one afternoon later that month – probably trying to decide which other Christmas carol to arrange (and I can tell you for a fact that I was leaning towards arranging The First Noel, forgetting that I had already done it) – I heard strains of a beautiful theme inside my head. 

“Wow, that’s really beautiful,” I thought. “It would make a lovely introduction to an arrangement of The First Noel.”

As the music in my head kept playing, I realized it sounded vaguely familiar. “Wait a second,” I said. “Did I write this already?” The melody slipped out of my mind, but the feeling of musical déjà vû remained. 

“I feel like I wrote this, but I can’t remember,” I continued (to myself, of course; I was home alone at the time). “Why does this theme seem to fit so well with The First Noel? It sounds so familiar.”

By this point I was extremely puzzled, so I pulled out my computer and SURE ENOUGH: I had already written an arrangement of The First Noel with that exact introduction two months earlier! That’s what I get for jumping the gun on Christmas music, haha.

I hope that story made you smile, because it still makes me laugh. 🙂 Happy December!