A Winter's Benediction: 'Joy to the World' on Piano

My performance of an inspired New Age piano arrangement

Dear Living Dark reader,

One year ago today, I recorded myself playing David Lanz’s wonderful New Age piano arrangement of “Joy to the World,” which, with its combination of delicate and rippling musical energy, is a joy to play. I shared the recording on Facebook, where I basically never go anymore, but otherwise I didn’t do much with it. I may have shared it on Substack Notes, too, but I don’t really remember. In any case, today I remembered it and decided to share it with you, here, as a newsletter post. If you’re still in the lingering mood for some instrumental Christmas music, maybe this will appeal. Just use the player below.

A brief note to fill in some autobiographical background: The Christmas holiday that we just marked was the fifth in a row where I didn’t have an outlet to perform seasonal music on the piano publicly. Previously, for decades, each December was filled to bursting with the piano as I played music for church services, cantata performances, nursing home parties, holiday get-togethers, college commencement ceremonies, high school and college choir performances, and more. Since 2020, when the collective response to the COVID-19 pandemic knocked the world off its axis, I have simply played off and on throughout the year for myself, in solitude, including a month’s worth of my own private meditative musical celebration of the Christmas season.

If you’re already familiar with Mr. Lanz’s arrangement of “Joy to the World,” which you can find on his 1994 album Christmas Eve, you might notice that I have changed a couple of minor elements, including the timing of the left-hand chords in the final measures, to reflect my personal feeling for the music.

Warm regards,