Three Christmas Waltzes
I. Waltz No. 1 "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"Program note
Three Christmas Waltzes is a collection of waltzes inspired by the holiday season. The first two draw on well-known tunes — We Wish You a Merry Christmas and The Christmas Waltz — while the third is entirely original. In the first two pieces, only a small amount of new material is developed, letting the familiar melodies shine.
The Christmas Waltz has been particularly captivating for me; its catchy melody kept me up at night until I decided to create my own arrangement. The original third waltz emerged from a simple piano improvisation, a fragment of which appears at both the beginning and the end of the piece. I wrote down nearly everything as it came to mind, without any extensive planning, and was pleasantly surprised by how well the composition turned out.