O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Having featured choral settings of the O Antiphons during Advent this year, it seems time to return to an instrumental genre, and we can do that while maintaining our focus on the O Antiphons. O Emmanuel is the last of the seven O Antiphons (designated for December 23). You might consider the familiar carol O Come, O Come Emmanuel to be a setting for that text, although in its hymn form it actually has a verse for each of the seven O Antiphons.
Almost 8 years ago, I featured the autoharpist Will Smith playing Neil Gow’s Lament for the Death of His Second Wife (Friday Performance Pick 110). I noted there how surprised I was at the versatility of the instrument, and Smith’s virtuosity, since my exposure to the autoharp was pretty much limited to what I heard from our itinerant music teachers in elementary school. Of course, the goal in elementary school was simply to familiarize us students with American folk songs and teach a few rudiments, and autoharp is a highly portable and foolproof solution for that.
That goal has unfortunately been cast aside, and I wonder if the demand for autoharps cratered at the same time.
Smith has many autoharp resources on his website, including the written score for many of his arrangements. Here’s O Come, O Come Emmanuel, if you want to grab your autoharp and give it a try.