“I Saw Three Ships” sails in and anchors for the holidays



While some of you may still be enjoying late-autumn temperatures, the cold of winter has already struck us in Chicago with snowy and below-freezing weather. However, one upside to the upcoming holiday season is the many opportunities for classical music performances.

This year editor Stephen Watkins set out to add to the repertoire for innovative cello ensemble holiday concerts. Many of us have personally experienced the dreaded holiday request for Christmas tunes before or after performing an exquisite composition by one of the great masters of classical composition. While this music is often subject to ridicule, Mr. Watkins shows that you can indeed have holiday music of substance.

Just in time for the season, we’re excited to present a cello octet arrangement of the popular Christmas carol I Saw Three Ships.

About Watkin’s Fantasy on I Saw Three Ships for Cello Octet

Fantasy on I Saw Three Ships, by Stephen Watkins, plays out much like a set of variations with no breaks between them. As a child of its parent tune Greensleeves / What Child is This, this work is instantly recognizable to audiences. This arrangement begins in a 5/4 tempo and later inverts the theme with lullaby section. The piece comes to a close with a fugue.

Here are the English lyrics for the first three verses.

1. I saw three ships come sailing in,
On Christmas day, on Christmas day,
I saw three ships come sailing in,
On Christmas day in the morning.

2. And what was in those ships all three?
On Christmas day, on Christmas day,
And what was in those ships all three?
On Christmas day in the morning.

3. Our Saviour Christ and his lady
On Christmas day, on Christmas day,
Our Saviour Christ and his lady,
On Christmas day in the morning.

About the Editor – Stephen Watkins

Photo of Stephen Watkins

Stephen Watkins was born in 1954. He attended the Guidhall School of Music in London majoring in trombone and piano. His main interest however while at the Guildhall was really composition and benefited from the tuition of very diverse composition professors. On leaving college Stephen took up employment as a classroom music teacher in the United Kingdom and then later, after a brief spell in Iceland, specialized in instrumental teaching.

For the last 20 years he has worked in a music school in Germany where he is currently the principal. In his mid-forties, a medical crisis prevented Stephen from continuing as a professional trombonist, and he converted to the cello as his primary instrument. Stephen’s works and arrangements are published by publishing houses in the US, Holland, Austria and Germany and include pieces for brass, recorders, and strings.

Learn more about Stephen Watkins and his arrangements at Ovation Press.


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