A Christmas Carol (2019)

“What was the purpose of our gross accumulation?” – Jacob Marley

A Christmas Carol (2019) is a British miniseries (starring Guy Pearce) based on the 1843 novella of the same name by Charles Dickens. It aired on FX in the United States as a 3 hour film. The three-part series is written by Steven Knight with actor Tom Hardy and Ridley Scott among the executive producers.

Being in America, we got the 3 hour movie version of A Christmas Carol. I’m wondering if it was edited down because part three felt rushed, and it seemed to end in a hurry. At one point, Scrooge hadn’t even reconciled with himself yet — and the end of the movie was only 9 minutes away!

I thoroughly enjoyed the message of A Christmas Carol – delivered through a bleak and sociopathic performance by Guy Pearce. Having gone through this 3 hour journey, I was hoping for longer uplift and rejoiced ending.

Dustin O’Halloran is one of my absolute favorite composers. I obsess over just about everything he does. His music and scores possess a strong sense of identity. I always feel like O’Halloran’s music acts like an additional character in the film.

The music is a (mostly) major melody which is brilliant given the subject matter. It reminded me of Trent Reznor’s work on The Social Network. The subtle happiness of the melody actually magnifies the rotting facade of Scrooge & Marley Investments.

I’m in the process of watching this retelling of A Christmas Carol a second time. The poetry of the script and meaning of the story resonates with me.

How to play A Christmas Carol (2019)| fingerstyle guitar

The guitar tab is beautifully written across two pages, and I arranged this piece in to one giant passage that you’ll play twice. I recommend this song for beginners and intermediate guitar players. You’ll never have more than one or two fingers in the guitar at once.

Enjoy, the guitar tab is available below:

**A Christmas Carol (2019): theme | fingerstyle guitar

The tuning is derived from the popular Kashmir tuning: D A D G A D. My ‘A Christmas Carol’ version is just way lower: C G C F G C. Additionally, I’m playing harmonics on all of the 12 fret notes within the guitar tab.