Brass Quintet Christmas Music

[BVD Press]

I just added a set to my site http://www.bvdpress.com from AussieBrass that might ineterst you. For $45.00 it includes:

Jingle Bells; Oh! Tannanbaum; Ding Dong Merrily on High; Deck the Halls; Bavarian Nights; Joy to the World

There is a sample on th site. The charts are fun, not too hard and enjoyable to listen to! It is the bottom of my homepage.

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A little more difficult, but the best Xmas book I have ever played is a set arranged by Richard Price. For $22.95 you get 9 tunes:

1. We Wish You a Merry Christmas 2. Angels We Have Heard on High 3. We Three Kings 4. I Saw Three Ships 5. Carol of the Bells 6. What Child is This? 7. O Come , O Come Emmanuel 8. The Holly and the Ivy 9. Silent Night

Search "Price" on the site.

[Joe Baker]

I just got my "Carolers Favorites" today -- ordered from Dillon's last week. It's the Salvation Army's compilation of 70 simple hymns, with 5 parts that can be ordered for just about any combination of instruments. The 5th part is optional, and for a brass quintet it would actually be the trombone part while the 4th would be the tuba. The 5th has a lot of embellishment, and doesn't seem to double the 4th much at all.

The books cost $5.00 apiece, plus a couple bucks shipping.
____________________________________
Joe Baker, who emailed the local Salvation Army guy today to offer to play at some kettles.

[Chuck(G)]

Masters Music has two books of carols "Sounding Brass" in their catalog, arranged by William Ryden. Not the greatest stuff, but some unusual settings and not very difficult.

http://www.masters-music.com/

[BVD Press]

I had a friend of mine who is a trombone player also recommend the Price collection. Can you give me some idea of what "a little more difficult" is? What grade level would you put it at (1-5)? I would say that our quintet is as good as an average college group. None of us are going to make a living playing music, but we do pretty well.

Somewhere close to 4, but I think any college group could handle the charts. The first read through might present some challenges, but it should be fine after everyone looks at the parts a bit![/b]

[ken k]

A little more difficult, but the best Xmas book I have ever played is a set arranged by Richard Price. For $22.95 you get 9 tunes:

1. We Wish You a Merry Christmas 2. Angels We Have Heard on High 3. We Three Kings 4. I Saw Three Ships 5. Carol of the Bells 6. What Child is This? 7. O Come , O Come Emmanuel 8. The Holly and the Ivy 9. Silent Night

Search "Price" on the site.

I had a friend of mine who is a trombone player also recommend the Price collection. Can you give me some idea of what "a little more difficult" is? What grade level would you put it at (1-5)? I would say that our quintet is as good as an average college group. None of us are going to make a living playing music, but we do pretty well.

The Price set is great, but not what I would consider easy to put together in two rehearsals. These were recorded by the (new) Philadelphia Brass about 4 years ago. They require some piccolo trumpet playing I believe.

The Caroler's Favorite set is great and other than being hard to read because it is small print, the arrangments are a bit different than your average carols like in the little green (which now is white)Rubank xmas books.

Bill Holcombe has a 12 days of xmas arrangement which is neat. A little tricky but doable in two rehearsals. Frackenpohl arrangments of Let It Snow, and Rudolph, the red... and his Christmas Jazz Suite which includes Jingle bells, we wish you and Jolly old St Nick come to mind.

Christmas Crackers is a set of carols by the Philip Jones group but not too difficult.

ken k

[BVD Press]

The Price set is great, but not what I would consider easy to put together in two rehearsals. These were recorded by the (new) Philadelphia Brass about 4 years ago. They require some piccolo trumpet playing I believe.

Just to be sure, I double checked and there are no Piccolo parts in this set. Richard has done many other charts for Xmmas time and they may contain Piccolo parts. I am not really sure.

For the Price collection, I think a college group could read it down. Go home and work out some of the parts on their own and then be able to play most of 9 pieces at their next rehearsal without too many issues.

A few more pieces to consider:

Keith Snell Xmas charts are fun!

Frackenpohl:
Let it Snow
Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer

I just got a version of "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch " into publication. A fun chart!!
Feauturing the Tuba:

Nuttin' For Christmas
Swingle Bells

[BVD Press]

Forgot about a whole group of nicely done and not too hard charts:

Anderkamp music puts out some very nice individual charts which include:

Angels We Have Heard on High
Deck the Halls
First Noel, The
Go Tell It On A Mountain
Hark the Herald Angels
Joy to the World
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Silent Night
Sing Hosannas
We Three Kings

There are sample .pdf and .mp3 files on my site. Just search "Anderkamp" and go down to the bottom of the page for the Xmas titles.

[Chuck(G)]

I've got a couple of handwritten charts of carols done by Bill Rose--were these ever published? They're not bad.

If you want an offbeat, jazzy treatment of some carols, go over to http://www.trumpettunes.com/publications.html and look at some of the Zach Smith arrangements. Loads of fun and not terribly difficult.

As mentioned, the Price set is very good, but it will take a little bit of practice to get these just right.

I also like the setting of "Silent Night" by Wilfred Bob Roberts.

Jim O'Briant has published a piece called "Toys Medley" which is a combination of "March of the Toys" and "March of the Wooden Soldiers". Very nice and some good tuba parts.

Has anyone mentioned "Nutcracker Nuggets"?

[Phil Dawson]

The Canadian Brass has two sets of X-mas tunes. They have the green book which can get tricky in spots but they also have a gold book of carols called something like easy carols for brass or some such. Those are quite easy to play and you should be able to put them together on one session. You can order them from the CB site. Sammy Nestico also has three books of carols actually written for 6 parts with a euphonium part but most are playable with 5 players - just be careful to buy all 6 parts and use the 6th part when necessary. If you have more time Lennie Niehaus has some great jazz carols - they just take a bit of work to put together.
Good Luck, Phil

[Roger Lewis]

The Jack Gale arrangements - VERY challenging and some great different sounds for the standard Christmas lit. Some jazz experiments as well and one of them, I think "We Three Kings" feels like an Arbans exercise at the end. These are great but need a couple of rehearsals to get comfortable.

[BVD Press]

After a little bit of work, I received copyright permission to publish a version of "Let There Be Peace on Earth" last week.

The chart is completed and now available from my homepage. There is a .pdf file and an awful sounding .mp3, but it might give you an idea how the chart sounds! It was arranged by Bill Yeckley.

Not sure if it is an Xmas piece, but I know many people play it around that time of year.