Christmas song

Hi all - how about a little Christmas spirit?

Here's an arrangement of a Christmas song for brass ensemble. Ho ho ho! :santa:

http://www.cygnusdei.com/christmas.mp3

http://www.cygnusdei.com/christmas.pdf

why is the trombone Treble clef?

why do I hear a clarinet o.O is it just me or is it in the recording?

French horn I can understand being written in Bass but its not very common anymore.....

Very nice arrangement, This piece is well, it had dissonant parts, I like it but just not for this piece. Christmas time is a time for jolliness not sad, depressing Dissonant music.

Other than that, nice arrangement.

and by the way, its "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" words and music by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane.

Copyright 1944, so it is not in Public Domain. Renewed 1971

It sounds pretty, but as soon as you were to look at the score you see that there is a lot of work to do.

Trombone can barely reach treble clef, much less play in.

Along with that, the french horn, shouldn't be written in bass clef. I'm not saying it isn't possible, I am saying that rarely will you be able to find someone that would be playing this easy of a piece to be able to play that low.

If you don't see the score, one might assume this is in a minor key.

Your instrument choices, to say the least, are poor. A trombone, three french horns, and a tuba do not sound good together. As a suggestion, maybe write a new version for one or two trumpets, maybe one french horn, a trombone, and a tuba, maybe a euphonium if you want to stick one in there.

Needs a lot of work, but sounds okay.

why is the trombone Treble clef?

Maybe he realizes that tenor clef is stupid and redundant if the trombonist can just read treble. :whistling:

Trombone can barely reach treble clef, much less play in.

Careful there cowboy.

The part is high, but not impossibly so. Any serious player wouldn't have a lot of trouble with it... That said however, it might be better as a flugelhorn solo :hmmm:

Your instrument choices, to say the least, are poor. A trombone, three french horns, and a tuba do not sound good together. Needs a lot of work, but sounds okay.

:huh:

I think the orchestrational choices are fine. You'll be hard-pressed to find ANY brass instrument that doesn't sound gorgeous with any others...

Thank you guys for listening :phones: The instrumentation is non-binding of course. The middle three voices should blend well, so the horns here are as good as any. The top voice goes from c' to f'' - probably more suitable for a trumpet, but the GPO sample is too bright, it sticks out like a sore thumb. So trombone it is, although like Omar said, it sounds more like a clarinet :) Generally speaking I don't care so much about instrumentation as long as it sounds good.

PS: Omar, pssst! I don't want Google to know I'm using somebody else's song....

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Attached are the ranges for tenor trombone and french horn according to GPO. I take it the typical player range is much narrower than the 3+ octaves as depicted?

very warm

but your music made me feel joyfull and not alone