Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bold for solo brass band, * for joint carols with audience
The Snowman:
• Music from the 1982 animated film and symphonic poem based on Raymond Briggs’
book of the same name
o Music by Howard Blake, with the song ‘Walking in the Air’ originally being
performed by Peter Auty
• Cover by Aled Jones as a boy soprano for a Toys “R” Us advert, after Peter Auty’s
voice had broken reached no. 5 in the UK Singles Chart
• Arrangement by Philip Sparke, a well known concert and brass band composer, who
won the EBY New Music for Band Competition three times
Winter Wonderland:
• A song written by Felix Bernard and lyricist Richard Bernhard Smith in 1934
• Since it’s original recording by Richard Himber, it has been covered by over 200
different artists
• The original version was about a couple’s romance during winter, however a later
addition to the lyrics written in 1947 incorporated the idea of children playing in the
snow to make the song a more universal winter song
• This is our second Alan Fernie arrangement of the night!
Curly Hark:
• This carol uses a text from Luke 2:14 with Angels singing praises to god at the birth
of Jesus.
o It is based off the same text as ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,’ famously set
with an adaption of Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘Vaterland, in deinen Gauen’ from
his Gutenberg Cantata
o This version is based on a traditional Derbyshire carol, transcribed by Ian
Russel
Jingle Bells:
• One of the best known and commonly sung American songs across the world
• The song was written by James Lord Pierpont and published under the title “The One
Horse Open Sleigh”
• The song was supposedly written to be performed as a Sunday school song or as a
drinking song, and only began to be associated with Christmas in the 1860s and 70s
• It is believed to be the first Christmas song to be recorded, as it was recorded onto an
Edison cylinder in 1889 which has since been lost
• I hope you enjoy this version, arranged by Derek Ashmore
Glow:
• Glow is a song for choir written by renowned American choral composer Eric
Whitacre in 2013, with text written by Edward Esch
• The piece was commissioned by Disney to be used for the ‘World of Color - winter
dreams’ show which premiered at Disneyland California by the World of Color Honor
Choir
Once in Royal David’s City:
• Our next carol takes its text from Cecil Frances Alexander, a famous Anglo-Irish
hymnwriter and poet known for ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’, and ‘There is a
green hill far away’
• A year after it was first published in 1848, the English organist Henry John Gantlett
discovered the poem and set it to music
• This song is commonly performed with the first verse as a treble solo, and the second
verse adding the choir, before the organ or in this case brass band accompaniment
joins in for the final 3 verses, however our soprano soloist has fallen ill and is unable
to perform it today - but please join in for from the 3rd verse with the band