Although music at Christmas has been around a long time it certainly has gone through many changes. In the beginning it was primarily limited to song and any form of singing which was rather tightly controlled by the church. Secular Christmas music is a relatively recent development, and as the celebration of the birth of Christ moved into the home people have found many ways to get together as a family or with loved ones to sing and play their musical praises.
Unfortunately we are seeing less and less of this family and group activity. As our culture becomes more modernized we have less and less opportunity to do anything as a family let alone performing or singing Christmas music at Christmas. There was a time, not that long ago, where the piano was the equivalent of today’s television. Many members of the family knew how to play (it was considered proper upbringing for the young ladies of a household to be capable on the piano), and there was often a brother, sister or cousin who could play the violin, cello, flute, clarinet or trumpet. This was prime entertainment, and at Christmas time it became not only a way for the family to be together and create something beautiful and caring but to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
We certainly would like to see more of this sort of activity in today’s busy world. With this in mind we have created this first in what we hope to be a series of musical arrangements for this holiday. The intent of this endeavor is to have available to you an arrangement of a popular Christmas carol that can be performed and enjoyed in a variety of ways. You may simply play the piano part and have the family sing along. If your singers can read music there is a choir part available as well. If anyone in the family or in your church group can play an instrument we have provided two instrument parts. One is in “C” for flute, or oboe or violin (or any other C instrument) and the other part is in “Bb” for clarinet, trumpet (or any other Bb instrument.) If you would like parts transposed for viola or another C instrument please let us know and we will work one up for you. We have also provided a full score.
This arrangement is very versatile and can be played with a variety of mixed instruments, or no instruments at all! Take it to your church or wherever you can find happy musicians willing to play and sing with you! Let’s start to get together more this season and sing and play as a family or a group of loving friends. There is nothing better for the soul!
 arranged by Ron Goldstein |
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SCORE: for viewing only NOT READABLE (download zip file for printing readable scores.) page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 ZIP File for SCORE: this is a large file (2.1M) allow time for download!* bellsscore.zip PARTS: choir page 1 choir page 2 choir page 3 choir page 4 piano page 1 piano page 2 piano page 3 piano page 4 C part page 1 C part page 2 Bb part page 1 Bb part page 2 |
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to listen to a midi file of this arrangement CLICK HERE FOR MIDI |
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| copyright 2000 Nelidova Enterprises, LLC. Permission granted to copy for home or church use with limited copies. Please do not mass produce for distribution. |
A Word About Printing: Simply click on the links above for the page of music you would like to print. You may print directly from your browser using the proper print command but you will have better formatting results if you download the page and print from another graphics program (most computers will have a system picture viewer that will display and print graphics.) Each page is a separate image and may be downloaded in the following manner:
*The score pages above are an exception to this. They cannot be printed in a usable form unless you download the ZIP file that contains high resolution files of these pages. You will then have to print them from your graphics program. Be sure to set the page set-up to reduce 64% to print on 8.5x11 (the original files are 11"x17"). Print on the highest quality paper at the highest resolution.
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Windows: RIGHT-CLICK on the image and select "Save Picture As..." from the pop-up menu. |
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Macintosh: CLICK-HOLD on the image and select "Save This Image As..." from the pop-up menu. |
