Carol of the Bells for Concert Band (Grade 3)

Carol of the Bells for Concert Band

• Instrumentation: 3.2.4.2.4, 3.2.3.1.1, T+4
• written 2010, rev. 2021
  
• Grade: c. 3
  
• Duration: c. 3m

In my early years of composing, a friend had gifted me an old copy of Finale 2.2, which I used for years. It was slow and tedious work, so I usually composed on paper before engraving on the computer. But in 2000, I became an early adopter of Sibelius, which was a game-changer for its speed and intuitive interface. It sped up my workflow considerably. 

In a flurry of excitement and inspiration, I wrote a number of arrangements, Carol of the Bells among them, though that version was for brass sextet.

Later, I adapted the arrangement for British-style brass band, and it won “Best Arrangement” in the 2005 Northrop International Brass Band Composition Competition in the Arrangement category.

In 2010, I adapted it for Concert Band. Throughout the years, I've also adapted it for Brass Quintet, Orchestral Brass & Percussion, and Symphony Orchestra (which has been performed a number of times at holiday concerts around the country). 

In 2021—after completing my master's degree in composition—I revised and re-scored this arrangement based on much I had learned during my course of study from Dr. Robert Frank, Dr. Xi Wang, and from working with Dr. Jack Delaney, the director of the SMU Meadows Wind Ensemble.

This 2021 re-scoring reduced the instrumentation, corrected an earlier tendency to “over-score,” and aims for about a Grade 3 level band. I also did some “retouching” here and there to reflect my 2021 tastes and preferences.

My goal in writing arrangements is to take a fresh look at a familiar melody and present it from a new, and hopefully unique, perspective. My version of Carol of the Bells features a “development section” that explores fragments of the melody in different keys and cross-rhythms. It ends with a big, intense coda. It’s dramatic, to say the least, and mostly avoids Christmas cliches. But it’s still entirely appropriate for a program of festive holiday music. 

The arrangement is structured as follows...

• Introductory Fanfare (to m. 9)
• 1st Setting (mm. 9-44), mostly woodwinds
• 2nd Setting (mm. 45-72), mostly brass
• Development Section (mm. 73-130)
• 3rd Setting (mm. 131-158)
• Coda (m. 159 to end)

I explored a lot of Christmas melodies in my early years as a composer/arranger because I liked the familiarity and nostalgia of them. I also liked playing with expectations and exploring new ways of hearing these melodies that we may not have heard before. 

Other pieces that explore the possibilities of familiar holiday melodies are my Greensleeves, Isabella Rhapsody (based on "Bring A Torch, Jeannette Isabella"), Three Kings Fantasy, and—inadvertently (because I wasn't aware it was used as a Christmas carol until well into composing it)—Variations on Noel Nouvelët.