And here it is, # 3, and before Xmas even! You didn’t think I could do it, I didn’t think I could do it, it may not have been done as well as it could’ve been , but it’s done! So starteth a holiday tradition. We Three Kings Of Orient Are deviates muchly from tradition in this arrangement. I opted for a jazzy brass choir sound with lots of syncopation and tight harmonies. Many arrangements of this piece that I’ve heard have been slow and gloomy, and triple meter (since the song is written in 3/4). Screw all that, says I. Groove out to the Kings like you is in 1976, baby! YAY Xmas Arrangement Request # 3:

We Three Kings Of Orient Are (brass choir)

For your next Xmas arrangement full of MIDI goodness, I present God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (string quartet). The piece has always had a sort of Baroque-ish sound to it in my mind, so I played with layering the voices in ways that sound almost fugue-like (but totally aren’t) and with augmenting the melody through rhythmic interplay. There are basically 4 1/2 - 5 variations on the theme in this one arrangement which you should be able to pick out with no problem. The second variation has a crazy part where three voices are each doing a patterned rhythm through the chords (two in a triple meter-style, the third in a duple style). The third variation is basically an experiment in Rounds, like Row Your Boat only with Gentlemen. See what you think. The rest of the variations stretch and condense the harmonies before bringing it back to the original arrangement. YAY Xmas Arrangement Request # 2:

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (string quartet)

I started off with O Holy Night. I kept pretty traditional with this one, there’s not much you can do to better it, and I didn’t want to go all weirdy with it right now. It’s written for full orchestra (which MIDI can’t really handle, so some things aren’t in that should be and some sounds get swapped and funked up, and blabbidy blah blip bloo). It was hard to get away from the waltziness of the original composition, so I more or less embraced it. The tempo is a tad faster than when I first wrote it, I felt it might’ve needed it a bit, and you can feel free to agree or disagree at your leisure. YAY Xmas Arrangement Request # 1:

O Holy Night (full orchestra)

Of course if I had my way I’d be writing stuff everyday. Without work to interrupt. Or trivial things, like eating. And sleeping. Hence the drought between entries. So! Here’s some holiday funnery to get you in the Xmas mood. ‘Cause you need it and all. I took a favorite of mine and now a Xmas classic, The Carol of the Bells (Ukrainian Christmas Carol), and I arranged it for mallet choir (chimes, orchestra bells, xylophone, marimba, and vibes). I focused on staying true to the original melody while mixing up some rhythms and phrases within the piece. I also played around with dynamics, and in particular orchestral builds (dynamic builds achieved by stacking instrumental parts toward a common resolution in a staggered pattern). Enough musical jargon! Let it snow:

Carol of the Bells (mallet choir)