Christmas Night (for Wind Ensemble) | Harrison J. Collins

Описание: Christmas Night for wind ensemble. World premiere performance by the Texas Christian University Symphonic Band, conducted by Brian Youngblood. Learn more, peruse a score, and purchase the work here: https://harrisonjcollins.squarespace....

Christmas Night was originally commissioned from me in 2020 by the Illinois State University Symphonic Band Clarinet Section for clarinet octet. Freda Hogan, the section leader and my roommate at the time, had stressed to me that there was a stunning lack of "good, challenging, Christmas-themed literature for eight clarinets". Naturally, I sought to mitigate this pressing issue that my friends were facing. It so happened that a year later in 2021, I transferred to Texas Christian University, and found that my new band director, Mr. Brian Youngblood, had a great appreciation for Christmas music. I knew immediately that I wanted to transcribe the work for the TCU Symphonic Band, and Mr. Youngblood graciously programmed my transcription in December of 2022.

Christmas Night is a humble ode to Gustav Holst's beautiful work for choir and orchestra, Christmas Day. Holst refers to his work as a “fantasy on old carols”. Thus, my work can be considered a “fantasy on a fantasy on old carols”. Night derives its material from the same four carols heard in Day—“Good Christian Men Rejoice”, “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”, “Come Ye Lofty, Come Ye Lowly”, and “The First Noel” —and is informed in many ways by the stylistic choices made by Holst in his work. The work is also a respectful nod to the Minor Alterations series of works by David Lovrien, as it takes several of these themes and flips them on their heads by varying their tonalities and meters. Christmas Night is, finally, meant to be an enjoyable and exciting “barn burner” with a sense of humor and a flair for the dramatic.

Enjoy the music!