Christmas present for beginner ensembles
In "Addizio! Merry Christmas" Jörg Sommerfeld has published 36 song arrangements for wind players in classes, groups or ensembles. They are intended for beginners, but also offer optional parts with a higher level of difficulty.
Addizio! Merry Christmas is a collection of Christmas carols, edited and arranged for flexible wind ensembles at beginner level by Jörg Sommerfeld, author of the ensemble teaching aid of the same name Addizio!. The pieces are set for three voices, and all titles have an optional bass part and a more demanding additional part.
The Addizio-concept, there is an additional part for certain instruments which extends the range into the lower register and thus prepares the clarinet for overblowing, for example. The pieces are arranged in increasing levels of difficulty and are all in Bb keys with a limited range, so that they can also be played well by wind classes.
For each piece there is a recording on YouTube to listen to or play along with or an MP3 version to download. The advantage of YouTube is that the recordings are very easy for pupils to access. Printed editions are available from Addizio! Merry Christmas a director's part with the three- or four-part movement including additional parts and a piano accompaniment as well as booklets for the individual instruments.
On the website addizio.com the author also provides a lot of additional material free of charge: Lyrics for all pieces, more demanding additional parts for all instruments and sheet music for other wind instruments (E flat clarinet, quint bassoon, E flat horn), which is not available in printed form, as well as accompanying parts for string instruments, guitar, piano and percussion.
The selection of songs consists mainly of traditional German and some classic English and US Christmas carols. It is a pity that newer songs are not included, which would certainly be very popular with pupils. Overall, this collection offers very well-prepared sheet music for the Christmas season and takes a lot of work off the shoulders of ensemble leaders.
Jörg Sommerfeld: Addizio! Merry Christmas, 36 songs for wind instruments in classes, groups and ensembles; director's part/teacher's piano/leadsheet, EB 9310, € 36.90; student editions per instrument, € 13.90; Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden
