Simply Christmassy

If you want to celebrate Advent and Christmas with songs from different European countries, you will find Europe for beginners a varied selection of particularly beautiful songs from fifteen nations. However, none of them are from the German-speaking world. The movement is for two melody instruments or a vocal part and an accompanying obbligato instrument plus piano. The guitar part is limited to the chord indications.

The texts are printed with all the verses, in the original alphabet with a German translation. However, you have to take care of the correct pronunciation yourself. The CD supplied only contains the instrumental parts and one track with the piano part for the play-along. It was produced acoustically, but sounds very wooden. On the other hand, all the parts are really very easy to play!

The volumes of the chamber music series Ad libitum of Editio Musica Budapest are intended for formations with variable instrumentation, whether for playing music with family or friends or in music schools. The instrumentation for these Christmas tunes includes piano, two melody parts (optionally also in B flat), one optional guitar and percussion part each as well as a vocal part with multilingual lyrics. The selection contains well-known (Adeste Fideles, Silent Night, O Christmas tree, A rose has sprung, In dulci Jubilo etc.) and lesser-known carols and some Christmas instrumental movements such as Handel's Pastorale (Pifa) from Messiah.

The pieces, all of which are short, are easy and can be played at sight or practiced quickly. Only one verse of the text is printed in the vocal part, but in four to five languages: Latin (if in the original), German, French, English and Hungarian. All in all, a successful addition to the Christmas repertoire for small ensembles!

These arrangements from the Uetz publishing house are written for an entire salon orchestra. The vocal part is not doubled by any instrument, so nothing works without a singer or an additional solo instrument. However, all the instrumental parts are permanently played in parallel on the piano, so it doesn't matter if they're not all there! The harmonization is sometimes a little daring. If you like it conventional, it is better to use the church hymnal.

Unfortunately, with the exception of the piano, the rather thankless instrumental parts have no cue notes for the vocals or the respective upper voice in the intros. This means for the individuals: Counting out pauses and pedal notes and generally grasping the context while flying blind like a professional musician. And rehearse enough in the ensemble!

Popular Christmas songs such as Silent Night, A rose has sprung, Come all ye faithful (Adeste Fideles) and others, but also lesser known ones such as Mary went through a thorny forest and Born in Bethlehem. Two to three verses are written out in full in the text and musical notation, although the latter always remains the same. The piano part is of medium difficulty; the instrumental parts are easy to play, but have a distinctly full-part character and therefore require good note-reading and chamber music experience.

Europe for beginners, 15 special Christmas songs, for 1-2 melody instruments or voices and piano or guitar arranged by Dagmar Wilgo and Nico Oberbanscheidt, EW 917, € 19.80. Edition Walhall

Christmas music, Ad libitum - chamber music series with variable instrumentation, ed. and arr. by András Soós, Z 14946, ca. Fr. 23.00, Editio Musica Budapest

Weihnachtslieder für Salonensemble, Seven German Christmas carols for voice, piano, flute, clarinet, two violins, viola, violoncello, bass, arranged by Christian Brüggemann, BU 9092, € 38.00, Musikverlag Bruno Uetz, Halberstadt