SKU: A0.734607

A Holly Jolly Christmas (also called Have a Holly Jolly Christmas) is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and most famously performed by Burl Ives. The song has since become one of the top 25 most-performed holiday songs written by ASCAP members, for the first five years of the 21st century. This brass quintet arrangement is written at the Advanced Intermediate Level for 2 Trumpets, Horn in F, Trombone, Tuba plus optional Acoustic Bass and Drum Set. It's a perfect selection for the holiday season.

SKU: A0.886403

Frank Loesser's Academy Award winning Baby It's Cold Outside is a Christmas Classic but started life as a party piece for Loesser and his wife to sing at at celebrity parties. It has been covered by dozens of singers, including Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone for the 2003 film Elf. However, this version is based on Tom Jones & Cerys Matthews' recording from his 1998 album Reload. 

During the 1940s, when Hollywood celebrities attended parties, they were expected to perform. In 1944, Frank Loesser wrote Baby, It's Cold Outside for his wife, Lynn Garland, and himself to sing at a housewarming party in New York City at the Navarro Hotel. They sang the song to indicate to guests that it was time to leave. The song was an instant success and according to his wife We become instant parlor room stars. We got invited to all the best parties for years on the basis of 'Baby.' It was our ticket to caviar and truffles. Parties were built around our being the closing act.

The song started to reach a wider audience when in 1948, after years of performing the song, Loesser sold it to MGM for the 1949 romantic comedy Neptune's Daughter. In the film, Baby, It's Cold Outside was sung by Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalbán, then by Betty Garrett and Red Skelton, who reversed the roles. The song won the Academy Award.

SKU: A0.817619

     James Alan Bland, composer of “In the Evening by the Moonlight,” was a prolific song writer.  He is said to have created the words and music for more than 600 compositions.  Born in 1854 to a free African American family in Flushing, New York, he made a name for himself as musician, composer and minstrel performer.  Among his compositions were “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers,” “In the Morning in the Bright Light” and “De Golden Wedding.”  His most famous song by far was “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” which the State of Virginia used as its official anthem for over 50 years.

     Bland, in keeping with his persona as a minstrel, wrote the lyrics to “In the Evening by the Moonlight” in dialect.  Years passed and sensitivities changed, but the song’s poignant melody and basic sentiment survived.  Latter day recordings, such as those by Bing Crosby and the Ray Charles Singers, dropped the dialect and objectionable terms.  One of the most notable versions was by singer, pianist and civil rights activist Nina Simone, released in 1960 on the album Nina at Newport.

     This brass quintet version begins with the group instrumentally humming along under an eight-measure Horn in F introduction.   The first statement of the melody initially takes the form of a partial call-and-response between a Trombone/Horn duo and Trumpet 1, then switches to an exchange between Trumpet 1 and Tuba.  Next, the melody is repeated but in a rhythmic pattern reminiscent of the 1880 tune “Here Dem Bells”; Tuba plays counterpoint.  Third time around, the melody is presented almost exactly as Bland wrote it and as Hitchcock’s Music Store published it in 1880.  Finally, the tempo slows and the melody is presented as so many have sung it around campfires at YMCA, 4-H and other youth camps all over the country:  softly and tenderly.  The arrangement ends with a brief recapitulation of the introduction.

     There are no really difficult or tricky rhythms in this arrangement.  Trumpet 1’s highest note, which occurs in Section D, is A above its staff; Tuba’s lowest, G below the staff.  Otherwise, there are no exceptionally high or low notes.  The piece opens in the key of F major then, about halfway through, changes to G major.  Tempo opens with a suggested MM of 104, speeds up to 120, slows to 66, increases again to 122 and finally slows to 66.

     Completed in 2022, performance time runs about 4 minutes, 22 seconds. The arranger, Les Smith, will be happy to provide substitute parts (for example, treble clef baritone for trombone) at no charge.  He would also like to receive your suggestions, comments, corrections and criticisms.  Contact him directly at lessmith61@bellsouth.net.  For more arrangements by Les, enter "Sweetwater Brass Press" (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus or Sheet Music Direct search box.  (Also, purchase of this piece entitles you to your choice of another of his arrangements at no charge; send a copy of your purchase receipt directly to him at lessmith61@bellsouth.net.)