SKU: A0.1111174

Words and Music by Neil Sedaka in 1972. Arranged in 2022 by Boo de Bruin. 11 pages for Sweet Adelines (ladies' barbershop) chorus. (Tenor, lead, baritone, bass are roughly equivalent to SSAA, although lead and baritone have similar ranges, but perform different functions). That's when the music takes me is taken from Neil Sedaka's Solitaire LP. The song was notable as it was one of the only songs for which Sedaka wrote the lyrics in addition to the music. He often finishes his song using the song. (The ending of the arrangement is inspired by how he performs the song live, rather than the recording edit). It reached #18 on the UK singles chart, #27 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and #7 on the US Billboard Easy Listening chart. This arrangement was written for a barbershop chorus, and as such the lowest voice part has a lower range than is custom for choral SSAA writing. The melody sits with the lead for the vast majority of the song, but with the bass part taking a few of the lowest notes. Please note: in keeping with normal barbershop practice the men's barbershop voicing names are used (tenor, lead, baritone and bass) and an octave-shifted bass clef is used for the baritone and bass parts. Vocal ranges are: Tenor: D4 - G5 (D above middle C to G above high C) Lead: B3 - D5 (B below middle C to D above high C) Baritone: G3 - C5 (G below middle C to D above high C) Bass: D3 - D4 (D below middle C to D above middle C).

SKU: A0.1518734

This is a new and original setting of The Holly And The Ivy, with a lively and memorable tune which would suit school and church choirs, for concerts and religious services. The words have been adapted from the traditional version, and the harmonies and melodies are moulded to suit the meaning of the words - for example, the fourth verse is in a minor key. For the majority of the time the arrangement is in two parts, with occasional filling out of the harmony to 3- and 4-parts, but notes are easy to pitch - even the notes in the final jazzy chord should be easy for singers to find - and the vocal range also stays within a comfortable compass. The piano part is not too difficult to play, and there are chord symbols if you want to add a bass and guitar, and some additional light percussion can add some sparkle and interest.

SKU: A0.507677

Scored for piano with the vocal line played in the right hand/treble clef.

Arrangement includes the majority of fills and solos.  An optional ending has been provided.

SKU: A0.1030615

William Billings (1746-1800) was North America’s first great choral composer. He spent most of his life in Boston, working at various times as a tanner or as minor civic official, and occasionally as a church musician. Billings seems to have had little formal music training, but when he was just 22, he also set himself up as an itinerant singing-master, teaching “singing-schools,� where children and adults could learn the rudiments of musical notation and solfege. To feed the market he and other singing-masters had helped to create, Billings published six collections of music, mostly for SATB voices, The first of these, The New England Psalm-Singer (1770) featured a frontispiece engraved by his friend Paul Revere. Billings was fairly prosperous by 1780s, but his good fortune faded in the 1790s. His final collection of music, The Continental Harmony of 1794, was published for his benefit by a group of Boston friends. Billings died destitute in 1800. Billings composed some 340 pieces, mostly collected in his printed editions. This music has a rough-edged and sturdy beauty that is distinctly different from anything in contemporary Europe. The vast majority of Billings’s works were hymns or “psalm tunes.� He was particularly attracted to the great English hymn-writer Isaac Watts (1674-1748), though Billings himself wrote verses for many of his hymns. One of the most famous Billings “psalm tunes,� Chester is not a Christian hymn, but rather a patriotic song of defiance directed against the British. Billings spent nearly all of the Revolutionary War in Boston and made no secret of his patriot sentiments. Chester was first published in 1770, but when he republished it in his The Singing-Master’s Assistant during the height of the war in 1778, Billings added a verse calling out the “infernal league� of the leading British generals Howe, Burgoyne, Clinton, Prescot and Cornwallis. Many brass-players will know Chester from the finale of William Schuman’s 1957 band piece A New England Triptych. Billings also composed over 50 “fuging-tunes�—a genre that usually included a short introduction and a repeated contrapuntal section. (These fuging sections usually begin with imitation, but they are otherwise not at all like classical fugues written in Europe at the time.) The fuging-tune Creation is one of his later works, published in The Continental Harmony of 1794, and experiments with the form. It sets two verses of the Watts hymn “When I With Pleasing Wonder Stand� though final line of verse 1 is repeated in a striking phrase that suddenly moves twice as fast (m.15). The fuging section begins in m.30, and rather than the usual exact repeat, Billing writes an entirely new and more elaborate second section beginning at m.44. Billings first published the simple but beautiful Africa in 1770, and published a revised version in 1778; the later version appearing with the Isaac Watts hymn “Now Shall My Inward Joys Arise.� I first arranged Africa in 1995, for the Glenwood Moravian Trombone Choir (Madison, WI), and I edited it for this publication. Phrasing and articulations marked here reflect the original vocal texts. Africa has long been a favorite of the Glenwood group. Chester and Creation were arranged in 2022. Mike Allsen February 2022.

SKU: A0.1268127

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer - Arrangement for Voice, Piano and Guitar by Michael Thomas Coull

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer is a novelty holiday song.  Written by Randy Brooks, the song was originally performed by Elmo & Patsy, the husband-and-wife duo of Elmo Shropshire and Patsy Trigg in 1979. 

The lyrics tell the story of a grandmother celebrating at a Christmas Eve party with her family when, while drunk on eggnog and off her medication, she staggers out into a snowstorm despite everyone imploring her not to.  She is found the next day, trampled; Santa and his reindeer are determined to be the culprits when 'incriminating Claus marks' are found on Grandma's back.  

Grandpa seems completely unfazed by his wife's demise and spends the holiday 'watching football, drinking beer and playing cards with cousin Mel', while the rest of the family mourns Grandma's death and wonders if the gifts they bought for her should be returned.  Christmas dinner otherwise goes on as normal, with a centrepiece of roast goose, figgy pudding for dessert, and 'blue and silver candles' to match Grandma’s hairpiece.  

The upshot is a warning to the listeners that Santa is unfit to carry a driver's license!

This arrangment of Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer is for solo voice, piano and guitar, but also contains harmonized sections (backing 'oohs', and the final few bars) that also enable this arrangment to be performed by an SSA choir - with the majority of it sung in unison.  However it is performed, it is a great choice for a fun, novelty song for Christmas.