XMAS Harmonie

Leroy Anderson(Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1908 - Woodbury, Connecticut, 1975) was the son of Swedish immigrants. He studied music and foreign languages at the famous Harvard University before starting...

Equally varied, certainly as to the countries of origin, is the wind band suite (eventually with mixed choir) 'An International Christmas' (1979) in which Kees Vlak used Italian and Czech carols.

The Dutch composer Meindert Boekel (Amsterdam, 1914 - Hilversum, 1989) became famous because of the Scherzo from his 'Suite Classique' already published by Molenaar Edition in 1948. Boekel was, no dou...

By means of this quite original fantasy Jef Penders invites both musicians and listeners to discover the typical Christmas atmosphere in eight different countries. We hear successively Christmas music...

Also Kees Vlak (1938) has apparantly been struck by the treasure of French carols and composed in 1981 the 'Fantasy on French Christmas Songs'.

Also extremely popular is the song 'Adeste Fidelis' (Come you faithful), originally a 18th century Portuguese Christmas carol, arranged for band by Jef Penders.

In France there has been for many centuries a very old and rich tradition of Christmas carols. One of those immortal carols undoubtedly is the 'Can-tique de Noël', also known as 'Minuit Chrétien', com...

The French composer and organist Michel Richard de Lalande (Paris, 1657 - Versailles, 1726), a contemporary of Jean-Baptiste Lully, was music teacher of the daughters of King Louis XIV and was appoint...

Michel Carros wrote a fine swinging arrangement of some famous Christmas Songs. In fact he presents some Christmas evergreens in different dance rhythms. The party starts with the German carol O Tanne...

Bach arranged quite a lot of both his own music and that of others for all kind of instrumental combinations. Sometimes he also used the same tunes in several of his works. This 'Berceuse' (Lullaby) i...

This musical whimsy is based on the well known folk tune Turkey in the Straw. After the introduction we meet our friend as we all know him from the folk tune.At Moderato we catch the turkey in a melan...

In Germany and Austria there are many beautiful Christmas carols, some of them such as 'Holy Night, Silent Night' or 'O Tannenbaum' are known and sung all over the world. Josef Hastreiter (1938) arran...

Vincent van den Bijlaard a écrit ces arrangements transparents de sept chansons de Noël qui sont extrêmement populaires aux Pays-Bas et en Flandre. Ces arrangements sont tout à fait appropriés pour so...

Here is a pleasing pastorale based on the traditional Christmas Carol 'On Christmas night all Christians sing' and with a quotation of 'Silent Night, Holy Night'. This piece will bring a moment of rel...

Christmas in the Alps enchants people because of the very special atmosphere with a combination of attentive silence and the blue shining moonlight. At Christmas time, one can often hear in the distan...

The famous Christmas song 'Winter Wonderland' (1934) was composed by Felix Bernard (1897-1944) and the lyricist was Richard B. Smith. Probably the most popular versions of this classic Christmas song...

Music: Franz Krenn, Text: Ferry Krauss, Arrangement: Franz Watz Franz Krenn (1816 - 1897) was an organist, a conductor and later also teacher at the Conservatory of music of the 'Gesellschaft der Musi...

On a small island between Indonesia and Australia every year a strange event takes place. Out of the dense forest millions of red crabs start their journey to the other site of the island. This amazin...