of comfort and joy

This work fuses two well known traditional carols, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Carol of the Bells, into an intriguing tapestry of textures and colors. It is meant to allow the listener to consider the reflective and sometimes hectic and even tense nature of the holiday season.

Genre: String Orchestra with Percussion | # of Players: 8-8-5-5-5 + 3
Level: 4 | Duration: 4:00

Instrumentation
Violin 1
Violin 2
Viola
Cello
Double Bass

Piano
Vibraphone
Chimes
Percussion 1 (Low Tom, Sleigh Bells)
Percussion 2 (Bass Drum, Tambourine, Suspended Cymbal, Triangle)

Program Notes
This work fuses two well known traditional carols, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Carol of the Bells, into an intriguing tapestry of textures and colors. It is meant to allow the listener to consider the reflective and sometimes hectic and even tense nature of the holiday season. The brooding, restless introduction gives way to a more buoyant treatment of God Rest with fragments of Carol of the Bells. The mood becomes turbulent and eventually Carol of the Bells becomes the main theme and God Rest in augmentation serves as the accompaniment. The work concludes with a fughetto built on a variant of the opening bass line sprinkled with thematic fragments from the two carols and subsides into a calm, peaceful conclusion. It was commissioned by Director’s Choice Tour and Travel for the Tejeda Middle School Orchestra, San Antonio, Texas to commemorate their selection to perform at the 63rd annual Midwest Clinic in Chicago.