Duration: 4:00 Minutes

 

4 Trumpets

1 Horn in F

4 Trombones

1 Tuba

 

Away in a Manger is one of the most popular Christmas Carols, heard every year in a wide range of styles and arrangements. This arrangement uses the standard ‘Cradle Song’ melody sung in England, not the ‘Mueller’ American melody. A popular with both children and adults alike, this close harmony arrangement brings out the glorious homogenous sonorities of brass instruments combining. After the introduction which hints at the tune we are about to hear, the first section uses the trombones to create a moving carpet of sound whilst a trumpet, or optional flugelhorn recites the melody. The second section has cup muted soft trumpets playing little falling snow/bell motifs as the trombone continues the melody, until the whole ensemble join but die away. This leaves the horn to interpret the melody with the trombones as a reharmonised chorale, until the heraldic trumpets enter with fanfares which crescendos to a rousing key change and ending, all parts moving and intertwining. With subtle hints of other Christmas melodies in the texture, the piece dies away to the most beautiful pyramid chord ending, finishing with that first flugelhorn reminding us where it began.