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  • Good King Wenceslas
    Good King Wenceslas ThumbnailGood King Wenceslas Thumbnail

    arr Leslie Pearson

    Good King Wenceslas

    • £17.75

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    • Product Details
    • Composer Biog
    • Instrumentation

    Instrument: brass septet (score and parts)
    Grade: slightly difficult
    Catalogue No: 9701
    ISMN No: 9790570277438

    Scored for 3 trumpets  3 trombones  tuba  2 percussion  organ/keyboard

    "When I set out to arrange these traditional Christmas carols I was determined that they should not be yet another run-of-the-mill, strophic, verse-by-verse version of our Christmas musical heritage.
    Scored for Brass Ensemble, Organ and Percussion, I have tried to treat each carol as the basis for a "Petite Fantasie" - a continuous, single-movement of variations on the original tune. To what extent I have been successful is for the listener to decide.
    Of course, the carol is heard in its traditional form at some point during the arrangement but hopefully the appeal of the carol is enhanced without destroying the traditional concept.
    Such treatment obviously involves a considerable amount of original composition. Ding Dong Merrily and In Dulci Jubilo(à 7) both have fugal counterpoint in the middle sections. There is a flavour of monastic plainsong in O Come Emmanuel which is in sharp contrast to the variation featuring Bongos, which immediately follows! Hark the Herald starts with a majestic introduction and ends with a French-style organ toccata. Good King Wenceslas gets the spiky/witty treatment. O Come all Ye Faithful and the First Noel both end in Baroque splendour. The Holly and the Ivy has a Polonaise/Beguine-like section, Jingle Bells an intricate, cross-rhythm against the tune. White Christmas, Silent Night and the middle sections of Hark the Herald and Christmas is Coming have the soft "lush" treatment. Christmas is Coming has a humorous opening and a "Noblimente" end. The Twelve Days of Christmas depicts each "day" with its own theme, e.g. Seven Swans a'Swimming misquotes "The Swan" of Saint Saens. I Saw Three Ships becomes a Gigue while the Coventry Carol and Veni, Veni, Emmanuel inevitably are modal. All in all, a delightful mixture of musical styles through the ages."


    Leslie Pearson
    Leslie Pearson is one of Britain's most versatile and distinguished keyboard players whose musical experience ranges from recital accompaniments to hundreds of film and TV recordings.

    Equally at home on Piano, Organ or Harpsichord he appears regularly with all the London Orchestras and has made guest appearances on record and in concert with the Berlin Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestras.

    His imaginative continuo playing of the Baroque repertoire has received widespread acclaim for many years, including no less than six recordings of Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' (from Itzhak Perlman's to Christopher Warren-Green's) and three different versions of Handel's 'Messiah.'

    In the commercial field he can be heard on the sound-tracks of many film and TV scores; Dr Who (for 14 years), Jewel in the Crown, Blake's Seven, Poirot, Lovejoy, Middlemarch, Sherlock Holmes and the films Star Wars, Superman, The Alien, Chariots of Fire, Four Weddings and a Funeral (as solo organist), Pink Panther, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Avengers and many more.

    As a composer and arranger he has written music for TV schools programmes, graded pieces for Horn, Trumpet, Trombone and Piano which are used as set pieces in the Associated Board Examinations, Brass ensemble music commissioned by Philip Jones for his Brass Ensemble and an ARGO recording of folk song arrangements played by the Academy of St Martin-in-the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner - now published by Kalmus USA.

    Leslie Pearson has always been associated with Brass players particularly trumpeters. Over the years he has accompanied, either on organ or piano, Philip Jones, David Mason, John Wilbraham, Michael Laird, John Wallace, John Miller, Graham Ashton, and for the last twenty five years Crispian Steele-Perkins in recitals in the UK and abroad.
    Instrumentation Sample

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