Beautiful Christmas

by Mike Wilson

When the town starts decorating for Christmas and the first snowflakes begin falling, our hearts start to soften toward one another. "Beautiful Christmas" tries to put that sentiment to text and music with soft acoustic instruments, strings, and oboe. This tender arrangement incorporates two parts for your older choirs. However, it could be sung as a unison piece if you are short on singers. Part 2 doesn't enter until the second verse, and actually resides below part 1 range-wise, until the "Ooh" near the end. Milk the divisis when they happen. They are the nutmeg in your eggnog, so to speak. Overall the song range reaches from a high D to a low A, but there are cued options for the low A in measures 7 and 11, just in case.

There are not many dynamics to the vocal approach – pretty much mezzo-forte, but with crescendos and decrescendos as the melody rises and falls. Nice, "hooty" tall vowels will work best for the high notes in the chorus. Merry Christmas.

Text is taken from Music K-8 magazine.