Yuletide Carols (Hal Leonard)

Collection of Christmas carols for SATB with instrumental parts from the Judith Clurman Choral Series. From the notes on the published sheet music for Yuletide Carols:

Deck the Halls (2:35)

We Wish You A Merry Christmas (1:40)

arr. David Chase

The melodies of “Deck the Hall,” a Welsh carol and “We Wish You A Merry Christmas,” an English carol, date back to the 16^th century. David Chase’s joyous arrangements of both of these melodies, are scored for mixed chorus, flute, cello and harp. They can also be performed with a piano reduction. David Chase notes: “‘Deck the Hall’ (as the original lyric went) isn’t as old as one might think. It started life as a 16th century Welsh song about New Year’s Eve, but in the mid-19th century, Thomas Oliphant, a lyricist writing for the court of Queen Victoria and Honorary Secretary of the Madrigal Society, turned it into a celebratory invocation for the start of the Christmas holiday. The melody of ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ also dates from the same period, but it wasn’t actually written down until 1935, when it was originally entitled ‘I Wish You a Merry Christmas’.  Happily, “we” can now deck our “halls” and raise our voices together with these two not-so-ancient madrigals.”‍

Yuletide Carols were written for  Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Judith Clurman conducted the premiere on the Singing Christmas Tree float, on the parade route, in New York City, on November 22, 2018, with the chorus and Mindy Kaufman, flute; Caryl Paisner, cello; and Stacey Shames, harp.

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