While we’re still waiting for publishers to clear all the rights-owned arrangements we submitted to them (<sigh>), we’ve added quite a few more arrangements of our own this week.

First and foremost is our first title from a new arranger, Sam Burns.  Sam is the choral director of the acclaimed Gurt Lush choir in Bristol and the incredibly handsome (his words) Bristol MAN Chorus.   We have added his arrangement of Silent Night (Stille Nacht) which was written to commemorate the Christmas Truce of 1918 and blends the words of this well-known carol in German, French and English to wonderful effect.

It is fantastic to have Sam on board, joining Wendy Sergeant as out newest arrangers and we look forward to getting many more of their arrangements on ChoirCommunity very soon.

Craig has also been busy this week, adding three more traditional carols, but with different twists:

God Rest You Merry Gentlemen is a slightly ‘jazzed up’ version of this classic, using Dave Brubeck’s “Take 5” as a starting point, while Mary Had a Baby has a more ‘gospelly’ vibe.  Both of these arrangements have backing tracks available to cater for different availability of resources.

The Angel Gabriel is a more traditional carol with the unique feel you only get from Christmas Carols set in minor keys.

Finally, and not linked to Christmas at all, we’ve added the arrangement for Bring Me Little Water Sylvie.  You may have seen the post on our Facebook page of Craig running a staff inset day workshop using this song.  By popular demand here it is now available on the website!