Christmas Music Old And New

I love Christmas music, both old and new. Since childhood, Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. I have written and arranged music for many years too and because of that it is only natural that I want to share some of it with you. This page features some new Christmas songs I have composed myself. It also features new arrangements of old favourite carols, lesser known carols and music I genuinely enjoy playing. You can listen to music, follow links to buy Christmas sheet music online or even buy Christmas music gifts. My hope is that you will find something very special here or on one of the many music links.

Intro image, Cathedral from the Castle, by Photahsiamirabel. Please do not copy.

New Christmas Songs On Sale

These books represent a project I was doing for students of mine over the years. They started out as individual handwritten arrangements, then I set them in print with Sibelius software. Finally they were published in book form!

My First Very Easy Christmas Carol Book [Spiral-Bound]

Carols for beginners to play. Single note melodies with chord letters. Very easy large font notes with notename noteheads.

Traditional Christmas Carols For Guitar Solo [Paperback]

Easy and intermediate arrangements of well loved Christmas carols for fingerstyle guitar. Includes TAB as well as music.

Traditional Christmas Carols for Guitar Ensemble [Paperback]

Arrangements of well loved Carols for flexible sized guitar ensembles, these are full scores, not separate parts.

This was my first ever MP3 release - nobody seemed to want to run with this and record it from Score Exchange, they may be too posh I guess, so I recorded and mixed it myself! The score is available on the link below for male lead singer and backing. My version is obviously transposed and rearranged as I have a higher voice....

Orchestral, With Or Without Singers

The biggies.... It is always such fun to put together an orchestral number, put it to the Sibelius forum and ask for the comments of your peers. Sometimes the comments can take you down a peg or two, but I am encouraged by the reception my compositions and arrangements generally get.

I want to feature several on this lens including an over the top arrangement of my favourite Holy Night, the very jolly Jingle Maria and an orchestration of a piano piece by John Pridham which is more seasonal than actually Christmas!

In response to requests received for When Santa Got Stuck In The Chimney, this is still in copyright and therefore is only available in stores. You can use my search engine here, or failing that try Music Notes. When music is still under copyright it cannot be legally arranged or given away in digital format. I intend to put up lead sheets for the Huron Carol and Jingle Maria very soon. Free and cheap band arrangements of all standards are available on www.SibeliusMusic.com where you will find plenty of music for brass bands and marching bands too. Try the search engine there - I would be interested to know if it works for you! My arrangement of Holy Night is only available on Scorch as yet, but I may add a vocal line and publish it as a pdf on Lulu this weekend. More when I do!

Incidentally, I have also just published a version of Holy Night for Descant Recorder and Harpsichord on Lulu.

O Holy Night - Descant Recorder and Harpsichord. An arrangement of this beautiful and much loved Christmas Carol by Adam, arranged by request for descant recorder and harpsichord. This arrangement may be played on flute and piano if preferred.

• Jingle Maria

  Latin song for choir, strings and rhythm section. An original song! I had real fun with this one! Please listen to the MP3 as the Scorch player sounds horrible and doesn't work properly!KRW Vintage Cute Lil Reindeer Holiday Stamp by KRWHolidays

• O Holy Night - Orchestra

  Holy Night - Cantique de noel - Orchestra + Continuo The MP3 has vocals which I rough recorded.... It could be performed by a good singer and is in a key suitable for mezzo soprano or baritone. I tried to give this very well known carol a Victorian

• Sleighing on the Lake - John Pridham

  I found this gem of seasonal Victoriana amongst some old piano sheet music I collected. John Pridham was a Devon schoolmaster writing his music around 1858. I was drawn by the cover illustration and a sense of almost kinship. I also thought it sounde

• O Holy Night - Descant Recorder and Harpsichord by Lisa Marie Gabriel

  O Holy Night - Descant Recorder and Harpsichord by Lisa Marie Gabriel: An arrangement of this beautiful and much loved Christmas Carol originally by Adam, based on my full orchestral version, but arranged by request in reduction for descant recorder

Guitar Ensembles and Mixed Ensembles

In group teaching, very often you will have a group of beginners together and come Christmas they will need something for that school concert. My Christmas Ensembles were intended as flexible, any number can play from two up, and sometimes there are guest parts for other instruments such as flute, drums, cor anglais or recorder.

These are some personal favourite of mine and they work really well with small groups.

• The Seven Joys of Mary - Guitar Quartet (with optional flute)

  This is a favourite of mine, a traditional folk song known both in England and America and a lesser known Christmas carol. I liked the modal feel and tried to give it an ostinato accompaniment to sound mediaeval feel with an almost hypnotic effect. T

• Ding Dong Merrily - a rocky version!

  Ding Dong Merrily On High - Guitar Quartet with Bass, Drums and Recorder - is based on the traditional 19th century choral harmonization by Edward L. Stauff, but has a nice, modern rock feel that would suit an enthusiastic high school band teaming up

• Noel Nouvelet

  Otherwise performed as Easter Carol "Now the Green Blade Riseth" or "Sing We Now of Christmas" Old tunes often have many versions! This was originally a traditional French carol from the late 15th century with 13 verses! I first heard it as a young c

• In Dolce Jubilo - Guitar Trio with Flute

  Mike Oldfield fans will be familiar with his version of this great tune. This one is a light and dancey version of this lovely old Sussex carol also known as Good Christian Men Rejoice. The flute part could equally well be played by violin or any C m

• In Dolce Jubilo - Guitar Ensemble with Flute - PDF

  This pdf sheet music is also available on Sibelius music as a Scorch file. You can only download the full score here. When Santa Got Stuck In The Chimney by persimew

• The Angel Gabriel - Download Sheet Music

  This arrangement of this lovely old Basque Christmas Carol is for two flutes and fingerstyle guitar with TAB. It is a PDF, so no need to download any programmes to print it!

• The Angel Gabriel - Flute and Guitar - Download Seasonal Songs MP3

  This is an instrumental arrangement for two flutes and guitar of the lovely old Basque Carol. You can hear some of the MP3 here. I really enjoyed doing this one too! Annunciation Postage by tctees

• The Angel Gabriel - Flute and Guitar + TAB Sibelius Scorch Version

  This version requires that you download Scorch, a safe active X programme, in order to print. You can also purchase the individual parts for flute, guitar and guitar TAB - total price for full score and parts is $4

More from the amazing Jingle Cats to wish you a Meowy Christmas. If you don't adore cats and the sounds they make, this might not be the ideal Christmas collection for you, but if you do....

Easy Traditional Christmas Tunes For Beginner Recorder and Keyboard

These simple traditional carols are in easy to see large print with note name noteheads and chord letters only. Tunes are given only, for visual comfort, and this collection is suitable for young beginners or visually impaired to play - also a useful busking resource! Available as a book or DRM protected pdf download.

Contains: Away In A Manger, Coventry Carol, Deck The Halls, Ding Dong Merrily On High, For Auld Lang Syne, Gaudete, Good King Wenceslas, Hark The Herald Angels Sing, Holy Night, Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant, In Dulce Jubilo, Jingle Bells, Joy to the World, Noel Nouvelet, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, See Amid the Winter's Snow, Silent Night, The Angel Gabriel, The Crown Of Roses, The Huron Carol, The Seven Joys of Mary, Unto Us A Boy Is Born, We Three Kings Of Orient Are, We Wish You A Merry Christmas

For some time I have been arranging carols for small instrumental groups, and I was asked for some traditional Christmas tunes with note letters for solo instruments. Using Sibelius software, I was happy to produce a large size score for recorder solo and upload it as a pdf. The note names are inside the note heads to encourage a little thought and some music reading, but yes, these 24 carols for recorder DO have notename noteheads and the range is the easiest I could make. I hope this ebook will bring hours of pleasure to recorder players over Christmas and in the future. Watch this space for keyboard and guitar versions....

Merry Christmas everyone!

I am a guitarist first off! I started playing when I was eleven years old and for many years I have made my living teaching the guitar. I play all sorts of styles, but started with classical, so if you visit Dolciemuse on the sibeliusmusic website you will find a lot of guitar solos, with and without TAB. I try to make them melodic and flowing even at the beginner level. There are quite a few beginner carols and the single note ones (playable on any instrument) are actually free.

My first love is my guitar. I learned finger style many many years ago at my parents' insistence - they wanted me to read music and to play properly. I always enjoyed working tunes out on my guitar and just as soon as I could, I learned to write them down and share them too.

• Coventry Carol - Solo Classical Guitar

  A popular arrangement at about grade 4 level. This haunting tune comes from the Coventry Cycle of Mystery Plays and depicts a mother's lament for her child from the story in Matthew's Gospel, the Massacre of the Innocents. Saint Michael by tctees

• The Angel Gabriel

  The Angel Gabriel, or Gabriel's Message, is a traditional Basque folk carol best known for its choral version in the Oxford Nine Lessons and Carols service. I have arranged it in Drop D tuning which allows the haunting mediaeval quality to shine with

• The Huron Carol - PDF for Fingerstyle Guitar Solo

  For those of you who don't like using Scorch and as the score approval machine at SibMus seems to have stalled yet again, here is a PDF version of the sheet music. It has note name noteheads. The Sibelius score has TAB too, but as it is unavailable f

• The Huron Carol - Sibelius Scorch

  Here you can listen to the entire MP3 too!

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Just responding to some friends' suggestions here, and with the help of another Squidoo member I have found a site where I can host MP3 files. I will upload some of my favourites for you to sample and if you like them they are available for sale.

I can't guarantee everything you need is here, or that it is free, but I can promise a few smiles and some great music. You can buy new Christmas music or simply enjoy it! I have had a few enquiries about pdf scores. Generally I post my music in Scorch, but if you see one you like and would like to purchase it in pdf format, contact me and I will post it to Tradebit and put a link here.

My song Jingle Maria is now free to listen for Napster subscribers or USA citizens on Free Napster. It is also available also on Amazon, emusic and I-tunes to buy and download should you like it. It is as bouncy and happy as I could possibly make it - as I feel a family Christmas SHOULD be! Anyway, I hope your Christmas is as joyful as it possibly can be too. So, without further ado, let's all gather round the tree!

Sadly the nine link rule restricts how many things I can preview for you, but my hope is that you will follow the links and explore the catalogue for yourself. When you think about it though - nine links, nine lessons, nine carols... all ties in doesn't it? Please leave messages hear and I am grateful to read them always!

Thank you!