Advent Calendar VII

With all this looking back, I haven't really been considering the present, and on the whole that is the best place to be! I will get back to my retrospective navel gazing soon but I have been such a busy Girl that I am sure some of it at least is worthy on consideration!

Last week I wrote here about a concert I have coming up this Saturday, I rather misleadingly said that this was going to be the first time that another conductor had chosen to play one of my arrangements. I should qualify this I have made quite a few arrangements for both Brass Bands and Wind Bands over the years, and some have been played by other conductors. Indeed over the last couple of weeks I have played twice with the Band of the Surrey Yeomanry where they have played my arrangement of "Strictly Come Dancing" To be honest it is quite a thrill to sit in a band while your own work is being performed.   They are a great bunch of people and a very good band.

The difference is in the work itself,   All of my previous arrangements have been little more than transcriptions, where I have taken a piano score or pre-existing arrangement and done little more than change the instrumentation.   The Christmas Suite we will be playing on Saturday is much more of a artistic endeavour, as I have tried to make a concert performance piece out of two traditional carols and a more modern song.   I am very keen that we remember that Christmas is about Christ, God incarnate, and wanted something for my band to play which was musically sound,not too challenging, and still maintained Christian origins.   This time I haven't just used a different instrumentation I have gone back to the original concepts and created something new.   I like it and I think the band do as well.   I have had so much encouragement that I am already starting to think about my next arrangement.

Having said all that I am very grateful to the Yeomanry, as they gave me my only chance to Play Leroy Anderson's Christmas Festival it never feels like Christmas till I have played this!