Christmas carols by brass quintet?

December 2, 2005 10:43 AM

Recommend unaccompanied brass quintet recordings of Christmas carols on CD.

I love hearing well-arranged Christmas carols played by brass quintets; but it's hard to find a good recording on CD, and it's damn near impossible to sort out legitimate brass quintets from those featuring vocals or rhythm sections. I thought AskMe might yield a few suggestions.

No lyrics. No bass, and no drums. Christmas carols, not original fare. However: Trombone quartet instead of brass quintet? Even saxophone quartet? That's cool. Basically, I'm looking for interesting, small-group horn arrangements in traditional style (not jazz). Got any recommendations?

posted by cribcage to media & arts (3 comments total)

The Canadian Brass is the first group that comes to mind. The Christmas Album is probably the closest to what you're looking for, although "A Canadian Brass Christmas" (hard-to-find) and "Noel" are also good.

I'd suggest looking in the Classical section to find groups who do the kind of music you're looking for, and then see if they've done a Christmas album.
posted by jlkr at 11:17 AM on December 2, 2005

The Canadian Brass does have some lovely holiday albums - their newest one is "Sweet Songs of Christmas" and it's wonderful (and on the iTunes store). I just typed "Brass Christmas" into the store search and came up with tons of hits, including a Gramercy Brass album ("Christmas Time Is Here") that sounds promising.

Also check out the Pacific Horns, "Christmas Favourites With Four Horns." Four French horns, yum!
posted by kittyb at 11:42 AM on December 2, 2005

TAP Music carries a HUGE variety of great brass recordings. I saw a few Christmas CDs there: Pittsburgh Symphony Brass, one listed under Various (Philip Jones Brass/Canadian Brass), etc. ArchivMusic has several choices which may be of interest. Last but not least, Crystal Records carries a lot of specialized brass (and general instrumental) recordings too.
posted by oldtimey at 12:11 PM on December 3, 2005