In Bleak Midwinter's Moonlight

"In Bleak Midwinter's Moonlight" is a medley of two Christmas carols, "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Twas in the Moon of Wintertime." The first carol was originally written as a poem by Christina Rossetti and published in 1872. It has been set to music several times, but the tune most associated with the text, Cranham, was composed in 1906 by Gustav Holst. The second carol is a French-Canadian Christmas carol first written by a Jesuit missionary in 1642. This tune is also called the Huron Carol. This medley is written for orchestra with 3-5 octave bell choir and goes back and forth between the two carols several times. Every time the carol changes there is a key change, sometimes between related major and minor keys and sometimes between two closely related keys. The melody is carried by the low, middle, and high ranges of the bells at some point in the piece and the accompanying voices are quite active throughout most of arrangement. Within the orchestra parts, the melody switches between woodwinds, brass, and strings several times, exploring several different sound colors throughout the piece. "In Bleak Midwinter's Moonlight" is between the level 3 and level 4 range of difficulty. There are definitely passages that will require work and the multiple key changes require multiple handbell changes, but bell changes are never very abrupt and accidentals only happen in the transition passages. The most difficult part will probably be making sure the melody is always heard even when it is buried below active accompaniment. A few times the bass bells have quick passages that will require sharing of bells or a lot of practice. For orchestra, this piece should be playable by most intermediate players, though some brass parts push the comfortable extremes of the instrument. This arrangement is playable without the handbell part but is intended to be performed with handbells and while the handbell part is included in this download, it is also available for purchase as a standalone arrangement.