Excerpt from Messiah: For Unto Us a Child is Born (for Instruments)
1Every year, members of the community combine with the students of my alma mater, MSSU (Missouri Southern State University) to form the Southern Symphonic Chorus, and alongside the Southern Symphony Orchestra, we perform beautiful orchestral works from Beethoven's 9th to Orff's Carmina Burana, and everything in between or of a similar nature. Performing these great masterworks does a great service to my hometown of Joplin, MO, in that it brings class to what some folks claim would otherwise be a classless town. (I'm not so sure about that, but that's what the people have said so in the past about it.)
I had previously done the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's "Messiah" because I had sung that before, but I had never sung the whole thing. This year, after a 2-year hiatus resulting from COVID-19, we're finally singing again, and we're doing the Messiah. I therefore decided to do a few more choral excerpts from the oratorio in celebration. All text comes directly out of the Bible.
This one is entitled "For Unto Us a Child is Born" (Isaiah 9:6), and uses the same instrumental lineup I traditionally use:
Alto saxophone (representing soprano part)
Tenor saxophone (representing alto part)
Baritone saxophone (representing bass part)
Glockenspiel (representing tenor part)
Vibraphone (doubling bass part in treble clef)
Marimba (playing accompaniment)
Piano (playing same accompaniment)
This arrangement © me and me alone
Original music is public domain