Christmas/Holiday Duets - I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

[rrayner]

Originally Posted by RRR

This piece is written for Soprano Recorder and Alto Recorder. Play along with Notation Composer or print the piece for playing with your friend(s). Please feel free to change the instruments and/or keys to suit your personal needs. RRR

This duet is actually two different musical pieces. The original lyrics are from the poem, "Christmas Bells" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Of the two popular versions of the music for this song, the the older version (a) was written by John Baptiste Calkin in 1872, based on a melody he had written at some point in the late 1840s. The more recent version (b) was written by Johnny Marks at some point in the 1950s. Both versions have been recorded by a large number of recording stars.

There is a two-measure transition at measure 10 to accommodate the key change into the more recently-written melody.

We hope you enjoy playing this piece.

Ralph Rayner