Christmas violin solos for church

August 10, 2015 at 12:51 PM · "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" always have to be on the repertory because if I don't play them I end up nagged to play them. ;)

I actually have never played "O Holy Night", so that's on the list for this year, then the usual "Deck the Halls", "Silent Night", "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", etc... I might have a friend with a cello over, in which case we'll find some duets to play, but my audience isn't very adventurous, they like the same traditional tunes year after year.

August 10, 2015 at 02:32 PM · Every year I play "Mary, Did You Know?" at my church.

August 10, 2015 at 02:46 PM · Fox and Mary Ellen, have you found interesting arrangements of the carols you named? I would like to find some new arrangements in addition to the books I already have.

August 10, 2015 at 02:55 PM · "A la nanita nana" is a lovely meditative piece. If you also do Advent, there are great arrangements of "O Come Emanuel." One church I regularly play for has me end the service with a solo version of Silent Night, while the congregation leaves (minimal light, very understated performance).

August 11, 2015 at 01:42 AM · M.L. Scott, I'm afraid the ones I play are painfully simple. Like I said the audience isn't very adventurous. Most of the sheet music I get for Christmas looks like the stuff I played when I first started learning the violin a long time ago! ;)

I 'spice it up' a bit by adjusting the tempo, milking notes here and there, making it more expressive, melodic, or more bouncy and happy, but the music itself is just the standard notes.

It gets more interesting when I have accompaniment, and even better when they're willing to add some pizzazz, so I'm looking forward to playing along the cello this year!

August 11, 2015 at 04:47 PM · Corelli's Christmas Concerto is a fairly decent piece to perform during the winter

August 12, 2015 at 12:58 AM · Last year, I purchased "Christmas Carols for Unaccompanied Violin", arranged by Paul Fehrenbach. These arrangements are fairly challenging and do require some practicing before they can be performed. See V.com discussion thread for more info:

http://www.violinist.com/discussion/response.cfm?ID=26194

August 12, 2015 at 02:19 PM · Fairly challenging for Gene means impossible for me. :)

August 12, 2015 at 04:28 PM · I remember the thread about the unaccompanied Christmas music from last year. At that time, I looked at the sample page and it looked too hard for me - I can only manage to get double-stops in tune if I am wide awake and well warmed up, which is not the case when I have to play on Christmas morning having been up for the late service the night before! However, I do need to play something more advanced than just playing hymn tunes straight out of the hymnal. It seems to be hard to find Christmas music at the right level.

August 15, 2015 at 02:53 AM · If you have a small ensemble and the congregation is ok with something contemporary, casting crowns does a gorgeous instrumental of Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel. Check YouTube. I love the piece and the violin and piano parts are powerful.

August 15, 2015 at 04:25 AM · a little arrangmenet I made for Violin Solo for the carol "Angels We Have Heard on High"

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4wem2gmviqjdlr6/xmascarol1.pdf?dl=0

November 10, 2015 at 01:46 PM · Hello -

I am bringing this thread back as I am the author of the book mentioned in this thread "Christmas Carols for Unaccompanied Violin".

I wanted to address the problem mentioned of the arrangements being difficult.

Each song has a number of variations in it and the overly-difficult variations certainly can be skipped if needed. Or, better yet, one can eliminate the double stops that are too difficult and just play the melody notes for that portion of the song. Also, there are 24 songs total and many are not as difficult as some others (the sample page for example).

At any rate, the book works well for my students, because they can monitor their improvement each year as their technique improves and they get more out of the songs when they return to them.

Again the original post for this collection can be found here:

http://www.violinist.com/discussion/response.cfm?ID=26194

You can find out more about the book at my website:

http://www.forestbrookstudios.com/

or at Johnson String Instrument:

http://www.johnsonstring.com/

Also, I have the viola version of the book available as a pdf download on my website as well.

November 10, 2015 at 10:09 PM · Thanks - that's good to know. The sample page scared me, but if some of the others are easier, maybe I'll give it a try.

November 11, 2015 at 06:25 AM · The Violin book not available for pdf download or just the viola?

November 11, 2015 at 12:24 PM · The violin book is hard copy only at this time (because I have so many of them). The viola book is the only one in pdf. format.

November 11, 2015 at 04:26 PM · If I may ask a follow-up question: could people list some famous or not-so-famous Christmas-inspired orchestral works? I can't think of any off the top of my head... (I mean pure orchestra works, so no choral works).

November 11, 2015 at 04:45 PM · Well certainly Corelli's Christmas Concerto (Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op. 6, No. 8) comes to mind. Particularly the beautiful and inspired Pastorale at the end of the piece.

November 11, 2015 at 08:36 PM · Thanks Paul, oh yes, of course, for some reason I had not thought of that one (although I have performed it several times in the arrangement for string quartet) probably because I really had a symphony orchestra in mind when I wrote my question (but I admit I was unclear on that aspect). But many thanks for reminding me of it, it is of course a masterpiece, beautiful harmonies, exciting rhythms, and so on.