Review

James Lord Pierpont
Jingle Bells: arranged for Brass Quintet

Arranged by Jerald R. Juhnke

2 b-flat trumpets, horn in f, trombone, tuba

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2022
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Brass Ensemble - 5 brass

In this entertaining arrangement, Jerald R. Juhnke sets this holiday classic in a swing style. The work begins with a brief 8-bar intro that features 4 bars of staggered entrances in the brass quintet and then a shouting 2-bar riff, all of which sets up a swinging solo break in the trombone part and leads us directly into the first chorus of the melody with the trombone in the lead voice. In the latter half of the arrangement the bass voice gets a nice amount of feature work, and sprinkled throughout this festive arrangement are a handful of brief quotations from well-known swing tunes.

Though the arrangement is scored for 2 B-flat trumpets, F horn, trombone, and tuba, it would also work well with a bass trombone covering the tuba part as the range is conservative for both instruments with the lowest pitch being a BB-flat (pedal Bb) and the highest pitch being a g in the bass clef staff. The trombone part has some passagework above the staff, however, it ranges no higher than g-sharp1 and no lower than a B-flat in the bass clef staff. The F horn part is also conservative with just over an octave of range from an f at the low end to a g1 at the top end. The trumpet 2 part is conservative in range; however, trumpet 1 extends up to a b-flat2. The brief nature of this up-tempo swing arrangement would lend itself to being an exciting opening or closing number in a set of holiday tunes.

I highly recommend Jingle Bells for your brass quintet library. Add it to your collection and take it out for a (sleigh) ride this next holiday season.