SAB Christmas hymns
  • PolskaPiano
    Posts: 255
    I perused quite a bit back in the archive but have not found what I need.

    Most of my choir is not comfortable returning to sing- or to church for that matter- until the COVID numbers go down in our state. I will have a small handful of about 3 sopranos, 2 altos, and 2 basses for Christmas. I did not think it would be so hard to find a good SAB arrangement of hymns we sing at mass: Hark! The Herald, Angels We Have Heard, Joy to the World, etc. (As beautiful as I find chant based and other traditional songs, my pastor wants us sticking to these very well known songs during this pandemic.) I have spend my morning searching GIA, OCP, JW Pepper, etc for a collection of hymns. Am I missing something? I can't simply take our SATB and ignore the tenor, can I? My singers will be very able to handle their parts. I just need to find something written for the voices I have!
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    I can't simply take our SATB and ignore the tenor, can I?
    In many instances, you can (or sometimes take the SATB and ignore the bass, especially if your basses are really baritones). If the hymns are accompanied, it should be even less of a problem to omit the tenor or bass part.
    YMMV
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 708
    There is a very nice collection of Christmas carols/ hymns here that are in the public domain https://acollectionofchristmascarols.com

    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,325
    OCP's book "Traditional Choral Praise" has SAB arrangements of everything in the book. PM me for more information if you can't find it and I'll help you out!
  • Schönbergian
    Posts: 1,063
    If you have a keyboard instrument at your disposal, it makes more sense to me to use that for providing the full harmonization and either sing whichever parts are available or entirely in unison. Dispensing with the richer harmony completely when you can fill it in at the organ seems to be less than ideal.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Nathan_the_Organist
    Posts: 440
    I agree that it would be best to use the full harmonization played on the organ. Then just have the choir sing whichever parts they can whether it is SAB or SAT.
  • PolskaPiano
    Posts: 255
    Thank you for this. I thought I might have to scrap our christmas plans and start from scratch!

    Ok- these basses have been singing the bass part for years, so we willl see how things sound without the tenors this evening.

    I am very interested in TCP by OCP. I was able to find a copy and am very pleased looking through it! It would be cost prohibitive to use this resource due to copyrighting- I can't afford to outfit everyone with a book and OCP doesn't sell their SAB items individually. That's a huge disappointment.
  • Musicguy57
    Posts: 13
    You can look on cpdl and sort by voicing. There is plenty there for free. Also, browse jwpepper -- there is so much SAB for Christmas available.
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