Christmas Charades

Description

Pair audience participation with a dash of nostalgia in this holiday work inspired by feel-good Christmas classics. Larry Clark has arranged a festively fun piece for your Christmastime program.

Program Notes

Christmas Charades is a delightful holiday concert piece designed especially for beginning String players. The composition employs only the first six notes of the D major scale, and the most challenging rhythm featured is two repeated eighth notes. This piece is crafted to impress the audience with an array of Christmas carols these young musicians can perform so early in their musical journey.

In addition to being a concert piece, Christmas Charades is intended to be a musical charades game for audience participation. Audience members are invited to identify as many Christmas carols as they can throughout the performance. This can be turned into a fun and interactive experience in various creative ways.

The most important thing is for everyone—students, audience, and you—to have fun! I am confident that parents will be amazed at how wonderful their children sound!

It has been my pleasure to have the opportunity to write this piece. I hope you and your students enjoy it and find it useful for your program.

–Larry Clark
Lakeland, FL 2024