It Came Upon a Midnight Clear Trumpet Duet

Description

Important Note: This trumpet duet is also available in the Trumpet Christmas Duets book. It’s a book of 21 Christmas carols arranged for trumpet duet. Click HERE to go buy that book.

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear Trumpet Duet

Edmund H. Sears, Richard S. Willis

Arr. Eddie Lewis

For this arrangement of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, I wanted to keep it very close to the original, even more so than I usually do. There is a modulation, and I added an accompaniment figure in the second part. I also added some thematic material that is derived from the original carol, but explicitly stated in the original.

Other than that, this duet arrangement of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear is very conservative, even for my standards.

It begins with a four bar introduction heading into the first statement of the melody. As I have said with many of these other duets, I like to have at least one section of the duet that can work separately as a stand alone arrangement, in case the musicians ever need that. In this duet, that section is the first verse. It is very close to my unadorned trumpet carol arrangement, published several years ago.

After that first statement of the carol, there is an interlude, similar to the introduction, used as a modulation into the new key (E flat). The second verse is more rhythmic, with the accompanying pattern in the second part. The arrangement ends with an ornamented tag.

Trumpet Christmas Duets book

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear trumpet duet is number seven in our Trumpet Christmas Duets book. This is a book of traditional Christmas carols arranged for trumpet duet. The book is something of a sequel to the Trumpet Hymn Duets book. Both books strive to honor the mood and harmonies of the original carol/hymn.

If you like this arrangement of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear and would like a book of twenty similar trumpet duets, then we encourage you to visit the Trumpet Christmas Duets page on this website.

We would also like to encourage you to check out our other duet books as well by clicking HERE (Trumpet Duet Books). We currently publish six different trumpet duet books (as of 2023).

Trumpet Player Skill Level

The most obvious aspect of the Trumpet Player Skill Level is that the highest note is written G above the staff. Some of the duets in the Trumpet Christmas Duets book, including this It Came Upon a Midnight Clear trumpet duet, observe this restriction. There are nine written Gs (above the staff) in the first part.

In the second part, the highest written note is fourth space E flat. There are only two of these and the rest of the part is on the bottom side of the staff.

The length of this duet is two pages long.

Practice Suggestions

Here are a few recommendations for working on this trumpet duet of The Holly and the Ivy.

• In some ways, the second part is more difficult than the first.
• The sixteenth-sixteenth-quarter pattern in the second part should have the first note accented to establish a sense of time.
• Don’t play the piece at written tempo if that will cause you to struggle. Better to play slower and make it sound better.

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear Trumpet Duet Play-Along

There is a free trumpet play-along video for this It Came Upon a Midnight Clear Trumpet Duet. We publish these free play-along videos for educational purposes, but they also offer a wonderful opportunity for prospective buyers to take the piece for a “test drive”.

Click the following button to go to that video:

If you are interested in more of these play-along videos, then the best way to access them is on our other website, EddieLewis.com.

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear Trumpet Duet Score Video

Here is a score video of our It Came Upon a Midnight Clear trumpet duet arrangement.