Christmas Overture — for Band

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Christmas Overture appeared posthumously in 1925. Originally orchestrated by Sydney Baynes, it features God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Hark the Herald Angels Sing. It is thought by some to have been put together from incidental music he wrote for a children's play called The Forest of Wild Thyme. This band arrangement, based on Baynes' orchestra score, omits the largely developmental middle section of the original, shortening the performance time by two minutes, while retaining all of the traditional carol material.