
Russian Christmas Music

Russian Christmas Music is a musical piece for symphonic band, written by Alfred Reed in 1944. It is one of the most frequently performed pieces of concert band literature.
Reed was commissioned to write a piece of "Russian music" for a concert in Denver, Colorado. The concert's aim was to improve Soviet-American relations; as such, it was to include premieres of new Soviet and American works. Prokofiev's "March, Op. 99" was supposed to be the Russian work, but it was discovered that the work had already been performed in the United States, and Reed was assigned to write a new piece a mere sixteen days before the concert. The piece was first performed on December 12, 1944, on nationally broadcast NBC radio.
Although "Russian Christmas Music" consists of only one movement, it can be readily divided into four sections:
A typical performance of "Russian Christmas Music" lasts 14–16 minutes. As it was written to convey the sounds of Eastern Orthodox liturgical music, which uses the human voice exclusively, the entire piece must be played with some lyrical and singing quality.
"Slavonic Folk Suite" is Reed's arrangement of "Carol of the Little Russian Children" (here called "Children's Carol") and "Cathedral Chorus" for a younger, less experienced band.
The song is also the official corps song of the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps.