Midnight Sleigh Ride - NYU Concert Band Winter Concert 2010 video free download

This wonderful arrangement by Tom Wallace is taken from the Sauter-Finegan Big Band. Bill Finegan's arrangement was adapted for concert band (found at the Arranger's Publishers Corporation) and features a piccolo duet. I asked the piccolo soloists to actually move from stage left to right so that the sleigh ride will pan across the listener's sonic field. Sarah and Giovanni did so with delight.

We envisioned that the sleigh was filled with revelers who start off in the distance and make their way across the stage. As they get closer to the audience, the partying gets louder and louder. The "big band" brass and percussion fade as the 3-horse Troika (carrying our tipsy revelers) go off into the night. The final triangle note gives one the impression that the lantern on the Troika slips behind a snow-covered tree off in the distance.

There was a music stand blocking the line of sight of our pianist and the conductor, so near the beginning of the piece I asked a clarinet player to lower the stand while continuing to conduct. Ah, live music making!