It’s the Christmas holiday season, and musicians throughout Christendom get ready to serenade congregations in churches, shoppers in malls, and party goers at festive receptions. Here is Volume I, with 22 of the best known carols for the Christmas season arranged for string quartet.

A Further note: These same carols have also been arranged for brass quintet, clarinet quartet, saxophone quartet, and string orchestra. SOME share the same key and may be played together as a mass ensemble; however, SOME have been arranged in DIFFERENT keys to better suit the instruments for which they were arranged (flat keys for brass, sharps for string).

Carols in Volume I are: 1. Angels We Have Heard on High* 2. Away in a Manger (German) 3. Away in a Manger (British) 4. Away in a Manger (American)* 5. The Boar’s Head carol 6. Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella 7. Carol of the Bells 8. Come, All Ye Shepherds 9. Deck the Hall 10. Echo Carol 11. The First Noel 12. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen 13. Good Christian Men, Rejoice (In Dulci Jubilo) 14. Good King Wenceslas 15. Hark! the Herald Angels Sing 16. Here We Come A-Wassailing 17. Huron Indian Carol: Jesos Ahatonhia 18. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day 19. I Saw Three Ships 20. In a Manger He Is Lying 21. Infant so Gentle 22. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Volume II will continue the alphabetic listing with 18 more carols J-W, for a total of 40 in all.

Volume II is located at: www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=166040&storeid=452

Volume II contains the following carols: 23. Jingle Bells 24. Jolly Old Saint Nicholas 25. Joy to the World 26. Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming 27. Lullay, Thou Little Tiny Child (The Coventry Carol) 28. O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste, Fideles) 29. O Come, Little Children 30. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel 31. O, Little Town of Bethlehem (American) 32. O, Little Town of Bethlehem (British) 33. O Sactissima 34. O Tannenbaum 35. Silent Night 36. Up on the House Top 37. A Virgin Unspotted 38. We Three Kings of Orient Are 39. We Wish You a Merry Christmas 40. What Child Is This?

Volume III is located at: www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=166044&storeid=452I Volume III contains the following carols: 41. Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light (J. S. Bach) 42. Ding Dong Merrily on High (Traditional French) 43. The Holly and the Ivy (Traditional English) 44. In the Bleak Midwinter (Gustav Holst) 45. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear [British] (Sir Arthur Sullivan) 46. Lullay My Liking (15th C., Arr. Gustav Holst) 47. Noel Nouvelet (Traditional French) 48. Nous Voici Dans la Ville (Traditional French) 49. Nowell We Sing, Both All and Some (Medieval English) 50. Once in David’s Royal City (Henry John Gauntlett, Harm. Arthur Henry Mann) 51. Past Three O’Clock (Traditional English) 52. Pat-a-pan (Traditional French) 53. Personent Hodie (German, 1360, Arr. Gustav Holst) 54. Puer Nobis (Piae Cantiones, 1562) 55. The Rocking Carol (Traditional Czech) 56. Sans Day Carol (Traditional Cornish) 57. See Amid the Winter’s Snows (Sir John Goss) 58. The Seven Joys of Mary (Traditional English) 59. The Shepherds’ Farewell from L’Enfance du Christ, Op. 25 (Hector Berlioz) 60. Still, Still, Still (Traditional Austrian) 61. The Wexford Carol Good People All (Traditional Irish) 62. While Shepherds Watched (Este’s Psalter, 1592)