Oh, Holy Night Trumpet Christmas Carol Duet

Oh, Holy Night

Trumpet Christmas Carol Duet
By Placide Cappeau, John S. Dwight, Adolph Adam
Arr. Eddie Lewis

Peaceful, calming, yet playful, this arrangement of Oh, Holy Night will delight your congregation and audiences. It stays close to the melody most of the time and never departs from the original harmonies.

This trumpet duet arrangement is part of a continuing series of trumpet duets that honor the mood and harmonies of the original Christmas carols. The intention of the series is to compose arrangements that are 100% appropriate for traditional Christian church services. There are no reharmonizations, no jazz rhythms and the melody is apparent at all times.

This is not to say that such arrangements are bad. Eddie Lewis has written many clever arrangements of both hymns and Christmas carols. There’s nothing wrong with that. But clever is not always appropriate. Sometimes simple is better. Sometimes people want to hear the original melody shine through.

That’s what these trumpet duets are for. They are creative but never in a way that detracts from the beauty of the original Christmas carol (or hymn).

Trumpet Apprentice Skill Level

Even though the highest note on the first part is B natural, we are tagging it as a Trumpet Apprentice skill level duet.  The second part is a Trumpet Player level with the highest note being fourth space E. These are both intermediate skill levels.

The rhythms and intervals in this Joy to the World trumpet duet make it interesting, but also a little challenging. As with most of my trumpet music, I utilize a lot of the lowest register of the instrument and at one point the first trumpet is hopping from low F sharp to D in the staff, an octave and a sixth. This will require skill in the low register and enough control to pop back into the staff without affecting the tone quality.

Practice Recommendations

If you already have the range for this arrangement, then the piece should be fairly easy. The only exception might be the sixteenth notes towards the end of the arrangement.

Those sixteenth notes should be practiced slowly. They begin with a pattern but then break the pattern. If you are sightreading, it’s easy to accidentally continue the pattern.

The Trumpet Apprentice Skill Level

The Trumpet Apprentice skill level is the fourth skill level in our system. This skill level has exercises and music up to B flat above the staff. There are many other considerations in this skill level but that is the most obvious.  

To find more music for this specific skill level, search our other publications for the word “Apprentice” in the title or descriptions. We publish books and compositions for students at the Trumpet Apprentice level that we believe your students will truly enjoy.

Oh Holy Night Free Trumpet Play-Along Video

We have a free trumpet play-along video for Oh, Holy Night in our You Play First Chair video series on YouTube. The YPFC series is intended as an educational tool, giving trumpet players around the world opportunities to work on their sight reading. However, the videos also allow trumpet players to take the songs for a test drive before they buy the sheet music.

Click HERE if you would like to check out the trumpet play-along video for this arrangement of Joy to the World.