My Top 10 Pieces of Christmas Music for Brass Band
- Dec 17, 2025
- 8 min read
My Favourite Festive Brass Band Pieces
From solos to carols and arrangements from beloved Christmas movies, this is my list of favourite Christmas music for brass band.
The Kingdom Triumphant by Eric Ball
Long-time followers of the blog will not be surprised that the first piece in this list is from the pen of Eric Ball. He’s one of my favourite composers and The Kingdom Triumphant is my all time favourite Christmas piece. It’s been around 16 years since I first played it and I never get tired of playing or hearing it - it’s an absolute masterpiece.
Written in 1963, The Kingdom Triumphant, is a tone poem written in three continuous sections to depict Christ returning to earth. The first section is based on the old Salvation Army hymn that was published around 1880 - The Blast of the Trumpet, which will hail the time of Christ’s return:
The blast of the trumpet, so loud and so shrill
Will shortly re-echo o’er ocean and hill
When the mighty, mighty, mighty trump sounds
Come, come away
O may we be ready to hail that glad day
From there, we move into the melody that has resulted in this work being a popular feature in Christmas brass band programmes, the carol: O Come, O Come Immanuel, which serves as a reminder of the first advent and Christ’s initial arrival on earth.
The final section utilises the triumphant hymn associated with the season of Advent (which also makes the work fitting for festive performances), Lo! He Comes with Clouds Ascending. The original hymn takes inspiration from scripture that speak of Christ’s second coming.
Put it all together and you have a vibrant, deeply emotive and musically illustrative epic work that showcases the true power of Ball’s writing for the brass band medium. From the emphatic fanfares of the opening and the Gregorian-chant-esque setting of O Come, O Come, Immanuel through to the majestic, powerful ending - it’s one of those pieces that stirs emotion regardless of religious beliefs and is simply awe-inspiring to listen to.
Gaudete by Rodney Newton
With a title that translates to Rejoice!, Gaudete is a popular latin Christmas carol that is thought to have been written in the 16th century and was published in 1582 in a collection of Finnish and Swedish sacred songs called the Piae Cantiones. However, it wasn’t until 1973 that the tune found popularity in mainstream music when British folk-rock group, Steeleye Span released their version that reached number 14 in the UK singles chart.
Within the brass band world, this tune has been arranged by various composers, but it’s Rodney Newton’s energetic version written in the 1990s for the Fairey Band that is my absolute favourite. When the drum kit and percussion kick off and the melody is presented in all it’s funky glory with razzy trombones and that epic, lofty riff from Sop - I BLUMMIN’ LOVE IT! It’s one of the coolest Christmas pieces for brass in this author’s opinion. Is it cheesy? Yes - and what better time for cheese than Christmas?!
As with Gladness by Dorothy Gates
A more recent addition to the brass band Christmas repertoire is a stunning flugel horn solo from Dorothy Gates, based on the carol As with Gladness Men of Old, which was written in 2023. I was introduced to this piece recently when I attended Wingates Band’s Christmas concert and added this to my list of pieces I really want to play!
When it comes to Dorothy Gates’ writing for the Salvation Army, I just adore her style. There is such an uplifting, poise to her compositions and this piece is no different. With the driving, determined snare drum beat in the background and heartening accompanying motif in the ensemble, this work takes the carol’s simple melody and elevates it into a hopeful, lyrical solo work.
White Christmas by Irving Berlin arr. Philip Sparke
It’s not Christmas until I’ve listened to a festive tune sung by Bing Crosby, and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is one of the most well known songs in the crooner’s Christmas repertoire. The well-known Christmas hit was originally written in 1942 for the film Holiday Inn, which Crosby starred in alongside fellow Hollywood powerhouse Fred Astaire. However, it’s the 1954 film, White Christmas, where Crosby starred alongside Danny Kay, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen that is now more commonly associated with the song. Over the years it has been recorded over 500 times.
Although there has been quite a few versions written for brass band, the arrangement written by Philip Sparke is my favourite; it captures all the nostalgic warmth of the original. For me, it’s the little counter-melody interludes for solo cornet, flugel and soprano cornet scattered amongst the memorable tune that make this version so lovely.
Santa Claus-trophobia by Sandy Smith
I feel like this is one of those pieces that you either love or hate and I’m potentially going to get judged for saying that I love it, but I don’t care! It’s an absolute cheese-fest, but you can’t have Christmas without Santa Claus can you?! The festive mashup of famous Santa tunes includes, Here Comes Santa Claus, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, The Theme from Santa Clause and Rootin’ Tootin’ Santa Claus. Despite its cheesiness, it’s become a feel-good classic featured on many brass band programmes. It's a classic.
Amid the Cold of Winter - The Rose by Adam Taylor
Skip to 30:54 for this track!
I first played this with Wingates Band in our ‘virtual’ Christmas concert that we filmed to showcase online during a time when live Christmas concerts weren’t possible due to Covid and recently revisited it with Rainford Band in our Christmas concerts this year.
This is a truly beautiful arrangement of the 16th century German carol, Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (Low, How a Rose E’er Blooming). This setting by Adam Taylor features a quartet of Soprano Cornet, Solo Bb Cornet, Solo Tenor Horn and Solo Baritone with a gentle rhythmic accompaniment from the band. It cleverly weaves in musical interludes of other favourite carols, such as Silent Night and Little Donkey. It’s such an uplifting piece with just a touch of whimsy.
Christmas Festival by Leroy Anderson arr. James Wood
Another well-known favourite work featured in many brass band programmes during the festive period is Leroy Anderson’s Christmas Festival. It’s been arranged for brass band by a few different composers, but it’s the James Wood version that I’m the most familiar with. You could essentially just play this and call it your Christmas concert, as it features a large amount of the most famous carols out there!
The main reason this arrangement has made the list, isn’t just because it’s an efficient way of ticking off as many Christmas tunes as possible within your programme or that it is a fab festive piece, but for the small portion of the work that is dedicated to Silent Night. You’re probably thinking, ‘fair enough, it’s a lovely setting of a beautiful carol’. Alas dear reader, this is me we’re talking about…so we already know that there is another reason.
You see, when myself and my banding big sister, Natalie, first played in Eccles Borough Band together, many moons ago, we developed a habit of looking at each other and pretending to ring an imaginary bell when the very real tubular bell and glockenspiel sounded in this section - much to our childish amusement and probably the annoyance of other people in the band. Many years have passed, we are very much adults now…yet when we played it in our Christmas concerts with the Rainford Band this year, our little tradition is still very much honoured by us…and we may or may not have encouraged others to follow suit...I could neither confirm nor deny.
Away in a Manger arr. By Peter Graham
Yes it’s another flugel solo…surprise, surprise - but I do love this. To be fair it’s a solo that is popular with both cornet and flugel soloists, and for good reason, it’s a brilliant arrangement. It’s a carol we’ve all been singing since we wore a tea towel on our head, pretending to be a shepherd in primary school, but Peter Graham has taken this time honoured melody and turned it into a beautifully emotive, soulful solo. The interlude in the middle is just glorious to play, particularly when you get to play it in a church or hall big enough to offer a lovely bit of natural reverb. It can offer quite the diva moment - which, speaking as a flugel player…we know we love a chance to milk a slow melody like the last cow in a drought.
Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano arr. By Darrol Barry
I know. I can see you shaking your head at me. I’m not even sorry. It is the cheesiest of all Christmas songs - yes, even more so than Wham, but it’s one of my all time favourites. As I’ve said before - Christmas is a time for cheese in all of it’s forms!
However, for those of you who are judging me, the story behind the original song is actually quite sweet. You see, the song’s writer, Jose Feliciano wrote Feliz Navidad (Happy Christmas) whilst feeling quite homesick for his family during the festive period. He reminisced about happy times shared with his brothers eating traditional Puerto Rican foods, drinking rum and going carolling. With the lyrics only containing 19 words, it was the easiest song to record and Feliciano had the track down in around 10 mins apparently.
For me this song is just pure joy and Barry’s arrangement perfectly captures that joy and my little cheesy heart has been delighted every time I’ve played it!
Schneewaltzer arr. By Goff Richards
I had to include Schneewaltzer. Is it really Christmas if you haven’t played Schneewaltzer?! As you probably know, the title of this little German bavarian folk waltz delights audiences every time, whether that’s because of it’s happy, jaunty nature or watching the band fall over themselves as they try to do the associated choreography or a mixture of both.
For those of you who have never seen Schneewaltzer performed, basically the band (and the audience!) have a little bit of choreography to partake in during the song that goes as follows:
Left, right, forward, back, stand up, sit down repeat - sway left and right until next chorus
Or at least that’s what I was always taught. I have since found out that some people include a twirl during the stand up part, before you sit down. However, considering during our first Christmas concert this year I wiped out my music stand during the stand up part, for health and safety reasons, I will not be attempting this ‘advanced’ version. For me, trying to do the choreography usually looks something like this:
Sway right first by mistake, try to correct, end up out of time, standing up as everyone is sitting down, knock over my music stand, kick water bottle - sway left (if I remember) and right until next chorus…laugh uncontrollably.
Trying to limit this post to 10 pieces was tough, I could have easily reeled off another 10…potentially more. Silly season may be tiring, but it’s one of my favourite times of the year to be in a brass band - to find out why this is one of my favourite times of the year, check out my post about 10 Christmas Truths Every Brass Bander Knows.
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