Up on the Housetop--Down in New Orleans: Concert Band Conductor Score & Parts

Kamuf's arrangement preserves the melodic strength Hanby wrote while completely reimagining its harmonic world. The addition of jazz voicings and an authentic New Orleans Second Line rhythm transforms a familiar carol into something your band will genuinely enjoy rehearsing, not something they're enduring because it's December. Grade 2 bands rarely get this kind of sophisticated arranging applied to material they can actually play cleanly.

Warm, celebratory, and thoroughly unpretentious. The arrangement invites audiences into a festive kitchen where good food and music matter equally. There's joy in the harmonic movement, and the Second Line rhythm gives the piece a walking, conversational quality that feels alive rather than stiff.

Grade 2 concert bands looking for holiday repertoire with actual musical substance. This works for groups comfortable with jazz-inflected harmonies and interested in exploring rhythm styles beyond the standard march or folk melody.

• Establish the groove in rehearsal before worrying about precision. Have the rhythm section lock into that Second Line feel first; once they find it, the melody players will sit naturally into the pocket.
• Pay attention to the jazz harmonies in the accompaniment parts. They're not optional color; they're what makes this arrangement work. Encourage clarinet and saxophone players to voice their chords with warmth, not brightness.
• Don't rush the tempo. A relaxed, swinging feel at a moderate tempo is far more effective than a brisk one that loses the New Orleans character.

Program this alongside traditional holiday numbers to show your audience the range of what concert band can do with familiar material. It pairs beautifully with a straight, lyrical arrangement of another carol, or it can anchor a entire holiday program built around different cultural approaches to winter celebration.

• Swinging rhythmic feel and jazz articulation
• Reading syncopated melodic lines with swing notation
• Balancing melody clarity with complex harmonic accompaniment
• Ensemble cohesion across rhythmic and harmonic complexity