Track 7

“Little Drummer Boys” arr. Oscar Wiley Thorp

After busking for years in New York City as a brass musician, ‘Little Drummer Boy’ is one of the most requested tunes…surprisingly almost as much as ‘Jingle Bells’ or ‘Rudolf.’ I’ve always liked the piece, too. It’s simple to sing, it is open to lots of percussion opportunities (ironically not used in this arrangement), and follows a relatively open form. When arranging the piece, I wanted to capture the sensation of playing the piece by ear. The space between the last note of a phrase and the first note of a new phrase is surprisingly hard to time when playing in a large group, so I wanted to recreate the tension by switching up the meter and adding fanfares that could have been improvised to fill awkward space. After arranging the main tune, I was unsatisfied by the ending, so I turned to Gustav Mahler’s favorite drummer boy, ‘Der Tamboursg’sell.’ The last of the songs written in his ‘Des Knaben Wunderhorn,’ this drummer boy is in a very different state than the boy from the carol (look it up if you are morbidly curious). The tragic ending led to the tragic opening of this arrangement, resulting in a joyful Christmas tune bookended by a dark homage to one of my favorite composers. That being said, the happy drummer boy definitely interrupts his doomed counterpart.