Kees Vlak

Christmas Drummer Boy

Hardly any other country celebrates Christmas with more glitter and glamour than the USA. The decorations are colorful and lavish, the Christmas trees are huge, and no pre-Christmas party is complete without flashing lights. The Americans celebrate X-Mas Eve with their beloved turkeys and Santa Claus comes overnight with his reindeer sleigh so that all the presents are in the long stockings hung on the chimneys early in the morning on December 25. To make sure nothing goes wrong, Santa and his animal companions are provided with warm milk, cookies and sugar lumps for sustenance. But at no time is the difference between rich and poor more apparent than at Christmas time - and not just in America. It's a sad fact, as relevant today as it was in 1941 when the song about the little drum boy was written by American Katherine Kennicott Davis, and just as relevant as it was at the time of Jesus' birth.

Davis tells the story of the little boy who was too poor to bring Jesus a gift. The only thing he could give him was his song on the drum. When the baby Jesus smiled gratefully at him in return, the little drum boy knew that his message had arrived. Based on a Czech folk song, it was originally written as an a cappella song with the melody in the soprano and the constant rhythmic motif in the male voices. The structure of the work is virtually made for wind orchestra, which prompted Kees Vlak to rework the melody, which is touching with simple modesty, for young instrumentalists in his CHRISTMAS DRUMMER BOY. The repetitive rhythm is left entirely to its origin in the snare drum, which can be happily given an exposed place on stage during the performance. The melody is initially taken over by clarinets and alto saxophones in sonorous register. Only in the second verse do the high woodwinds and brass join in and a pompous tutti part is heard, which can even be supplemented with a vocal part as well as an optional recorder part. Collaboration with a children's choir or junior recorder groups is thus a given; moreover, you can certainly encourage your audience to sing along, which will give any Christmas concert a nice ending, especially since the end of the composition leads into a peaceful fading piano that makes you believe in the miracle of Christmas.

eXplora Grade 1+
eXplora disc 20