O Laetissimum Nuntium
For concert band and SAB choir
As I was digging through my files looking for Christmas music, I stumbled across an old arrangement of "Joy to the World" for combined band and chorus. I looked through the piece and decided it wasn't for me, but the idea for writing a combined piece was planted in my brain.
A couple months later I started writing out the song, and Mykola Leontovych's "Carol of the Bells" was a great place to start. The beginning of the piece focuses on it, transitioning into "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen" and finally Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which I would write alone three years later. The result is this song, which was premiered by the Fillmore Central High School Concert Band and Concert Choir on December 16, 2010.