Jingle Bells | Traditional - Wise Music Classical

Orchestration
SSAATTBB
ChorusSSAATTBB
Duration2 min 29 s

CategoryChorus a cappella / + 1 instrument

Composer
Traditional
Arranger
Ben Parry

Performances
View Past Performances

Programme Note

This hugely popular and virtuosic arrangement of Jingle Bells, originally written for The Swingle Singers in 1991, has been performed by choirs all over the world. The fiendish changes of metre were originally intended to put audiences off clapping along!

This arrangement is part of the Kikapust Choral Series curated by The Swingle Singers. The series offers choirs an extensive choice of close-harmony a cappella arrangements. All the arrangers/composers Jonathan Rathbone, Ben Parry & Mark Williams were long-standing members of The Swingle Singers.

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh, yeah
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh

Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go
Laughing all the way
Bells on bobtails ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight

James Lord Pierpont 1857

Media

Reviews

"Ben Parry was also represented by two of the secular items. His version of Jingle Bells gives the tune a lively scat accompaniment, peppered with some slippery key-shifts, adroitly navigated here."

Mike Wheeler, Classical Music Daily

2nd January 2024

"Ben Parry’s arrangement of Jingle Bells, witty and performed with a sense of ensemble that would make the Swingle Singers proud, is quite a way to open any disc."

Colin Clarke, Music Web International

17th December 2015

"There’s an example of the close harmony fare right at the start in the shape of Ben Parry’s arrangement of Jingle Bells. This was done originally for the Swingle Singers, which is a much smaller ensemble than the Trinity College choir. Actually, the Trinity choir is quite large – 44 singers are listed – but it’s a tribute to their excellence that they can deliver this arrangement with such deft lightness of touch that one doesn’t feel that the ensemble is too unwieldy for the arrangement."

John Quinn, Music Web International

6th March 2014

"A jazzy Jingle Bells launches this varied and seductively sung programme."

Geoffrey Norris, The Telegraph

4th December 2009