Carol of the Bells

(Guitar Duo Version - see the solo version here)

Arranged by Jeff Anvinson

  • Guitar duet
  • Intermediate level
  • Score, 8 pp, 128 mm; Guitar parts, 3 pp
  • Length: 2 minutes
  • Style: tonal, homophonic and contrapuntal

This dynamic and challenging concert piece was arranged by Jeff Anvinson in 2010 for two of his friends. It is an intermediate-level arrangement for classical guitar duo. A challenging arrangement that treats the guitars as equals, it makes use of natural and artificial harmonics, pizzicato, ponticello, tasto, tambour, antiphonal techniques, a wide dynamic range, imitation, rapid trading back and forth, and bell-like effects. It is best performed with the two guitarists physically separated as far as reasonable to make the antiphonal features more obvious to the audience. It ends with a loud, arpeggiated, somewhat dissonant, eighth-note chord in one guitar, while the other guitar plays a more consonant chord - struck with the tambour technique - that is allowed to ring and sustain. This effect is hard to describe in words. It is somewhat like a brief percussive surprise followed by a sustained chord that seems to appear out of thin air and dissipate. The synthesized audio sample recording does not do the arrangement justice.

It is available absolutely for free as a download. You may distribute it free if you acknowledge the arranger (Jeff Anvinson), but you may not sell or rearrange it.

Download Links

(right-click to download left-click to view/play)

Full Score in PDF Format
First Guitar Part in PDF Format
Second Guitar Part in PDF Format
Recording in Mp3 Format

Audio Recording (synthesized)

First Page of the Score

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