Christmas Time is a set of “books of carols for playing and singing” by Forrest L. Buchtel that cover 37 Christmas tunes - mostly ones you’ve heard of - and are designed to work with any weird combination of instruments. They’re arranged in 4 parts, and most of the parts are available for any instrument you might have.

These very useful books have been around since - well, I’m not sure, probably the 1950s.

If you had just a piano and a violin, you’d use the piano and 1st Violin books. If you had two trombones and a clarinet and an oboe, you’d use the 3rd and 4th bass clef books for Trombone, and the 2nd Bb book for the Clarinet and the 1st C book for the oboe. Maybe you’d mix it up and give the trombone player the 1st part (shown above) so they could play the melody once in a while.

(Much to my ongoing frustration, there are 1st, 3rd and 4th books for trombone, but not 2nd.)

And of course if you had an entire band or orchestra, you could hand out 75 of these books to everybody and you’d be all set.

Every band I’ve ever been in has had a set of these - from the Grade 8 band at Ryerson Public School, through the senior band at London Central Secondary School, the UW Warriors Band, the St. John the Evangelist Church “Marching” Band, and most recently the Oakville Wind Orchestra.

The OWO did a gig for a seniors residence last week - and if I remember right, we had two flutes, one trumpet, one french horn, one euphonium, one trombone (yours truly) and one tuba. Flutes played out of the 1st book, trumpet 2nd, horn (I forget, sorry Tony) 2nd or 3rd, euphonium 3rd, me and the tuba 4th.

These books are perfect for whatever rag-tag group of misfits and ne’er-do-wells you might have on hand.

And you probably know most of the tunes. And you can usually tell by all the pencil marks that they’ve been well-used over the years.

If you were ever in a band, I wouldn’t be surprised if you still have a copy of the book that you were supposed to return at the end of the concert!

need to buy a set?

They’re still available, published by Neil A. Kjos Music.

so who was Neil A. Kjos ?

Don’t distract me.

what’s in them?

Here’s the table of contents. (The large SAMPLE text, of course, is not in the actual book, but that’s what I found on the web.) You’ll recognize most of these

Here’s one of the pages. This is a sample of the 1st Eb book, which you might give to an alto sax player.

what do you mean “you’ll recognize MOST of these.”

Well … last week in the Oakville Wind Orchestra, we played #23, A Song for Christmas, for what I think might be the first time in history.

I did not recognize this particular tune. We’ve never played it in any of the other bands I’ve been in that used this book. Never!

The audience didn’t know it either, but they bravely tried to sing along.

It looks like Forrest L. Buchtel snuck one of his own compositions in here.

That got me wondering. I’ve played out of these books for years. So many of my musical friends have, too. But …

So who was Forrest L. Buchtel ?

I dug around. Google was helpful.

Forrest L. Buchtel (1899-1996) was a prolific writer of school band music. He taught in various Chicago high schools and on the faculty of the VanderCook College of Music from 1931 to 1985.

He was inducted in 1984 into the Bandmasters Hall of Fame and - apparently - his composition Polka Dots received a Grammy award.

I’m having a little trouble finding what Grammy award that was, but there used to be some older retired categories (music for children, etc) that aren’t listed on the Grammys web site.
But here’s the song! If you can figure out what award this won, please let me know.

The Wind Repertory Project has some more useful biographical info, including …

Merle Evans, the legendary director of the Barnum and Bailey Ringling Bros. Circus Band, used Dr. Buchtel’s music exclusively for his band. Dr. Buchtel’s composition Polka Dots Duet received a Grammy award. Lyons Band Instrument Company hired Buchtel to write Melody Fun, the instruction book that helped popularize the tonette, a plastic pre-band instrument.

He also composed under the pseudonyms Lawrence Buck and Victor Lawrence.

an amazing connection to Blood, Sweat and Tears

Turns out Forrest L. Buchtel had a son, also named Forrest Buchtel, who is a famous trumpeter himself. Google Gemini eventually let mw know this:

Cornet/Trumpet Player: He is a renowned professional musician who played with major artists and groups, including Woody Herman’s band, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and the jazz-rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears (joining in 1975).

Wait, WHAT? There’s a connection from the Christmas Time books to Blood, Sweat and Tears?

I believe this is Forrest Buchtel Junior (from his Facebook page.)

Wikipedia tells me he played with BS&T from 1975 to 1977, but apparently NOT on the song Spinning Wheel, which would have been too perfect because then I could end this blog post with What goes up, must come down.

I tried to send him a note.

Facebook wouldn’t let me tag him directly, but I did write this note in the hopes that he might see it -

Dear Forrest Buchtel:

I came across your name on Facebook while researching the legendary “Christmas Time” set of band books arranged by Forrest L. Buchtel.

I’m hoping I can tag you in this post.

Forgive me for making assumptions but - was that your father?

I hope you know how much joy these books have brought to every band I’ve ever played in. From high school through university and various community bands, we’ve ALL had a set of these books.

My own father delighted in assembling the “St. John the Evangelist ‘Marching’ Band” for the Christmas pageant every year - a rag-tag group of anybody who could play anything at all, and whether we had just a flute and an accordion and a bassoon and two trombones, or a full complement of amateur and pro musicians, these amazingly flexible books were the backbone of the whole Christmas music operation.

I’m now in the Oakville Wind Orchestra - Canada’s oldest community band - and we have been playing out of these books this month at retirement homes and I can tell by the smiles that the audience likes them too.

Thanks to your dad - I hope I’m assuming correctly - for this amazing contribution to Christmas Time around the world.