For Unto Us A Child Is Born Flute Duet - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1553206

Perfect for the Christmas / Holiday season - or also very appropriate for an Easter performance. This iconic, joyous piece of music closes Scene 3 of the oratorio The Messiah, and it tells the news of the birth of a son.

This is a version for 2 flutes - and organ for 3 hands (ie 2 organists).
It's been arranged like this to increase accessibility for performances in church. Basically, organ reductions of the orchestral score are invariably very hard to play - especially the fast semiquaver (16th note) runs in thirds. So the arranger has split the top line to be played by a second organist (primo) sat to the right of the main organist (secondo).

The right-hand player plays music just on the treble clef with one hand; therefore this person might be a student or essentially a non-organist.
This will hopefully encourage more performances of this arrangement.

There's a full organ backing track as an alternative, to increase further the possibility of a performance. Free download from here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zwXVfwg73f4nGwTakc5rJnGBiU7uwO4j?usp=sharing

Musically, the original is scored for a chorus of 4 voices (sopranos, altos, tenors and basses) and orchestra - and it's essentially one big fugue, with the melody passing cleverly between all four voices. In the chorus – The Mighty God – The Everlasting Father – The Prince of Peace – there is a sense of triumph and sheer joy at the news of a son.