Eighteen composers from the United States, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, and Slovenia, working with the Garritan sound libraries, have contributed symphony orchestra and big-band jazz arrangements of holiday favorites from around the world, along with some completely new compositions. A Garritan Community Christmas, Volume 3 is a unique musical project that would have been impossible a few short years ago and it’s available for free download in MP3 format. You can load the songs into your iPod, or freely burn the songs onto audio CDs to make gifts and stocking stuffers.
Cover art, CD label, and liner notes may also be downloaded from the Web site. The album can also be played directly on the Web page through the Christmas Player Flash application. There are also links to Christmas music from prior years and music from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet. A limited number of pressed and packaged compact discs will also be available for order. Each of these recordings was made not with live orchestras in vast recording studios, but rather by musicians working with personal computers. What they have in common is the Garritan Personal Orchestra, a software “composer’s toolbox” of digital samples of real acoustic orchestral instruments. The stunning realism of the recordings on this album are testament not only to the sophistication of personal computer technology, but also to the skill of the composers, arrangers, and programmers who have used these tools so well.
Check out the My Space Garritan Christmas Page.