-How About a Christmas Carol? the man threatened.
Another year, and another ensemble whose heart really isn't into playing Christmas music. This year, it's a brass quartet of trumpet, french horn, and two trombones with moral support from a marimba, tympani, and harp. They try to play “Saint Louis,” (they American tune for “O Little Town of Bethlehem”), but run out of steam just as they get started. Then they tune up, try to get the holiday hate out of their system with a passage that recalls “Mars, the Bringer of War” from Holst's The Planets, this time to retreat into something out of the slow movement of Beethoven's piano sonata Op. 106 (the so-called Hammerklavier and about as far from holiday merriment as you can get.) After a moment, they decide to toss plans to play the Christmas carol, and instead offer a spirited version of that anti-holiday favorite, “Leaving Town for the Holidays.” (For those who aren't familiar with this ditty, the lyrics can be found here.)