Yuletide Wassail Cheer by Paige Dashner Long for Flute Choir (or Low Flute Choir). From the composer: "Yuletide Wassail Cheer" (A Pair of Wassails Reimagined) combines two traditional wassail folk songs and musically crafts them into a fresh new sound. The word wassail comes from the Old English phrase waes hael, which mean to be whole or to your health. Historically, during the holidays, singers carried a large bowl filled with hot spiced ale, mulled cider or wine, as they sang holiday songs to their neighbors. They shared the wassail bowl in exchange for food or hospitality."

With flexible instrumentation for performance, Yuletide Wassail Cheer is scored for traditional flute choir (Irish Whistle or Piccolo, Flutes 1-4, Alto Flute, Bass Flute and optional Contrabass Flute with optional Percussion) or low flutes ensemble (Irish Whistle, Alto Flutes 1-4, plus a 5th Alto Flute part from the traditional Flute Choir setting, as well as Bass Flute and optional Contrabass Flute.) Parts for both settings are included.

Instrumentation:

• Irish Whistle (or Piccolo)
• 4 C Flutes (or 4 Alto Flutes)
• Alto Flute (or Alto Flute 5 in the Low Flutes setting)
• Bass Flute
• Contrabass Flute (or Contralto Flute in G)
• Percussion (Wind Chimes, Tenor Drum, Sleigh Bells), optional