How much newly-written music will you hear during the month of December? Probably more than you think. Arrangers are putting new spins on traditional carols and reconfiguring their music for the performing forces currently at their disposals. It might feel like holiday music all blurs together in an endless, looping soundtrack of the familiar winterlandsantababybellsnutcracker, but it is also a time when talented composers are commissioned to write new works to appear prominently in holiday and devotional programming.

This year, two notable LDS choral examples are premieres by Daniel Gawthrop and Andrew Maxfield. Gawthrop is certainly the most successful choral composer in the Church who isn’t employed by it, and Maxfield is a young go-getter who is steadily compiling success upon success. “Be the Light” by Daniel Gawthrop will appear on the program Light From Darkness performed by the College of Southern Idaho Music Program, and Andrew Maxfield’s “The Lamb,” which won a prize from Ensemble Altera in the U.S. will be premiered by the Choir of Royal Holloway in London. —Glen Nelson (Gawthrop, 12/11; Maxfield 12/4)