´Jingle Bells´ is one of the best-known and most commonly sung American songs in the world. It was written in 1850 by James Lord Pierpont (1822-1893) at Simpson Tavern in Medford, Massachusetts. It was first published under the title ´The One Horse Open Sleigh´ in September 1857 and originally written to be sung by a Sunday school choir for Thanksgiving, or as a drinking song. Although it has no original connection to Christmas, it became associated with winter and Christmas music in the 1860s and 1870s, and it was featured in a variety of parlor song and college anthologies in the 1880s. Even now, after 170 years ´Jingle Bells´ belongs to the world´s most famous Christmas songs.
French arranger Bruno Peterschmitt arranged ´Jingle Bells´ for a Horn quintet.