Good King Wenceslas on Lyre — Tabs, Letter Notes & Play Online

Notes53, 8 pitches
RangeG4–G5
Key hereC major
Tempo120 bpm · about 34 s
LevelEasy

Can a lyre play Good King Wenceslas?

1 of the 3 here do. The check is made note by note against what each one can actually sound. Where the tune does not fit as the library writes it, another key or octave is tried, and the table says which; where nothing fits, it names the notes that are missing.

7-string✕ Cannot play itNeeds G3, A3, B3, which it does not have
10-string✕ Cannot play itNeeds G3, which it does not have
16-string✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, G4–G5 · loaded above

Good King Wenceslas: lyre tabs

The large line is the note’s number in the scale; the small line under it is the string to pluck. A dash holds the note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and a dot beside a note makes it half as long again. Each line is one phrase.

▶ Play it above

Good King Wenceslas — lyre tabs (16-string) · tonalics.com

1•str. 111•str. 111•str. 112•str. 121•str. 111•str. 115str. 8–

6str. 95str. 86str. 97str. 101•str. 11–1•str. 11–

1•str. 111•str. 111•str. 112•str. 121•str. 111•str. 115str. 8–

6str. 95str. 86str. 97str. 101•str. 11–1•str. 11–

5•str. 154•str. 143•str. 132•str. 123•str. 132•str. 121•str. 11–

6str. 95str. 86str. 97str. 101•str. 11–1•str. 11–

5str. 85str. 86str. 97str. 101•str. 111•str. 112•str. 12–

5•str. 154•str. 143•str. 132•str. 121•str. 11–4•str. 14–1•str. 11–––

The 8 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 8 and you can play the whole tune.

5str. 8×7
6str. 9×7
7str. 10×4
1•str. 11×21
2•str. 12×6
3•str. 13×3
4•str. 14×3
5•str. 15×2

What to expect on a lyre

It runs from G4 to G5, an octave, using 8 different notes. That leaves 12 semitones unused below and 2 above.
85% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a fifth, C5 to G5, at note 27.
It is played on strings 8 to 15 of 16, 8 strings in all.

About the tune

The tune is a 13th-century spring carol, “Tempus adest floridum”, printed in the Finnish songbook Piae Cantiones in 1582. In 1853 the English hymn writer John Mason Neale wrote new words for it about the Bohemian duke Wenceslas, and a song about flowers became a song about snow.

The spring carol “Tempus adest floridum”, from Piae Cantiones, 1582. Public domain. The notes follow Douglas D. Anderson, The Hymns and Carols of Christmas (sequence released to the public domain), cross-checked against 2 other transcriptions. More about Good King Wenceslas →

Good King Wenceslas on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation. It is not offered for the guzheng, handpan or ocarina, which do not have the notes.

More songs for the lyre

All 34 lyre songs · Christmas songs for lyre · The online lyre on its own