- Rangeoctave
- Notes53, 8 different
- ScaleMajor, no accidentals
- Time4/4
- Length hereabout 34 s
- Source editionG major
About Good King Wenceslas
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.
It moves almost entirely by step in even notes, and ends on two long notes that rise a fourth and fall back.
Play Good King Wenceslas on your instrument
24 of the 27 playable instruments here have every note it needs. 24 play it where the library writes it; the rest move it to another key or octave, and each page says which. Every page has the instrument itself, with the song loaded, above the notes.
- Kalimba tabs
- Piano letter notes
- Mbira tabs
- Oud notes
- Violin notes
- Cello notes
- Erhu notes
- Dulcimer tab
- Xylophone letter notes
- Marimba letter notes
- Glockenspiel letter notes
- Steel Drum letter notes
- Harmonica tabs
- Trumpet notes
- Clarinet notes
- Saxophone notes
- Flute notes
- Recorder notes
- Tuba notes
- Euphonium notes
- Trombone notes
- Accordion letter notes
- Harp letter notes
- Lyre tabs
Instruments that cannot play it
- Guzheng — it would need C♯5, G5, which it does not have in any size or key here.
- Handpan — it would need G3, B3, which it does not have in any size or key here.
- Ocarina — it would need G5, which it does not have in any size or key here.
Good King Wenceslas letter notes
Written in C major, from G4 to G5, with each note’s number in the scale under it — the form that transfers to any instrument. A dash holds a note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and each line is one phrase.
Good King Wenceslas — letter notes · tonalics.com
Where these notes come from
The spring carol “Tempus adest floridum”, from Piae Cantiones, 1582. Public domain.
The melody was not written down from memory. It is derived from a published transcription and compared, note for note, with independent ones:
- Followed: Douglas D. Anderson, The Hymns and Carols of Christmas (sequence released to the public domain)
- Checked against: Paul Hardy’s Xmas Tunebook, 2019 (2024) — the same notes throughout
- Checked against: Sudbury Ancient Fyfe & Drum Companie carol book, transcribed by John Chambers — the same notes throughout