- Rangeoctave
- Notes57, 8 different
- ScaleMajor, no accidentals
- Time2/4
- Length hereabout 25 s
- Source editionD major
About Joy to the World
The tune is called “Antioch”. The Boston hymn composer Lowell Mason published it in the 1830s, describing it as “from Handel”; the resemblance is to a few phrases of Messiah rather than to any one piece. It has been sung to Isaac Watts’s 1719 text ever since.
It opens with a complete major scale, played straight down from the top note to the bottom — so the first eight notes cover the tune’s entire range, exactly one octave.
Play Joy to the World on your instrument
25 of the 27 playable instruments here have every note it needs. 25 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
- Ocarina 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 G4, C♯5, which it does not have in any size or key here.
- Handpan — it would need B4, which it does not have in any size or key here.
Joy to the World letter notes
Written in C major, from C4 to C5, 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.
Joy to the World — letter notes · tonalics.com
Where these notes come from
The tune “Antioch”, arranged by Lowell Mason in the 1830s. 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
Wikipedia engraves Lowell Mason’s 1839 printing, which begins the last line on the third; the three transcriptions here give the tonic, as modern hymnals do.