Free sheet music for Coventry Carol and Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle

[harper]

Here are two wonderful Christmas carols of quite different feeling that I arranged this month for two mandolins and octave mandolin, also playable on three mandolins. OM is better for harmony line, with glide strokes and as much sustain as possible.

“Coventry Carol” is an exquisite 16th century English Christmas carol, which tells of Herod’s slaughter of the innocents.

“Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle (You Come Down from the Stars” is a very popular Italian Christmas carol with music by the Neopolitan priest Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori (1676-1787).

[harper]

Correction: Tu Scendi should have been marked in the corner as a tune in G Major. Here is the corrected sheet. If you see any errors in any of my sheet music please let me know so that I can correct them.



Evelyn

[rubydubyr]

WOW, thanks! I am downloading these now, and will print as soon as I get a new cartridge for my printer! Both my daughter and I have mandolins, so we can get together and play 2 of the parts, once we learn them. And I am looking forward to doing so!

[Martin Jonas]

Thanks, Evelyn -- that is a really nice arrangement of Coventy Carol. More interesting than the arrangement by Steve Hendricks that I had been using previously. I particularly like the octave mandolin part, although it keeps you on your toes!

I've just recorded Evelyn's arrangement, using my Mid-Mo mandolin for the melody, Mid-Mo octave mandolin for the harmony and my nylgut-strung bowlback mandolin for the descant, giving a bit of a lute-like tone.

Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
"Baroq-ulele" nylgut-strung mandolin
Mid-Missouri M-0W octave mandolin
Ozark tenor guitar



Martin

[rubydubyr]

Martin, what speed as in metronome beats per minute were you playing that at? Just wondering what speed I need to work up to in order for it to sound nice.

[Martin Jonas]

Martin, what speed as in metronome beats per minute were you playing that at? Just wondering what speed I need to work up to in order for it to sound nice.

I can't quite remember the exact tempo, but somewhere in the region of 100bpm. Tap along with my recording to get a better feel. The melody and descant are pretty straightforward, but the octave mandolin part takes some practice to keep the tempo steady. You may want to simplify some of the arpeggios for better ergonomy of fingering and string changes.

Martin

[rubydubyr]

My daughter will probably play the octave mandolin on her guitar, or a semblance thereof... I am not sure of the guitar's note range.

[Martin Jonas]

My daughter will probably play the octave mandolin on her guitar, or a semblance thereof... I am not sure of the guitar's note range.

Might be getting to late too practice this one in time for Christmas! As far as playing the OM part on guitar is concerned, range isn't an issue as the lowest note on guitar is the E below the low G of the OM. In many pieces using the guitar wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, in this particular arrangement I'm not sure it would quite work, as Evelyn has written the part specifically to make use of the sustain of the open G and D strings. It's playable on guitar, but the intended effect of the open strings won't quite be there.

Martin

[rubydubyr]

Oh, its not for this Christmas, we just enjoy the music, and there's always next Christmas, we should know it by then...

[violmando]

REALLY enjoying all your arrangements. My husband and I play them on a variety of treble clef instruments, including fiddle and recorder. THANK YOU SO MUCH!