Good King Wenceslas

About this arrangement

Good King Wenceslas in G major and 4/4, all crotchets and minims at a steady walking pace. The right hand uses two positions, and every move is fingered in the music. For the first two lines the thumb is on the D above middle C, with fingers on D E F sharp G A. At “Bright-ly shone the moon” (bar 9) the hand moves up so the thumb sits on G, fingers on G A B C D; it comes back to D for bars 11 to 14, and moves up to G again from bar 15. The left hand plays G-position chords below: G (G B D), C (G C E) and D7 (F sharp C D), now and then two in a bar.

Practice tip: Practise the hand moves on their own before playing the piece: play the last G of bar 8 with finger 4, then jump so the little finger lands on the high D for bar 9. The tune should march along evenly, like the king and his page walking through the snow, so keep the crotchets steady and don’t slow down for the moves.

The words

Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen, When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even. Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel, When a poor man came in sight, gath-’ring winter fuel.

A short history

The tune is much older than the words. It comes from Piae Cantiones, a collection of Latin church and school songs published in 1582 for use in Sweden and Finland, where it was a spring carol, “Tempus adest floridum”, “the time of flowering is here”. A rare copy reached England in the 1850s and came to the clergyman and hymn writer John Mason Neale (1818–1866).

Neale wrote new English words for the tune and published them with Thomas Helmore in Carols for Christmas-tide in 1853. His story is about Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia in the early 900s, remembered for his charity and killed on his brother’s orders; he became the patron saint of the Czech people, and was a duke rather than a king.

The carol is set on the Feast of Stephen, 26 December, the day Australians know as Boxing Day: the king sees a poor man gathering firewood in the snow and sets out with his page to bring him food, drink and logs for his fire.

Quick facts

Tune

“Tempus adest floridum”, Piae Cantiones, 1582

Words

John Mason Neale, 1853 (verse 1)

Level

Beginner (one hand position, simple left hand)

Key

G major

Time signature

4/4

Length

17 bars

Tempo

Steadily, crotchet = 100

Hands

Both hands on the grand staff: right hand on the treble staff, left hand on the bass staff

Copyright

Public domain tune and words; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal, church and classroom use

Questions and answers