‘A Solis Ortus Cardine’ (downloadable PDF)

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A haunting, anonymously-composed Sarum chant melody from medieval Britain, and sourced from The New Oxford Book of Carols. Please see further below for more information and an audio sample.

Description

A haunting, mysterious, and anonymously-composed Sarum chant melody from medieval Britain, sourced from The New Oxford Book of Carols. The text is believed to have been written by Coelius Sedulius (c.450, Italy). ‘A Solis Ortus Cardine’ (a.k.a. ‘From Lands That See the Sun Arise’) is set here with grace-notes that are meant to evoke the speech patterns of the first verse (in Latin). The first verse of both the Latin and English lyrics are included. (Chord symbols and harmony are not.)

[NB: This melody requires the nontraditional note C-natural. This can be played on conically-bored chanters —e.g. Highland and Border pipes— with a ‘cross-‘ or ‘forked’ fingering pattern. On cylindrically-bored chanters without custom features —e.g. standard smallpipe chanters— you may need to apply a piece of tuning tape over the top 80% of the C soundhole.]

This is one of over 100 carols printed in the collection, On This Day Earth Shall Ring.

An audio sample, featuring Scottish smallpipes (D-chanter, with tuning tape flattening the written C):