‘Personent hodie’ (downloadable PDF)

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A fiery carol hailing from 16th-century Sweden/Germany. Harmonies included. Please see further below for more information and audio samples.

Description

Also known as ‘On This Day Earth Shall Ring’ and ‘Long Ago, Prophets Knew’, this fiery 16th-century carol melody is appropriate for several seasons: Advent, Christmastide, Holy Innocents Day, and Epiphany. This version was sourced from The New Oxford Book of Carols, and is set in the key of A-modal (Dorian). A harmony part, chord symbols, and first verse lyrics in both Latin and English are included.

[NB: Both the melody and harmony require 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 Border pipes (A-chanter, with cross-fingered C-naturals). The harmony part can be heard on the repeat, approximately halfway through the track:

And another, slightly faster, featuring Scottish smallpipes (A-chanter, with a custom C-natural hole for the lower thumb [tape will work, too]). The harmony part can again be heard on the repeat: