Deck the Halls

About this arrangement

The Welsh tune Nos Galan, which runs downhill from G in every line and then answers with the “fa la la” on quavers. Three things are new. The tune dips below middle C to B in bar 4 (the thumb reaches down one key), it climbs to the C above in bar 11, and that same bar has an F sharp, the black key, marked with a sharp sign: E, F sharp, G on the first “fa la la” of bar 11. Each “fa la la la la” is four quavers and a dotted crotchet. The left hand mostly plays chords on beats 1 and 3, with an extra chord change in the “la la la” bars.

Practice tip: Say “fa la la la la” while you play the quavers so they stay even and light. Practise bar 11 slowly: E, F sharp, G, then A B C, and notice that only that one F is sharp.

The words

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la, la la la la. 'Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la. Don we now our gay apparel, fa la la, la la la, la la la. Troll the ancient Yuletide carol, fa la la la la, la la la la.

A short history

The tune is Welsh and far older than the English words. It was a New Year’s Eve dance tune called Nos Galan (“New Year’s Eve”), printed by the harper Edward Jones in his Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards in the 1790s. In the Welsh tradition a singer sang a line and the harp answered with a flourish, and the “fa la la” we sing fills exactly the gaps where the harp used to play.

The English words were written by the Scottish songwriter Thomas Oliphant and published in 1862 in Welsh Melodies, with the title “Deck the Hall”; the “s” crept in later. Oliphant did not translate the Welsh, which is about the pleasures of New Year’s Eve, but wrote new words about holly, Yule logs and carolling. The lines sung today, “Don we now our gay apparel” and “Troll the ancient Yuletide carol”, come from an American revision printed in 1877, which replaced Oliphant’s drinking lines (“Fill the meadcup, drain the barrel”).

The old form “Troll the ancient Yuletide carol” simply means to sing it out heartily.

Quick facts

Tune

Traditional (Welsh, Nos Galan, 18th century)

Words

Thomas Oliphant, 1862, revised 1877

Key

C major

Time signature

4/4

Length

16 bars

Tempo

Briskly, crotchet = 120

Difficulty

Level 6: Moving on (piece 183 of 201)

Type

Carol

Hands

Both: melody in the right hand, chords in the left

Copyright

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

Questions and answers