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Piano sheet music for kids · Carol · Level 3: Notes below middle C
We Three Kings
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 6/8, 17 bars. Press Play to hear it on a real piano, slow it down, or hear one hand at a time; click any note to start from there; print it for the music stand.
About this arrangement
Hopkins’s carol of the Magi changes mood halfway: the verse is in A minor, dark and marching, and the refrain, “O star of won-der”, turns into bright C major. The verse starts with the thumb on the A below middle C; for bars 5 and 6 the hand moves up, thumb on middle C, so finger 5 reaches G for “moor and moun-tain”. After a rest in bar 8, two long notes on “O” lead into the refrain, where the thumb drops to the G below middle C; bars 14 and 15, C C D E F E D E, need C position again. The left hand plays on each big beat.
Practice tip: Count the long “O” in bar 9: two dotted crotchets, one on B and one on D, each a whole big beat. Bars 10 and 11, “star of won-der, star of night”, come back twice more in the refrain, so learn them once and most of the refrain is done.
The words
We three kings of Orient are, bearing gifts we traverse afar. Field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star. O star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light.
A short history
John Henry Hopkins Jr., an Episcopal clergyman who taught church music at the General Theological Seminary in New York, wrote both the words and the tune in 1857 for a Christmas pageant at the seminary, and published them in 1863 in his Carols, Hymns and Songs. It was one of the first American Christmas carols to become popular around the world.
The carol is a small drama: the verse is sung by the three kings together, then in Hopkins’s plan each king sings a verse about his gift, gold, frankincense and myrrh, before all join in the refrain. The Gospel of Matthew only says that wise men came from the east and names the three gifts; the number three, the title of kings and the names Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar all come from later tradition.
Hopkins later became rector of Christ Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Quick facts
- Tune
- John Henry Hopkins Jr., 1857
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 6/8
- Length
- 17 bars
- Tempo
- Stately, dotted crotchet = 66
- Difficulty
- Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 95 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
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