The First Noel

What you get, immediately after purchase
📄 The sheet music as a PDF, printable and readable on a tablet
🎧 The MP3 audio recording, to learn the piece by ear
✉️ A download link by email, with no account to create

This score is 2 pages long.

The First Noel is a traditional English Christmas carol, probably born in Cornwall and long passed on by word of mouth, before being printed in the 1820s and 1830s in the collections of old carols gathered by Davies Gilbert and then by William Sandys; its title borrows the French word "Noël", which the English often spell "Nowell". It was the harmonisation published by John Stainer in 1871 in Carols New and Old that set the version sung today, and the carol has remained ever since one of the great classics of choirs across the English-speaking world, from Christmas Eve services to Advent concerts. Its melody moves in gentle waves, and the refrain follows the same curve as the verses, so you find yourself humming along by the second time round: a peaceful, singing tune that finds a natural breath on the accordion. One to play quietly on the evening you watch for the first star.