Carol of the Bells

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.

Carol of the Bells is an adaptation of a Ukrainian song, "Shchedryk", which the composer Mykola Leontovych built in the early 20th century on a very short folk melody; its final version for choir was premiered in Kyiv in December 1916. It was not originally a Christmas song but a New Year's wishing song: a swallow flies into the house and promises the master of the household a year of plenty. Oleksandr Koshyts's Ukrainian National Chorus made it known across Europe and then in the United States, where the choir performed it at Carnegie Hall in 1922, and in 1936 Peter J. Wilhousky gave it English lyrics and the title it is known by today. Covered countless times since, including in the film Home Alone, it has become one of the most recognisable tunes of the holiday season. The whole piece rests on a small four-note motif that keeps coming back, and its hurried yet light character suits the accordion well. Four notes, and everyone knows the holidays have arrived.