Noctave

Free sheet music · Noctave edition

Greensleeves

Traditional · arranged for Noctave

Easy · 3/10A minor52 sLeft hand

Listen

The first 21 seconds, played by the piano of Noctave (the app's SoundFont).

The piece

This English tune was already circulating in the sixteenth century, and Shakespeare mentions it in The Merry Wives of Windsor. The idea that Henry VIII wrote it is a legend with no established basis. Its melody in triple time, set in A minor here, has the air of a lament. Noctave's version, based on the common form of the tune, puts the melody low in the left hand, under paired notes held by the right.

A long-short rhythm runs through it: a dotted quarter, an eighth, then a quarter, like a dance with a slight limp. Keep the eighth short, or the lilt goes flat. The left hand reaches down to the low E and meets two accidentals worth spotting on the staff in advance: G-sharp, which returns at almost every cadence, and F-sharp, in the lines that step down from G. In the right hand, thirds and fourths last the full bar, so place them gently. If reading the bass clef slows you down, wait mode lets each low note wait for you.

What makes it hard

One hand at a time
The melody moves to the left hand, in the bass clef (72 notes); the right hand plays 64.

Measured on the score, repeats included, at the written tempo.

Play it in Noctave

The score, free. The version that falls in light, in Noctave: the notes come down to your keyboard at your tempo, then fade to leave you the score. Noctave is coming soon to Android: leave your address to hear when it is out.

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