Facsimile of Christes Cross melody.
At St. Cecilia this year, my friend, Master Christian, gave me some sheet music he believed I’d be interested in. It was a three part piece by Thomas Morley, from his book, A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music. Basically, Morley used the ABC song of the time to demonstrate counterpoint. The top-line contains the melody; the bottom two lines are the counterpoint that Morley composed.
Of course, I’ve been singing the Christes Crosse to Martin ever since. 😛 I will win the Internet when he can sing it.
Fun fact: it doesn’t have the letters J or U since I and J were and interchangeable as were U and V.
Also interesting, it has a range of an Octave and a fourth, which is pretty wide. Today’s ABC song (Twinkle Twinkle) has a range of a sixth.
A couple of notes about the video:
- I know it should be “when you have done” not “when you are done”. I realized my mistake way too far in the process, and would have had to redo everything to fix it. So… no.
- Attributing the piece to Morley is a bit like attributing “Twinkle Twinkle” (or Ah vous dirai-je, Maman) to Mozart. Morley presumable didn’t write the tune for Christes Crosse…
If there’s interest, I could be convinced to record Morley’s first variation.
Enjoy!
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