The library · Christmas
Deck the Halls
Traditional Welsh tune
A Welsh tune full of “fa la la”: a phrase walking down the scale, repeated, a middle that climbs to high D, and the opening phrase again.
D major · 4/4 · 140 beats per minute · 16 bars · 27 s · intermediate level
A Welsh tune, Scottish words
The melody is Welsh and dates back to the 16th century: it belongs to Nos Galan, a winter carol. The
English words came much later, in 1862, from the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant. They appeared in the second
volume of the harpist John Thomas's Welsh Melodies, alongside Welsh words by John Jones, known as
Talhaiarn.
The title was singular then, Deck the Hall, and stayed that way until about 1892. The 1862 words talk of
filling the meadcup and draining the barrel; they have been softened since. The "fa la la", though, has never
changed.
A scale walking down, and "fa la la"
Wolfi has you play one verse: sixteen bars in D major, in four beats. The chords are my own. My map reads
an A A B A' form:
- A (bars 1 to 4): "Deck the halls with boughs of holly", the scale walking down from A to
D, then "fa la la la la, la la la la", which ends on D (a perfect cadence).
- A (5 to 8): the same phrase, note for note.
- B (9 to 12): the middle changes direction. The melody climbs, bar after bar, up to high
D, and stops in suspense on A (a half cadence).
- A' (13 to 16): the opening comes back with a new ending: four repeated Bs, then the scale
walking back down to D.
The form
The sections of the piece and their chords: the map you learn before playing a single note.
A A B A'
The key
- D major
- 2 sharps in the key signature: F♯, C♯
- Scale
- D · E · F♯ · G · A · B · C♯
- Pillar chords
- I = D · IV = G · V7 = A7
The tricky passages
- Bar 5: fast runs (4.7 notes per second), a melodic leap (perfect fifth)
- Bar 10: fast runs (4.7 notes per second), 4-note chords
- Bar 15: fast runs (4.7 notes per second), a melodic leap (major sixth), 4-note chords
How to approach it
I rate it as intermediate, with a 9-day plan.
- Phrase A first: it fits under your hand, thumb on D and little finger on A. Once it's
learned, so is half the piece.
- The rhythm: a dotted quarter note and an eighth note at the start of each A, then even quarter notes.
Count "one and two and" out loud.
- The passages I flag: bar 5, the leap from D up to A to start A again; bar 10, a four-note
chord in the left hand; bar 15, the repeated Bs right after a leap. Prepare each leap during the note
before it.
- B, the climbing part: in bar 11, move your right hand up to reach high D without
twisting.
That's how my plan moves forward: the map, the chord framework, each phrase one after another, the tricky
passages, then everything put together and brought up to tempo, all the way to playing it by heart.