Christmas carol, sheet music with note names
O Come, All Ye Faithful: notes, key and chords
O Come, All Ye Faithful in G major, 4/4: all 62 notes with letter names, chords, range D4 to D5, words and a worksheet. Printable PDF.
Two kinds of page: the tune with a letter name under every note, and a worksheet with the names left blank.
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Quick answer
"O Come, All Ye Faithful" is 62 notes in 20 bars of 4/4, in G major, with a quarter-note pick-up and a range of D4 to D5 (12 semitones). The page has the melody with letter names, a playable version, the chords of the 1920 hymnal setting, Frederick Oakeley's words as printed in that hymnal, and the checks that were run, including a stretch of the tune where the Mutopia edition has fewer notes than three other editions.
O Come, All Ye Faithful at a glance
- Key
- G major (one sharp)
- Time signature
- 4/4, with a one-beat pick-up
- Range
- D4 to D5, 12 semitones
- Notes and bars
- 62 notes, 20 bars
- First note
- G4 (scale degree 1)
- Last note
- G4 (scale degree 1)
- Latin text
- Adeste fideles, first printed with the tune in John Francis Wade's Cantus Diversi, 1751
- English words
- Frederick Oakeley, 1841
- Tune
- ADESTE FIDELES, called "Portuguese Hymn" in some older hymnals
- Why it is free to use
- The Latin text and tune date from the 18th century or earlier; Oakeley died in 1880; the edition used here is a US government hymnal of 1920
- Level
- Medium: wider than a major sixth (12 semitones); a leap of a minor sixth or more. How the level is worked out
- Tempo
- about quarter note = 96 when played at normal speed
Press a note on the staff to hear it. The sound is made in your browser from the notes of this page (a plain synthesiser, not a recording).
O Come, All Ye Faithful
G major · 4/4 · melody with note names
Key G major (one sharp: F♯) Range D4 to D5 Words Latin hymn, 17th century or earlier; English by Frederick Oakeley, 1841 Music tune ADESTE FIDELES, in John Francis Wade's Cantus Diversi, 1751
Scale of G major G A B C D E F♯ I G: G B D IV C: C E G V D: D F♯ A
Melody: The Army and Navy Hymnal (1920), hymn 36, as transcribed on Wikisource (public domain (1920 US government publication); transcription CC BY-SA 4.0; Wikisource page revision 11777300 of 2021-10-16), checked note by note against 3 other editions. Chord symbols are worked out from the four voices of that edition. Free to print and share. musictheoryprint.com/charts/o-come-all-ye-faithful-notes
O Come, All Ye Faithful: name the notes
G major · 4/4 · worksheet
Name Date Class
Write the letter name of every note on the line under it. The key signature tells you which notes are sharp: F♯. The last note of a tune is usually the home note, G.
Check your answers against the sheet with the note names. Extra: circle every note that is a G, the home note of the key.
Melody: The Army and Navy Hymnal (1920), hymn 36, as transcribed on Wikisource (public domain (1920 US government publication); transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Free to print and share. musictheoryprint.com/charts/o-come-all-ye-faithful-notes
The notes of O Come, All Ye Faithful, bar by bar
62 notes in 20 bars, after a pick-up, in G major. Letter names, the do-re-mi syllables (movable do: do is G) and the chord symbols of the setting, where there are any. “held” means a tied note that is not played again.
| Bar | Notes | do re mi | Chords | Chord function |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pick-up | G | do | G | I |
| 1 | G D G | do sol do | ||
| 2 | A D | re sol | D | V |
| 3 | B A B C | mi re mi fa | G D G C | I V I IV |
| 4 | B A G | mi re do | G D Em | I V vi |
| 5 | G F♯ E | do ti la | C♯dim D A | ♯°m V V/V |
| 6 | F♯ G A B | ti do re mi | D G D G | V I V I |
| 7 | F♯ E D | ti la sol | D A7 | V V7/V |
| 8 | D | sol | D | V |
| 9 | D C B | sol fa mi | G Am G | I ii I |
| 10 | C B | fa mi | Am F♯dim G | ii vii° I |
| 11 | A B G A | re mi do re | D G Em Am | V I vi ii |
| 12 | F♯ E D G | ti la sol do | D G | V I |
| 13 | G F♯ G A | do ti do re | D G D7 | V I V7 |
| 14 | G D B | do sol mi | G | I |
| 15 | B A B C | mi re mi fa | D G D7 | V I V7 |
| 16 | B A B | mi re mi | G D G | I V I |
| 17 | C B A G | fa mi re do | Am G D A7 | ii I V V7/V |
| 18 | F♯ G C | ti do fa | D D7 G C | V V7 I IV |
| 19 | B A G | mi re do | G D7 | I V7 |
| 20 | G | do | G | I |
Chord symbols: worked out by a program from the four voices of the hymnal setting (the chord that best fits all the notes sounding at the start of each beat; passing notes can hide a chord change). Checked against the four voices of Mutopia Project, "Adeste Fideles (hymntune)" (Steve Dunlop): the two agree on the root and the major or minor quality of the chord at 72 of 72 beats in common.
What the tune is made of
How the melody moves
Each of the 61 moves from one note to the next, counted.
Which note lengths it uses
Every note counted by its length, as a fraction of a whole note.
Most-used note: G4 (15 times). Longest run of one repeated note: 2. Different pitches: 8, made from 7 note names (some are used in two octaves). Biggest leap: 12 semitones.
The words of O Come, All Ye Faithful
Verse 1
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him born the King of angels;
Refrain
O come, let us adore him,
O come, let us adore him,
O come, let us adore him,
Christ, the Lord.
Verse 2
Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation,
O sing, all ye bright hosts of heaven above;
Glory to God, all glory in the highest;
Refrain
Verse 3
Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning,
Jesus, to thee be all glory given;
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
Refrain
Source: The Army and Navy Hymnal (1920), hymn 36, as transcribed on Wikisource; public domain (1920 US government publication); transcription CC BY-SA 4.0; Wikisource page revision 11777300 of 2021-10-16. Words as printed in the hymnal and typed in on Wikisource; the hyphens that split words into syllables are taken out. Verse numbers are not in the source.
How the notes were checked
Not one note on this page was typed in or remembered. The melody is read by a program from The Army and Navy Hymnal (1920), hymn 36, as transcribed on Wikisource (public domain (1920 US government publication); transcription CC BY-SA 4.0; Wikisource page revision 11777300 of 2021-10-16). A second program then looked for the same notes, in the same order, in each of the editions below, which were typeset and encoded by other people. The number is the share of this page’s 62 notes that are found there, whatever key the other edition is in.
| Edition | Licence | Notes there | Same pitches | Same pitches and lengths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia, "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (score 1 in the article)revision 1340893460 of 2026-02-28 | CC BY-SA 4.0 | 61 | 98% | 95% |
| Where it differs in pitch: bar 12 beat 2.5: this page has E, the other edition has no matching note. | ||||
| Wikimedia Commons, "Herbei, o ihr Gläub'gen.mid"uploaded 2020-12-18, SHA-1 48d16d527d | CC0 | 248 | 100% | 97% |
| Mutopia Project, "Adeste Fideles (hymntune)" (Steve Dunlop)Mutopia-2008/01/13-1220 | Public Domain | 62 | 90% | 90% |
| Where it differs in pitch: bar 12 beat 4: this page has G, the other edition has no matching note; bar 13 beat 1: this page has G, the other edition has no matching note; bar 13 beat 2: this page has F♯, the other edition has no matching note; bar 13 beat 3: this page has G, the other edition has no matching note; bar 14 beat 1: this page has G, the other edition has no matching note; bar 14 beat 3: this page has D, the other edition has no matching note. | ||||
The rhythm column is lower than the pitch column because editions write the same long notes in different ways (a half note and a tied pair, a held last note) and because performance MIDI files shorten or lengthen notes. Pitch is the part that matters for the letter names.
O Come, All Ye Faithful: questions people ask
What are the first notes of "O Come, All Ye Faithful"?
The tune opens in G major on G4, with the pick-up on the same note: G G D G A D B A B C B A. The refrain, "O come, let us adore Him", is the stretch that rises B A B C and falls back, the part everybody remembers; it comes round three times.
What key is O Come, All Ye Faithful in, and what is the time signature?
The 1920 hymnal prints it in G major (one sharp), in 4/4. Wikipedia notes that the 1751 print by Wade is in triple metre, unlike the modern versions. G major is the number 3 key of 24 in the OpenScore Lieder Corpus (8.1% of 1,462 songs) and number 2 in the Mutopia Project (14.5% of 1,974 pieces).
Who wrote the tune?
Wikipedia says the tune has been attributed to several people, among them John Francis Wade (1711–1786), whose name is on the earliest printed version, John Reading, Handel, Gluck, King John IV of Portugal and others, and that the question is open. The earliest printed source of the Latin text and the tune is Wade's Cantus Diversi of 1751; Frederick Oakeley translated the words into English in 1841.
Why does the Mutopia version differ from this page?
In the middle of the tune the Mutopia edition (typeset by Steve Dunlop from the cyberhymnal.org transcription) leaves out a stretch of notes that the 1920 hymnal, Wikipedia's score and a CC0 MIDI file all have: 6 of this page's notes (bars 12 to 14) have no match there. This page follows the three editions that agree with each other. The detail is in the verification table.
How wide is the range of this carol, and who can sing it?
The range is D4 to D5, 12 semitones; 3.4% of the first vocal lines in the OpenScore Lieder Corpus have a smaller range and 89.9% a larger one. Moved a little it fits soprano (up 1 semitone), alto (down 2 semitones), tenor (down 8 semitones), baritone (down 10 semitones) and bass (down 14 semitones).
Can I print this sheet music for a school or church?
Yes. The Latin text and tune are from the 18th century, the English words from 1841, and the edition used here is a US government book from 1920. The sheet is made by this site and may be printed and shared.
musictheoryprint.com · free to print and share
O Come, All Ye Faithful in real music: the numbers
In G major the tune uses 7 of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale, all of them inside the key. It moves by step 43 times out of 61, and ends on the home note, as 75% of major-key art songs do.
This tune against real art songs
| What | This tune | OpenScore Lieder (880 major-key songs) |
|---|---|---|
| First note | G4 (degree 1) | 18.2% start on degree 1 |
| Last note | G4 (degree 1) | 75.1% end on degree 1 |
| Range of the tune | 12 semitones (D4 to D5) | 3% of 1,458 first vocal lines span fewer semitones, 90% more |
The art-song numbers are for the first vocal line of every major-key song whose key signature does not change; the carol numbers are counted on the melody printed above.
How common G major is
| Collection | Items with a key | Share in G major | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenScore Lieder | 1,462 | 8.1% | 3 of 24 |
| Mutopia | 1,974 | 14.5% | 2 of 24 |
| MusicBrainz works | 13,669 | 9.8% | 3 of 24 |
| MusicBrainz works | 5,340 | 8.9% | 2 of 24 |
| Open Opus work titles | 3,587 | 8.7% | 3 of 24 |
| AcousticBrainz recordings | 63,124 | 6.7% | 4 of 24 |
Counts of key signatures (and estimated major or minor) in the collections the site has measured; see the key page for G major.
Where the tune sits among singers' ranges
| Voice type (as labelled in the scores) | Typical range of a real song line | This tune (D4 to D5) |
|---|---|---|
| Soprano | E♭4 to F5 | fits if moved up 1 semitone |
| Alto / Contralto | C4 to C5 | fits if moved down 2 semitones |
| Tenor | F3 to F♯4 | fits if moved down 8 semitones |
| Baritone | C3 to E4 | fits if moved down 10 semitones |
| Bass | A2 to C4 | fits if moved down 14 semitones |
Typical range = the median across song lines of the lowest and highest notes (ignoring one stray note each side), from 285 vocal lines in the OpenScore Lieder Corpus. "Fits" means both ends of the tune are inside it.
Method
- The carol's own numbers are counted by a script on the decoded melody (tied notes counted once, rests ignored).
- Art-song numbers are read from the files behind the site's statistics pages (OpenScore Lieder Corpus: key and scale-degree counts for the first vocal line of every piece, vocal ranges of 1,458 lines).
- Key counts for Mutopia and MusicBrainz come from the same published statistics; a key is counted from its key signature.
Data: computed from the OpenScore Lieder Corpus (CC0), 1,462 scores. Snapshot: commit 6b2dc542ce (2026-04-07).
Background
Excerpts from open reference works, reproduced as published (references, images and tables removed). Every excerpt names its source, licence and original article.
History of "O Come, All Ye Faithful"
Overview
"O Come, All Ye Faithful", also known by its original title "Adeste Fideles", is a Christmas carol that has been attributed to various authors, including John Francis Wade (1711–1786), John Reading (1645–1692), King John IV of Portugal (1604–1656), and anonymous Cistercian monks. The earliest printed version is in a book published by Wade. A manuscript by Wade, dating to 1751, is held by Stonyhurst College in Lancashire.
The original four verses of the hymn were extended to a total of eight, and these have been translated into many languages. In 1841, the English Catholic priest Frederick Oakeley translated the hymn into English as "O Come All Ye Faithful", which became widespread in English-speaking countries.
Text
The original text of the hymn has been from time to time attributed to various groups and individuals, including St. Bonaventure in the 13th century or King John IV of Portugal in the 17th, though it was more commonly believed that the text was written by Cistercian monks – the German, Portuguese or Spanish provinces of that order having at various times been credited. A parody of the chorus ("venite apotemus") was current before 1542, when it appears in chapter 41 of Rabelais' "Gargantua".
Tune
Besides John Francis Wade, the tune has been attributed to several musicians, from John Reading and his son, to Handel, and even the German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck. The Portuguese composer Marcos Portugal as well as King John IV of Portugal have also been credited. Thomas Arne, whom Wade knew, is another possible composer. There are several similar musical themes written around that time, though it can be hard to determine whether these were written in imitation of the hymn, whether the hymn was based on them, or whether they are totally unconnected.
Published versions
The hymn was first published by John Francis Wade in his collection Cantus Diversi (1751), with four Latin verses, and music set in the traditional square notation used for medieval liturgical music. This version is in triple meter, contrary to modern versions. It was published again in the 1760 edition of Evening Offices of the Church. It also appeared in Samuel Webbe's An Essay on the Church Plain Chant (1782). The hymn tune also made its way to the Sacred Harp tradition, appearing as "Hither Ye Faithful, Haste with Songs of Triumph" in an 1860 collection. With "Herbei, o ihr Gläub'gen" a German translation of the Latin text was published in 1823 by Friedrich Heinrich Ranke.
Source: Wikipedia, “O Come, All Ye Faithful” — CC BY-SA 4.0 — text excerpted; see the article for the full text and authors. Revision of 2026-02-28.
Sources and licences for the text, scores and recordings on this page are on the credits page.
Sources: The Army and Navy Hymnal (1920), hymn 36, as transcribed on Wikisource, Wikipedia, "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (score 1 in the article), Wikimedia Commons, "Herbei, o ihr Gläub'gen.mid", Mutopia Project, "Adeste Fideles (hymntune)" (Steve Dunlop).