Christmas carol, sheet music with note names
We Three Kings notes: letter names, key and melody
We Three Kings in E minor, 3/8: all 47 notes with letter names, the home chord, range D4 to D5, words by Hopkins and a worksheet. Free 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
"We Three Kings" is 47 notes in 24 bars of 3/8, in E minor, with a range of D4 to D5 (12 semitones). It begins on B4, the 5th note of the scale. The verse ends on E, and the refrain ends on G. Below: the melody with a letter name under every note, a version you can play, the words of John Henry Hopkins Jr. and the checks that were run.
We Three Kings at a glance
- Key
- E minor (one sharp)
- Time signature
- 3/8: three eighth notes to the bar
- Range
- D4 to D5, 12 semitones
- Notes and bars
- 47 notes, 24 bars
- First note
- B4 (scale degree 5)
- Last note
- G4
- Words and music
- John Henry Hopkins Jr., 1857; published in 1863 in his book Carols, Hymns, and Songs (Wikipedia)
- Original title
- "Three Kings of Orient"
- Why it is free to use
- Hopkins wrote the words and the music in 1857 and published them in 1863; the score used is the one printed in Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Level
- Easy: wider than a major sixth (12 semitones). How the level is worked out
- Tempo
- about quarter note = 100 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).
We Three Kings
E minor · 3/8 · melody with note names
Key E minor (one sharp: F♯) Range D4 to D5 Words John Henry Hopkins Jr., 1857 (published 1863) Music John Henry Hopkins Jr., 1857 (published 1863)
Scale of E minor E F♯ G A B C D i Em: E G B iv Am: A C E
Melody: Wikipedia, "We Three Kings" (score 1 in the article) (CC BY-SA 4.0; revision 1332424204 of 2026-01-11), checked note by note against 2 other editions. Free to print and share. musictheoryprint.com/charts/we-three-kings-notes
We Three Kings: name the notes
E minor · 3/8 · 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, E.
Check your answers against the sheet with the note names. Extra: circle every note that is a E, the home note of the key.
Melody: Wikipedia, "We Three Kings" (score 1 in the article) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Free to print and share. musictheoryprint.com/charts/we-three-kings-notes
The notes of We Three Kings, bar by bar
47 notes in 24 bars, in E minor. Letter names, the do-re-mi syllables (movable do: do is E) 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | B A | sol fa |
| 2 | G E | ri do |
| 3 | F♯ G F♯ | re ri re |
| 4 | E rest | do (rest) |
| 5 | G G | ri ri |
| 6 | A A | fa fa |
| 7 | B B | sol sol |
| 8 | D C B | li si sol |
| 9 | A B A | fa sol fa |
| 10 | G F♯ | ri re |
| 11 | E rest | do (rest) |
| 12 | F♯ A | re fa |
| 13 | G G | ri ri |
| 14 | G D | ri li |
| 15 | G E | ri do |
| 16 | G rest | ri (rest) |
| 17 | G G | ri ri |
| 18 | A B | fa sol |
| 19 | C B | si sol |
| 20 | A B | fa sol |
| 21 | G G | ri ri |
| 22 | G D | ri li |
| 23 | G E | ri do |
| 24 | G | ri |
What the tune is made of
How the melody moves
Each of the 46 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 (17 times). Longest run of one repeated note: 3. Different pitches: 8, made from 7 note names (some are used in two octaves). Biggest leap: 5 semitones.
The words of We Three Kings
The words of John Henry Hopkins Jr.
All three kings
We Three Kings of Orient are,
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain,
Moor and mountain,
Following yonder Star.
Refrain (sung after every verse)
O Star of Wonder, Star of Night,
Star with Royal Beauty bright,
Westward leading,
Still proceeding,
Guide us to Thy perfect Light.
Gaspard
Born a King on Bethlehem plain,
Gold I bring to crown Him again,
King for ever,
Ceasing never
Over us all to reign.
Melchior
Frankincense to offer have I,
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Prayer and praising
All men raising,
Worship Him God on High.
Balthazar
Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;—
Sorrowing, sighing,
Bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.
All three kings
Glorious now behold Him arise,
King, and God, and Sacrifice;
Heav'n sings Hallelujah
Hallelujah the earth replies.
Source: Wikipedia, "We Three Kings", section Lyrics; words in the public domain (written 1857, published 1863); page text CC BY-SA 4.0; revision 1332424204 of 2026-01-11. As Wikipedia prints them. The first and last verses are sung by all three kings; each of the other three is sung by one king, and every verse is followed by the refrain. Wikipedia adds that the solo verses are often left out today.
How the notes were checked
Not one note on this page was typed in or remembered. The melody is read by a program from Wikipedia, "We Three Kings" (score 1 in the article) (CC BY-SA 4.0; revision 1332424204 of 2026-01-11). 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 47 notes that are found there, whatever key the other edition is in.
| Edition | Licence | Notes there | Same pitches | Same pitches and lengths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikimedia Commons, "Three Kings of Orient.mid" (tracks 1 and 3 read in turn)uploaded 2021-01-30, SHA-1 7e9483851b | CC0 | 62 | 100% | 89% |
| Wikipedia, "We Three Kings": the MIDI file made from the article's scorerevision 1332424204, file SHA-1 7a4afefc2b | CC BY-SA 4.0 | 62 | 100% | 96% |
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.
We Three Kings: questions people ask
What are the notes of "We Three Kings"?
In E minor the first line, "We three kings of Orient are", is B A G E F♯ G F♯. The whole tune uses 7 note names (B A G E F♯ D C). Every note is on the printable sheet above.
What key and time signature is "We Three Kings" in?
The score used here is in E minor (one sharp) and in 3/8: three eighth notes to the bar, counted 1 2 3. The verse ends on E, and the refrain ends on G, the home note of the relative major, G major. E minor is the number 12 key of 24 in the OpenScore Lieder Corpus (4.0% of 1,462 songs) and number 13 in the Mutopia Project (2.7% of 1,974 pieces).
What chords go with "We Three Kings"? What are the guitar chords?
This page prints no chord symbols. The four voices of the open score gave chord labels that were not consistent enough to print. What the notes say: the home chord is E minor (E G B), and 30 of the 47 notes of the tune are one of those three notes. The tune starts on B4 and ends on G4. Chord symbols belong to a particular arrangement, so take them from a published one.
Who wrote "We Three Kings"?
John Henry Hopkins Jr., in 1857. Wikipedia says he was then rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and wrote the carol for a Christmas pageant in New York City. It adds that he composed both the words and the music, which was unusual for carol writers of the time, that he published it in 1863 in his book Carols, Hymns, and Songs, and that it became the first widely popular Christmas carol written in America.
Who sings which verse?
Wikipedia says the first and last verses are sung by all three kings together, and that each of the other three is sung by one king, who describes his gift: Gaspard sings of gold, Melchior of frankincense and Balthazar of myrrh. Every verse is followed by the refrain "O Star of Wonder". Wikipedia adds that the solo verses are often left out today.
How was this tune checked?
The soprano line was read from the LilyPond score in Wikipedia's article. Two other readings agree with it on every pitch: the MIDI file that Wikipedia's score tool makes from that score, and a CC0 MIDI file on Wikimedia Commons, in which the verse is on one track and the refrain on another (the page reads the two in turn). The rhythm agrees for 89% of the notes in the Commons file.
Can I print this sheet music?
Yes. Hopkins wrote the carol in 1857 and published it in 1863, so it is out of copyright, and the sheet is made by this site. Modern arrangements are separate works and are not used.
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We Three Kings in real music: the numbers
In E minor the tune uses 7 of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale, all of them inside the key. It moves by step 24 times out of 46, and ends on degree ♭3.
This tune against real art songs
| What | This tune | OpenScore Lieder (352 minor-key songs) |
|---|---|---|
| First note | B4 (degree 5) | 46.6% start on degree 5 |
| Last note | G4 (degree ♭3) | 8.5% end on degree ♭3 |
| 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 minor-key song whose key signature does not change; the carol numbers are counted on the melody printed above.
How common E minor is
| Collection | Items with a key | Share in E minor | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenScore Lieder | 1,462 | 4.0% | 12 of 24 |
| Mutopia | 1,974 | 2.7% | 13 of 24 |
| MusicBrainz works | 13,669 | 4.2% | 12 of 24 |
| MusicBrainz works | 5,340 | 4.8% | 12 of 24 |
| Open Opus work titles | 3,587 | 3.3% | 12 of 24 |
| AcousticBrainz recordings | 63,124 | 3.9% | 11 of 24 |
Counts of key signatures (and estimated major or minor) in the collections the site has measured; see the key page for E minor.
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 "We Three Kings"
Overview
"We Three Kings", original title "Three Kings of Orient", also known as "We Three Kings of Orient Are" or "The Quest of the Magi", is a Christmas carol that was written by John Henry Hopkins Jr. in 1857. At the time of composing the carol, Hopkins served as the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and he wrote the carol for a Christmas pageant in New York City. It became the first widely popular Christmas carol written in America.
Composition
John Henry Hopkins Jr. organized the carol in such a way that three male voices would each sing a solo verse in order to correspond with the three kings. The first and last verses of the carol are sung together by all three as "verses of praise", while the intermediate verses are sung individually with each king describing the gift he was bringing. The refrain proceeds to praise the beauty of the Star of Bethlehem. The Magi's solos are typically not observed during contemporary performances of the carol.
The carol's melody has been described as "sad" and "shifting" in nature. Because of this, it highly resembles a song from the Middle Ages and Middle Eastern music, both of which it has been frequently compared to.
Background and influence
At the time he was writing "We Three Kings" in 1857, John Henry Hopkins Jr. was serving as the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Although he originally worked as a journalist for a New York newspaper and studied to become a lawyer, he chose to join the clergy upon graduating from the University of Vermont. Hopkins studied at the General Theological Seminary in New York City and after graduating and being ordained a deacon in 1850, he became its first music teacher five years later, holding the post until 1857 alongside his ministry in the Episcopal Church.
Source: Wikipedia, “We Three Kings” — CC BY-SA 4.0 — text excerpted; see the article for the full text and authors. Revision of 2026-01-11.
Sources and licences for the text, scores and recordings on this page are on the credits page.
Sources: Wikipedia, "We Three Kings" (score 1 in the article), Wikimedia Commons, "Three Kings of Orient.mid" (tracks 1 and 3 read in turn).