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Sheet Music: The Boar's Head Carol

TitleThe Boar's Head Carol
ComposerTraditional English
 
InstrumentationFlute quartet
KeyC major
RangeC4–C6
Time signature4/4
Tempo120 BPM
Performance time0:25
Difficulty leveleasy
Download printable scorePDF Sheet Music (47 kB) (preview)
Download audio tracksMIDI (1 kB) MP3 (319 kB)
Play-along accompanimentMIDI (1 kB) MP3 (362 kB)
Date added2011-12-28
Last updated2011-12-28
CategoriesChristmas carols, Traditional/Folk

Performances

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Wednesday 28 December 2011

Tune of the Day: The Boar's Head Carol

Traditional English Christmas carol, arranged for four flutes

The “Boar's Head Carol” is a 15th-century English Christmas carol that describes the ancient tradition of sacrificing a boar and presenting its head at a wintertime feast. In antiquity the fierce boar was feared and respected; because of its ferocious nature, it was associated with death, just as the winter solstice was associated with the death of light.

Of the several extant versions of the carol, the one most usually performed today is based on a version published in 1521 in Wynkyn de Worde's Christmasse Carolles.