Hey Sir Donkey Hey

A modern arrangement of the mediaeval carol ‘Orientis partibus’ for SATB and organ.

This is an arrangement of the mediaeval Song of the Ass, Orientus Partibus, traditionally sung on the eve of the Feast of the Circumcision, that is, New Year's Eve.

For more information on the original carol, see for example

• E. de Coussemaker, ‘Orientis Partibus’, Annales Archéologiques, 16 (1856), 259, 300–4.

• Henry Copley Greene, ‘The Song of the Ass’, Speculum, 6/4 (1931), 534–549. doi: 10.2307/2849511

• Henri Villetard, L’Office de Pierre de Corbeil, (Bibliotheque Musicologique, 4; Paris: Picard, 1907), 86–7, 130-1, https://archive.org/details/officedepierrede00pier.

This arrangement evokes the ancient character of the carol but gives it a modern twist. The words are my own metrical translation (somewhat loose) of the original Latin into English.

Summary information

• Voicing: SATB (optional split in STB on last chord)

• Notes on ambitus: ST go up to G; AB go up to E. There is scope for transposing down a tone if necessary.

• Instrumentation: Organ

• Approximate performance length: 3:15

• Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Releases

Version 1.0

Initial release:

• Sheet music (PDF, A4) for SATB and organ.

• MIDI preview: this is as it comes from Lilypond, so does not reflect the written articulation or dynamics.

MP3 rendering of the MIDI preview.

Source code

This piece was written using Lilypond. The source code for it is available from my GitLab repository. To compile it yourself, you will also need my house style files.