Prophetiae Sibyllarum: 5. Sibylla Samia, by Lassus
Every score here is public domain, free to read, print and keep. Open it in the browser and it plays, at whatever tempo you can read it.
Get the practice plan for Prophetiae Sibyllarum: 5. Sibylla Samia
Here it is. Check your inbox for day 1.
- Hear it through at Slow (25 bpm). Open it in the reader, choose Slow, and follow the page with your eyes without playing. As it plays, count 2 to the bar.
- Learn the right hand of bars 1 to 8 on its own. Say the note names out loud the first time through, then play it three times without stopping.
- Learn the left hand of the same bars on its own. Keep it quiet and even: it is the floor the tune stands on.
- Put hands together at Slow, 25 bpm. Bars 1 to 8 only. Stop after every wrong note and play that bar again before moving on.
- Move up to Steady (38 bpm) once Slow feels easy three times in a row. Then learn the next 8 bars the same way: right hand, left hand, together.
- Play the whole piece (about 3 minutes) from the start, at whatever speed keeps it going. A steady run with a few slips beats a fast one that stops.
About this piece
From Lassus's Prophetiae Sibyllarum, a set of Latin songs for the prophetesses of antiquity, famous for their startling chromatic harmony. It is arranged for piano from the choir original; listen for the sudden shifts from G minor to E flat, then to D major, A major and C major within the opening bars, and for the close on an open D major chord.
How to play it
Play slowly and listen to each chord change, as the surprise is the point. Keep the four voices evenly balanced, as no single line is the tune.
Reading it, and printing it
The score opens in Artform's reader, which shows the music as engraved notation and plays it back so you can hear the line before you try it. You can slow the tempo down, loop a passage that is not working yet, and print the page when you would rather have paper on the stand.
The file itself is MusicXML, which MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale and Dorico all open, so the notes are yours to keep whatever you read them in.
Edition: Mutopia Project #1602, licensed CC BY-SA. Converted to MusicXML by Artform and checked note for note against the original.
Who Lassus was
Franco-Flemish composer, one of the most famous and prolific of the Renaissance, with over two thousand works. Legend says that as a boy chorister his voice was so beautiful he was kidnapped three times. He spent most of his career at the ducal court in Munich.
Learn the music behind it
Reading a piece and understanding it are different skills. If you want the harmony under this one, the chord trainer teaches chords the way songs use them, and the scale pages cover the fingering for every key.