Virtual accompanist
Play “The Star of Bethlehem”
Free same-meter accompaniment for The Star of Bethlehem (Henry Kirke White): organ, piano or guitar playing the tune OLD 100TH (Louis Bourgeois) in four-part harmony, 6 verses, with the words on screen. Choose the key and speed, add an introduction, project the words on a TV, or practice your own choir part. Made for churches and home groups without a musician.
Sung here to OLD 100TH (Louis Bourgeois), a Long Meter (8.8.8.8) tune — not necessarily the tune usually paired with this text. Any tune in the same meter fits the words.
Choir part trainer (soprano, alto, tenor, bass)
Solo or mute a part, raise your own part, slow it down, or loop one line until you have it.
Press Play once to choose a line to loop.
- 1When marshaled on the nightly plain,
- The glittering host bestud the sky,
- One star alone of all the train
- Can fix the sinner's wandering eye.
- 2Hark, hark! to God the chorus breaks
- From every host, from every gem;
- But one alone the Saviour speaks,
- It is the Star of Bethlehem.
- 3Once on the raging seas I rode,
- The storm was loud, the night was dark,
- The ocean yawned, and rudely blowed
- The wind that tossed my foundering bark.
- 4Deep horror then my vitals froze;
- Death-struck, I ceased the tide to stem:
- When suddenly a star arose,
- It was the Star of Bethlehem.
- 5It was my guide, my light, my all,
- It bade my dark forebodings cease;
- And, through the storm and danger's thrall,
- It led me to the port of peace.
- 6Now safely moored, my perils o'er,
- I'll sing, first in night's diadem,
- For ever and for evermore,
- The Star, the Star of Bethlehem.
About this music
OLD 100TH — Louis Bourgeois. Setting: Sternhold and Hopkins' Psalter, 1561.. The score is from the Open Hymnal Project, copied from ccel from Sternhold and Hopkins' Psalter 1561. Words: "Hymnal and Canticles of the Protestant Episcopal Church", 1875, hymn 405.; music and setting are in the public domain. The words above are from the hymnal cited on the The Star of Bethlehem page.
Played in your browser with instrument sounds from the FluidR3 soundfont by Frank Wen (MIT license). No recordings are used.