This folk song, Coventry Carol, is one of five Christmas arrangements for intermediate string ensemble included in Richard Young's Comprehensive String Pedagogy & Curriculum. A portion of the proceeds of sales for all CSPC music goes to support free music education at The People's Music School.

This very moving song was from a 15th century Christmas Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. It was sung by the women of Bethlehem just before Herod's soldiers came to slaughter their children.
 Since it should be played with solemn and heavy hearts, the tone quality should be quiet but dense. The bow speed should be slow and even, and the flat surface of the hair should be used when playing in the upper half. Strive for molto legato. Arm weight should be used instead of right hand finger pressure, and leverage is particularly important. Vibrato is appropriate throughout, with a variety of speed and width. An especially intense vibrato is needed for those brave F-sharps in the cello and bass 6 bars before the end of the piece. There should be special care with the balance when the viola has the solo at "C."
 -Richard Young

Full program notes are included with the score. There are fingerings and bowings in all the string parts of every one of CSPC's pieces. These "cooked-in" technical solutions target the particular levels of the students. They are not just pragmatic but "musical."

Please note that due to a loss of source files, the PDF files of the music have been generated from scanned copies of printed parts. While every effort has been made to produce high quality parts, the limitations of scanning will result in some degradation of print quality.