Have You Seen the Ghost of John, a Round for SingersHave You Seen the Ghost of John, despite its strange lyrics, is perhaps the most beautiful short singing round in the world. Your voice students will love this free vocal sheet music!
Print out singing round Have You Seen the Ghost of John pdf The main technical difficulty in singing this song is the end of line 2, with the quick-moving eighth notes and no chance to take a breath. Although it turns it into a very long phrase, I encourage my singers to sing all of lines 2 & 3 in one breath. This way, the eighth notes at the end of line 2 sound smooth and flowing. However, then it takes a lot of control to get up to the top notes in line 3! But this trains singers to think and plan their breathing. The chord symbols are only suggestions -- when you have just one singer rehearsing the song, it can be nice to have a bit of harmony in the background to help maintain pitch. I use very simple open chords -- just 2 notes. One Christmas, I wanted a group of singers to sing this beautiful round for the recital, but I felt the words would seem frivolous in that particular setting. I decided to substitute Latin words with which many people are already familiar, from Adeste Fideles (O Come, All Ye Faithful): "Venite adoremus, Dominum." (This means "Come let us adore the Lord.") I'll admit this was a bit of a stretch. The stresses on the Latin syllables don't work out the same in Ghost of John as they do in Adeste Fideles, and I had to shift a few notes around. Instead of "ve-NI-te a-do-RE-mus," my version goes "VE-ni-TE a-DO-re-MUS." I'm hoping Thomas Aquinas, medieval scholar, wouldn't roll over in his grave! But I'll join hands with Peter Needham, who translated "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" into Latin (and had to invent some new words in the process). It's fun to sing in other languages! Have You Seen the Ghost of John could just be the loveliest vocal round in the world...if it isn't, I want to hear the singing
rounds that beat it out! The words are silly but fun; of course, it's a Halloween round.
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