Ave Verum Corpus on the ocarina

What are the notes for Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus?

On a 12-hole. Read left to right, a line at a time.

1. 1
   Ghigh CE

   GF♯F

   FAGF

   FEE
2. 2
   DD

   EEFF

   FEE

   D
3. 3
   DG

   GF♯F♯

   DF♯A

   AGGG
4. 4
   high C

   (hold)BAG

   GF♯F♯

   G
5. 5
   GG

   GA♭A♭

   A♭high CB♭A♭

   A♭GG
6. 6
   FF

   FA♭GF

   FE♭DE♭

   Drest
7. 7
   EE

   EDCF

   FF

   FEDG
8. 8
   G

   (hold)FGA

   EDE

   FF
9. 9
   high C

   Tricky spot:(hold)high C♯

   high DABhigh C

   BAGhigh CF
10. 10
    EDD

    C

Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus opens on a long G, rises to high C, falls to E, then sinks G, F♯ and a long F: a slow, quiet tune that the score asks the singers to sing sotto voce, under the breath. Here is its whole melody, the soprano part from start to finish, in 38 bars of 4/4 in C major, from C up to high D. It fits a 6-hole or a 12-hole ocarina; its top notes, high C♯ and D, are above the range of a 4-hole.

What is the hardest part of Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus?

The climb near the end, where the tune holds a long high C, then creeps up by half steps through high C♯ to high D, the highest note in the piece. On a 12-hole, Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus goes from high C to high C♯: you swap hands: lift the left thumb and cover the right ring. On a 6-hole, you lift the right thumb and cover the right middle.

Play high C, C♯, D slowly on its own until the C♯ sits in tune between its neighbours, and give the top notes a little more air without pushing. The rest of the tune leans on half steps too: G, F♯, F in bar 2, and from bar 18 to bar 23 the tune turns to A♭, B♭ and E♭, so read ahead before those bars. Count four slow beats in every bar and hold each long note to its full length. The score marks it only Adagio, slow, and our player starts at 60 beats a minute.

Where do you breathe in Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus?

Breathe at the end of each long note: after the D in bar 8, after the G in bar 16 (in the score the singers rest for three bars here while the strings play), in the two-beat rest in bar 24, and after the second F in bar 32, before the long climb to high C.

Which ocarina can play Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus?

A 4-hole ocarina cannot reach high C♯ and high D, so play Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus in this key on a 12-hole or 6-hole ocarina in C. On an ocarina in G or F, use the same fingerings: the tune sounds in a different key, which is fine when you play alone. Each linked chart has every fingering for its ocarina, and you can check your notes with a tuner such as our free ocarina tuner.

Why did Mozart write Ave Verum Corpus?

For a friend's church choir. Mozart wrote it for Anton Stoll, the church musician of St. Stephan's parish in Baden bei Wien, for the feast of Corpus Christi, while he was in the middle of writing his opera The Magic Flute, and the whole motet is only 46 bars long. Our tabs follow the soprano line, bars 3 to 43, of the motet in Breitkopf & Härtel's complete edition of Mozart's works, issued in Leipzig in 1880, which prints above the first bar that it was composed on 17 June 1791 in Baden and writes the soprano part in the old soprano clef, with middle C on the bottom line. In that printing the singers fall silent for three bars after the first half while the strings play on; our tabs leave those bars out and join the two halves. The score is in D major; our tabs move every note up a seventh, to C major, and leave out the alto, tenor and bass parts, the strings and the organ. Mozart died on 5 December 1791, less than six months later. We show the melody only. Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), the soprano line of his motet Ave verum corpus, K. 618, 1791.

What to play next

• Next song

  Arrival of the Queen of ShebaAnother hard song.

• Fingering chart

  Every note on the 12-holeWith a printable PDF.

• Tuner

  Sounds off? Check your notesSee if it's you or the ocarina, in 2 minutes.