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'{{italic title}} {{Infobox song | title = O Little Town of Bethlehem | English_title = | comment = | image = Manuscriptolittletownofbethlehem.png | caption = [[Phillips Brooks|Author's]] manuscript of first stanza | alt = | original_artist = | recorded_by = | performed_by = | written = | Released = <!-- {{Start date|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | Published = c. 1868 | Length = <!-- {{Duration|m=MM|s=SS}} --> | Writer = [[Phillips Brooks]] | Composer = [[Lewis Redner]] ("St Louis"), [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]] ("Forest Green"), [[Henry Walford Davies]] ("Wengen" and "Christmas Carol") | Lyricist = | Language = [[English language|English]] | Form = Christmas carol }} {{wikisource|O Little Town of Bethlehem}} {{listen|filename=Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.ogg|title=O Little Town of Bethlehem (St. Louis version)|description=|format=[[Ogg]]}} '''''O Little Town of Bethlehem''''' is a popular [[Christmas carol]]. ==Words== The text was written by [[Phillips Brooks]] (1835–1893), an [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal]] priest, rector of the [[Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia]]. He was inspired by visiting the village of [[Bethlehem]] in the [[Sanjak]] of Jerusalem in 1865. Three years later, he wrote the poem for his church and his organist, [[Lewis Redner]], added the music. ==Music== [[File:St Louis (Redner).png|thumb|"St Louis" by Lewis Redner (from an 1896 hymnal)]] Redner's tune, simply titled "'''St. Louis'''", is the tune used most often for this carol in the United States.<ref name=benson>Louis F. Benson, "[http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Notes_On_Carols/o_little_town_of_bethlehem.htm O Little Town of Bethlehem]". ''Studies Of Familiar Hymns'', First Series (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1924), 11</ref> Redner recounted the story of his composition in 1924:<ref name=benson/> {{quote|As Christmas of 1868 approached, Mr. Brooks told me that he had written a simple little carol for the Christmas Sunday-school service, and he asked me to write the tune to it. The simple music was written in great haste and under great pressure. We were to practice it on the following Sunday. Mr. Brooks came to me on Friday, and said, ‘Redner, have you ground out that music yet to "O Little Town of Bethlehem"? I replied, 'No,' but that he should have it by Sunday. On the Saturday night previous my brain was all confused about the tune. I thought more about my Sunday-school lesson than I did about the music. But I was roused from sleep late in the night hearing an angel-strain whispering in my ear, and seizing a piece of music paper I jotted down the treble of the tune as we now have it, and on Sunday morning before going to church I filled in the harmony. Neither Mr. Brooks nor I ever thought the carol or the music to it would live beyond that Christmas of 1868.<br /> My recollection is that Richard McCauley, who then had a bookstore on Chestnut Street west of Thirteenth Street, printed it on leaflets for sale. Rev. Dr. Huntington, rector of All Saints' Church, Worcester, Mass., asked permission to print it in his Sunday-school hymn and tune book, called ''The Church Porch'',<ref>William Reed Huntington (ed.) ''[https://archive.org/details/churchporchaser00huntgoog The Church Porch: A Service Book and Hymnal for Sunday Schools]'' (E.P. Dutton, 1882)</ref> and it was he who christened the music 'Saint Louis.'}} [[File:Forest Green.png|thumb|"Forest Green", from the English Hymnal, 1906]] In [[Commonwealth of Nations|the Commonwealth]], and sometimes in the U.S. (especially in the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]]), the English hymn tune "'''Forest Green'''" is used instead. "Forest Green" was adapted by [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]] from an English [[folk song|folk]] [[broadside ballad|ballad]] called "The Ploughboy's Dream" which he had collected from a Mr. Garman of Forest Green, Surrey in 1903.<ref>[http://www.vwml.org/record/RVW2/4/19 Vaughan Williams' Manuscript of "The Ploughboy's Dream"] at the [[Vaughan Williams Memorial Library]] [[The Full English (folk music archive)|Full English collection]], accessed 30 March 2014</ref><ref>Byron Adams, Robin Wells, "Hymn Tunes from Folk Songs" in ''Vaughan Williams essays'', Volume 3; Volume 44, (Ashgate Publishing, 2003), ISBN 978-1-85928-387-5 p.111</ref><ref>[http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VJqgspx57C0 "O Little Town of Bethlehem (Vaughan Williams)"] English hymn.</ref> Henry Garman was born in 1830 in [[Sussex]], and in the [[United Kingdom Census 1901|1901 census]] was living in [[Ockley]], Surrey; Vaughan Williams' manuscript notes he was a "labourer of Forest Green near Ockley - Surrey. (Aged about 60?)", although Mr Garman would have been nearer 73 when he recited the tune.<ref>Mark Browse, [http://hymntunes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/forest-green.html O Little Town], 141-142</ref> The tune has a [[Strophic form|strophic]] verse structure and is in the form A-A-B-A. Adapted into a hymn tune harmonised by Vaughan Williams, it was first published in the ''[[English Hymnal]]'' of 1906. Two versions also exist by [[Henry Walford Davies|H. Walford Davies]], called "Wengen", and "Christmas carol".<ref>http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W3446_GBAJY0110304&vw=dc</ref><ref>http://mander-organs-forum.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/3764-walford-davies-tune-for-o-little-town/</ref> "Wengen" was published in ''[[Hymns Ancient and Modern]]'' in 1922,<ref>''[[Hymns Ancient and Modern]]'' (London: William Clowes and Sons, Ltd., 1922)</ref> meanwhile "Christmas Carol" is usually performed only by choirs rather than as a congregational hymn. This is because the first two verses are for treble voices with organ accompaniment, with only the final verse as a chorale/refrain harmony. This setting includes a recitative from the Gospel of Luke at the beginning, and cuts verses 2 and 4 of the original 5-verse carol. This version is often performed at the service of [[Nine Lessons and Carols]] in [[Kings College, Cambridge]].<ref>[http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/events/chapel-services/nine-lessons/order-service-1999.html Order of Service], ''A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols 1999'', King's College Cambridge 1999.</ref> [[William Rhys-Herbert]] included a new hymn-tune and harmonization as part of his 1909 cantata, ''Bethany''. ==In Popular Culture== *At the beginning of ''[[Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire]]'', the first episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', the song is sung by the kids of Springfield Elementary school at their annual Christmas pagent. *The first line of the carol is quoted in the breakout song "[[La Vie Bohème]]," from the musical ''[[RENT]]''. (The scene is set on the evening of Christmas Day.) ==Renditions by Popular Singers== *[[Jeremy Camp]] (''[[Christmas: God with Us]]'') *[[Mariah Carey]] (''[[Merry Christmas II You]]'') *[[The Carpenters]] (''[[An Old-Fashioned Christmas]]'') *[[Johnny Cash]] (''[[Classic Christmas (Johnny Cash album)|Classic Christmas]]'') *[[Neil Diamond]] (''[[The Christmas Album, Volume II]]'') *[[Emmylou Harris]] (''[[Light of the Stable (album)|Light of the Stable]]'') *[[Sarah McLachlan]] (''[[Wintersong]]'') *[[Barbra Streisand]] (''[[A Christmas Album (Barbra Streisand album)|A Christmas Album]]'') *[[Jim Reeves]] (''[[Twelve Songs of Christmas]]'') *[[Dolly Parton]] ("[[Home for Christmas]]") *[[Phil Everly]] (''[[Christmas with the Everly Brothers and the Boystown Choir]]'') *[[Elvis Presley]] (''[[Elvis' Christmas Album]]'') *[[Glen Campbell]] (''[[Home for the Holidays (Glen Campbell album)|Home for the Holidays]]'') ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== *Free arrangements for [http://cantorion.org/music/14/O-Little-Town-of-Bethlehem-Forest-Green-tune-%28UK%29 piano] and [http://cantorion.org/music/4164/O-Little-Town-of-Bethlehem-St.-Louis-tune-%28US%29 SATB] from ''Cantorion.org'' (PD, CPDL) *[http://www.kaiser-ulrich.de/Kaiser/Noten.aspx Free arrangement] for female choir (SSA) by [[:de:Ulrich Kaiser (Musiktheoretiker)|Ulrich Kaiser]] *[http://imslp.org/wiki/Bethany_%28Rhys-Herbert,_William%29 Free hymn arrangement] in the [http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page IMSLP Petrucci Music Library] * [http://www.traditional-songs.com/download_score.php?name=O%20little%20town%20of%20Bethlehem&country=England Free score] * Score of Wengen: ([http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Images/Wengen-1_Walford-Davies.jpg pt 1], [http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Images/Wengen-2_Walford_Davies.jpg pt 2]) * [http://s2.imslp.org/images/thumb/pdfs/6a/018d3167233a7eb3464d4405c4ddaf8da809f02b.png Score of Christmas Carol] {{DEFAULTSORT:O Little Town Of Bethlehem}} [[Category:1860s songs]] [[Category:Christmas carols]] [[Category:American Christmas songs]] [[Category:Burl Ives songs]] [[Category:Glen Campbell songs]] [[Category:Compositions by Ralph Vaughan Williams]] [[Category:Barbra Streisand songs]] [[Category:Bob Dylan songs]]'