"O Little Town of Bethlehem" is a popular Christmas carol. The text was written by Phillips Brooks (1835–1893) Organist, Lewis Redner, added the music. Redner's tune, simply titled "St. Louis", is the tune used most often for this carol in the United States.
In the United Kingdom, and sometimes in the U.S. (especially in the Episcopal Church), the hymn tune "Forest Green" is used instead. "Forest Green" was adapted by Ralph Vaughan Williams from an English folk ballad called "The Ploughboy's Dream" which he had collected from a Mr. Garman of Forest Green, Gloucestershire in 1903. Adapted into a hymn tune, it was first published in the English Hymnal of 1906.
This free PDF can be downloaded, printed, and played for free and includes suggested fingerings and bowings. More free sheet music available on Fiddlerman.com
This and many other X-mas tunes can be found here.
I love the Forest Green tune. St. Louis is such a booooooring, simple tune. I wish Forest Green was the tune used most frequently for O Little Town of Bethlehem in the United States. The English & Irish do Christmas melodies much better than us Americans, I have noticed. That is why I prefer ancient carols over modern ones. As for The Ploughboy's Dream, I like that too. I am going to learn the music to play it in a talent show that is coming up in the next few weeks. By the way, the apartment building I live in is surrounded by a beautiful forest (I always loved forests, even before I knew the tune "Forest Green") so I have nicknamed the building Forest Green.
ReplyDeleteClaire Dixon
Henrico, VA
P.S. I play the piano, not the violin. I came upon this site when looking for sites that mention the tune Forest Green.
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