"O Little Town of
Bethlehem" is a popular Christmas carol. The text was written by Phillips Brooks (1835–1893), an Episcopal priest, Rector of the Church
of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia. He was inspired by visiting the
Palestinian city of Bethlehem in 1865. Three years later, he wrote
the poem for his church and his organist, Lewis Redner, added the music. Redner's tune,
simply titled "St. Louis", is the tune used most often for this carol
in the U.S.[1] but
in the British
Commonwealth, and sometimes in the U.S. (especially in the Episcopal
Church), the English 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,Surrey in 1903.[2][3] Adapted
into a hymn tune, it was first published in the English Hymnal of 1906.
Another
version by H. Walford
Davies, called "Wengen" (or sometimes just "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 traditionally used at the service of Nine Lessons and
Carols in Kings College,
Cambridge.[4]
William
Rhys-Herbert included
a new hymn-tune and harmonization as part of his 1909 cantata, Bethany.(Wikipedia).
