O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)

DESCRIPTION: German Christmas song, known in English as "Oh Christmas Tree." In praise of the evergreen's ability to keep its needles all year long: "O tannenbaum, o tannenbaum, Wie treu sind deine blatter...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1799 (tune, "Melodien zum Mildheimischen Liederbuche"; lyrics published 1820)
KEYWORDS: Christmas nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Germany
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 374, "Oh Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 355-357, "Maryland, My Maryland -- (O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum!; Lauriger Horatius)"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 456, "O Tannenbaum" (notes only; Averill does not record scouts singing this song, but they heavily borrowed the tune)
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #56, "O Tannenbaum" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maryland! My Maryland" (tune)
cf. "Chamber Lye" (tune)
cf. "The Kinkaiders" (tune)
cf. "General Lee's Wooing" (tune)
cf. "Mule" (tune)
cf. "My Delaware" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Maryland! My Maryland (File: RJ19130)
Chamber Lye (File: RL659)
The Kinkaiders (File: San278)
General Lee's Wooing (File: SBoA233)
Mule ("The Mule He Is a Funny Sight") (File: MHAp225)
Softly Falls the Light of Day (File: ACSF456S)
The Song of Iowa (by S. H. M. Byers) (William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the United States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 36; also in WIkipedia)
Lutefisk, O Lutefisk (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 20)
O Tom the Toad (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 50)
P.S. 52 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 102)
National Embalming School (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 125)
New Mexico, We Love You (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 251)
The Red Flag (by Joe Hill) (William M. Adler, _The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon_, pp. 335-336)
Heaven, My Home ("There is a land of joy and peace") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 58)
Maryland ("Oh, how I wish that strife would cease") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 95)
Maryland, My Maryland ("The rebel horde is on thy shore") (by Septimus Winner) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 95)
My Fifty-Third ("Respectfully Dedicated to the 53rd Regt. P[ennsylvania] V[olunteers] by Levi J. Fritz") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 102)
My Maryland ("My barefoot bands are on they shore," by "Stone-Wall Jackson") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 104)
The People to the President ("Oh, let the Constitution stand") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 126)
Sheridan! Cavalry Sheridan! ("Come! Soldier's all, lets sing this song" [sic.]) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 140)
To Sauerwein ("The Union men have left the floor") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 195)
A Voice from the Old Maryland Line ("The Old Line's foot i on thy shore," by N. G. R[idgeley]) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 196)
Roosevelt 1912 campaign song ("Thou wilt not cower in the dust, Roosevelt, O Roosevelt!") (Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, p. 193)
The Song of Iowa (Iowa's state song; lyrics by Samuel Hawkins Marshall Byers, 1897) (see William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 35; tune on p. 114)
Michigan, My Michigan ("A song to thee, fair State of mine") (William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, pp. 45-46. The notes claim a tune by William Otto Miessner, but although it may have been published with another tune, it was clearly modeled on "Maryland, My Maryland" and this melody)
Ode to New Jersey ("The rolling wave is on thy shore, Jerseyland, my Jerseyland") (William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 53; tune on p. 160)
The Tide Rolls In ("The Prohibition tide comes in, It's rolling in, it's rolling in") (by H. Anna Brunner) (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 11)
Motherland (by Rev. Allan Eastman Cross) ("Oh beautiful! Beyond compare, Motherland, my Motherland!") (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 168)
Epworth League, My Epworth League (Harbin-Parodology, #139, p. 42)
O Pumpkin Cards (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 457)
Pioneers, Oh Pioneers ("Oh, the finest army in the land, Pioneers, oh Pioneers") (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 82)
The Morning Prayer ("Lord, in thos morning hour I pray") (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 110)
NOTES [77 words]: Ian Bradley, in The Penguin Book of Carols, attributes the "O Tannenbaum" words to Ernst Anschütz in 1824, but Fuld offers the 1820 date, and I'm more inclined to trust him.
Both dates seem surprisingly early; according to Ruth Binney, Nature's Way: lore, legend, fact and fiction, David and Charles, 2006, p. 176, the Christmas tree (as opposed to simply bringing in evergreen boughs) was introduced to England by Albert, the husband of Queen VIctoria. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB374B

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