O Little Town of Bethlehem
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legacy / carol
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Standard Notation
Mandolin Tablature
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Lewis Redner/Phillips Brooks
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie.
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light.
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.
For Christ is born of Mary,
And gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars together
Proclaim the holy birth
And praises sing to God the King
And Peace to men on earth.
How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in.
O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray.
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell.
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel.
The words of "O little town of Bethlehem" are by Phillips Brooks(1835–1893), an<br> Episcopal priest, then rector of Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia and later of<br> Trinity Church, Boston. He was inspired by visiting the village of Bethlehem<br> in 1865. Three years later, he wrote the poem for his church, and his organist<br> Lewis Redner (1831-1908) added the music. Redner's tune, simply titled "St. Louis",<br> is the tune used most often for this carol in the United States. In Great Britain<br> the lyric is usually sung to a tune that Vaughan Williams set the<br> carol to an English traditional melody, "The Ploughboy’s Dream", which he re-titled<br> "Forest Green" in 1903. It first appeared in the English Hymnal in 1906.<br> The first printing of the tune was a broadside titled "The Plow-boy's Dream", published<br> by J. Marshall in London in 1795, now in the Bodleian library.<br> I have included this tune because after singing these words to Redner's chromatic tune,<br> I find "Forest Green" nicely straightforward and singable.<br>
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