# Melody of "Little Town of Bethlehem" different in UK than in US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 15, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243 "2010-12-15T15:07:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243/21 "2010-12-15T19:15:40Z")
> [@](#): > > I think you mean “O Tannenbaum”. I know what I’m saying. O Tannebaum, Oh, Christmas Tree, and Maryland my Maryland are all the same music. I listed the later lyrics applied to the song in each case – Maryland my Maryland post-dates O Tannenbaum and What Child is This postdates Greensleeves. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243/22 "2010-12-15T19:20:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I know what I’m saying. > > O Tannebaum, Oh, Christmas Tree, and Maryland my Maryland are all the same music. I listed the later lyrics applied to the song in each case – Maryland my Maryland post-dates O Tannenbaum and What Child is This postdates Greensleeves. Ah. I misread you. I thought you were saying that Maryland, My Maryland and What Child is This were contrafacta of each other. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243/23 "2010-12-15T19:47:10Z")
It could be just that I’m far more familiar with them - but I like the American versions better. To me, the US “Away in a Manger” sounds more like a lullaby than the UK one (which is how I think of that song) and the US “O Little Town” feels more contemplative than the UK one. The feeling of the music goes better with the words. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243/24 "2010-12-15T22:24:26Z")
Yep, each to his own. I know and like “Carol”, but you will have to prise “Noel” from my cold dead hands. Also I was born and bred to “Forest Green” and consider it far more singable than that American… thing. But Walford Davies’s arrangement is lovely if you have a choir to perform it (and a tenor for the recitative). ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243/25 "2010-12-15T23:26:56Z")
I’m not sure if you’d consider it a “carol”, but “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” has several common melodies. [This page](http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/c/c307.html) (autoplaying MIDI warning) lists just some of them, and doesn’t include Jefferson, the most common one in Lutheran Hymnals. Checking Youtube I was surprised that Hyfrydol seems to be the popular modern choice. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243/26 "2010-12-15T23:49:31Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > The melodies to all of the following songs are interchangeable: > > Mickey Mouse Club Theme Song > Stairway to Heaven > House of the Rising Sun > Yankee Doodle > Pop Goes the Weasel… Do you even know what a melody is? These songs all have different melodies, and NONE are interchangeable. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243/27 "2010-12-16T00:21:59Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > I generally prefer the British tunes for O Little Town and Away in a Manger, but the American tune for It Came Upon a Midnight Clear blows the British one away. I’m glad, albeit disappointed, that you cleared that up for me. I knew that “Midnight Clear” was written by Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert & …), but not that his version wasn’t the one sung in the US. I’d always considered it by far one of his richest melodies. Now-- Well, always better to know the truth. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243/28 "2010-12-16T00:28:05Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Do you even know what a melody is? These songs all have different melodies, and NONE are interchangeable. I don’t understand your point. The lyrics of any of those songs can be sung to the melodies of all the others (admitted, sometimes with a bit of necessary tucking…). Therefore the melodies are interchangeable. What am I missing? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243/29 "2010-12-16T07:03:22Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I know what I’m saying. > > O Tannebaum, Oh, Christmas Tree, and Maryland my Maryland are all the same music. I listed the later lyrics applied to the song in each case – Maryland my Maryland post-dates O Tannenbaum and What Child is This postdates Greensleeves. The tune to which Americans sing _O Tannebaum_ is better known in Britain as the socialist anthem, [The Red Flag](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Flag), traditionally sung at the end of the annual Labour Party conference. (Although it bears very little relation to what the Labour Party actually stands for these days.) Personally, I cannot hear _O Tannebaum_ without thinking of cowards flinching, traitors sneering, and “our martyr’d dead.” ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243/30 "2010-12-16T10:01:27Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Angels from the Realms of Glory**. Not extremely popular any more, but one I know, at least in the US version: The wikipedia article on that is not precisely accurate, I think, because the tune for **Angels from the Realms of Glory** as generally sung in UK/Aus is just a _touch_ different from **Angels we have heard on high** (in the former, the four lines are identical save for the last note - in the latter, the second and fourth lines have a different 3-note ending) **Angels we have heard on high** was never heard over here until the last five years or so, btw (we always sang “Realms” instead) and I find it almost unbearably excruciating in an uncanny valley so-close-but-just-not-right kind of way. The fact that it’s usually pop stars putting up souped up versions of it that you hear, rather than proper choirs, doesn’t help. I have also hear the other tune for “Realms” sung, but not often. In Aus, I hear both tunes to “O Little Town” in nearly equal proportions. I prefer “Forest Green” myself, but the other tune has a lovely descant in the last verse. Heard the US “Away in a manger” occasionally, but the UK one is more popular. I have also heard “Love Divine” sung to a wide variety of tunes, only one of which ([Hyfrydol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyfrydol)) I can find in my hymn book. Interestingly, the tune there actually _labelled_ “Love Divine” is one I’ve never heard at all. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243/31 "2010-12-16T13:37:54Z")
For several years I’ve attended a Christmas Eve service at an Episcopal church in NY. In order to make as many people happy as possible we sing 2 verses to Forest Green and 2 verses to St. Louis. Until then I had only been familiar with the St. Louis tune. Forest Green is in my church’s hymnal with entirely different words. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243/32 "2010-12-16T15:29:34Z")
The Brits do something unholy to the “fa-la-las” in **Deck The Halls**. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243/33 "2010-12-16T16:03:11Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > The tune to which Americans sing _O Tannebaum_ is better known in Britain as the socialist anthem, [The Red Flag](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Flag), traditionally sung at the end of the annual Labour Party conference. Which, to continue in the spirit of the thread, was originally written to the tune of “The White Cockade”. Billy Bragg sings it [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM5XzTO0lOo). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melody-of-little-town-of-bethlehem-different-in-uk-than-in-us/564243.md?page=1)