Among traditional German Christmas carols, O Tannenbaum is one of the best known and most loved. It is generally accepted in many quarters that the tune dates from the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries and that O Tannenbaum is contemporary with the beginnings of the Christmas tree celebration itself as it evolved in Alsace around the end of the medieval period. While there is a remote chance that the melody to O Tannenbaum may be that old, it is not documented in any source prior to 1799. That year, it appears in a collection of 500-odd songs published by Enlightenment-age philosopher Rudolph Zacharias Becker, entitled
. This was a collection of folk song adaptations intended as a musical handbook for the people who lived in Becker's imaginary, Utopian dream-village of Mildheim. Intriguingly, the tune to O Tannenbaum appears here under the title "Es lebe hoch der kluge Mann" and is credited to prominent German opera composer
. In 1820, Potsdam schoolmaster August Zarnack published
, a collection of songs for children. This contained both the opening verse of O Tannenbaum and the melody as it is sung today. Zarnack had absorbed the tune from the singing of students. In 1824, another schoolmaster from Leipzig, Ernst Anschütz, added yet more verses. The version of O Tannenbaum in use today consists of Zarnack's first verse with two of Anschütz' verses forming the second and third stanzas. Both authors wrote additional verses to O Tannenbaum, which are not in standard use. That the popularity of O Tannenbaum spread quickly to the shores of the United States is certain, though no one knows just when or how this happened. Perhaps it arrived on American soil along with German immigrants in the early to mid-nineteenth century, as did the practice of celebrating Christmas with a Christmas tree. No less than four U.S. states have adopted the melody of O Tannenbaum as their state song. Most notoriously, the state of Maryland adopted it in 1861 as "Maryland, My Maryland," and as such, the innocent Christmas song then served as a rallying cry for the Confederate cause. Nonetheless, this has not diminished the popularity of O Tannenbaum, which remains as evergreen as the very cut of tree that it was written to celebrate. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis, All Music Guide
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