O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum)

About this arrangement

The German carol in waltz time, arranged in C major and sung to its original German words. It starts on a pickup, “O”, on the G below middle C, and the first bar has a dotted quaver and semiquaver on “Tan-nen”. After the pickup the hand sits in C position with the thumb on middle C, dips to the B below for the end of “dei-ne” and reaches up to A in bar 9. Bars 1 to 4 come back as bars 5 to 8 and again as bars 13 to 16, so there are really only two tunes to learn. The left hand plays a waltz bass in C, D minor, G7 and F.

Practice tip: Say “Tan-nen-baum” with a quick “nen” and the dotted rhythm looks after itself. After the first note move the thumb up to middle C so the hand covers C to G, and stretch finger 5 up to the A in bar 9.

The words

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, wie treu sind deine Blätter! O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, wie treu sind deine Blätter! Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit, nein, auch im Winter, wenn es schneit. O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, wie treu sind deine Blätter!

A short history

The melody is an old German folk tune, first printed in 1799 and also used for the student drinking song “Lauriger Horatius”. In 1819 the Potsdam preacher and teacher Joachim August Zarnack wrote “O Tannenbaum” to it as a sad love song, holding up the fir tree, green in winter and summer, as a reproach to a faithless sweetheart.

In 1824 Ernst Anschütz, a Leipzig schoolteacher, kept Zarnack’s first verse and added two more about the tree itself, and as the Christmas tree spread from Germany through Europe and America in the 19th century his version went with it and became a Christmas carol. The first verse sung here is Zarnack’s and Anschütz’s: “wie treu sind deine Blätter” means “how faithful are your leaves”.

The tune is also sung in the United States as “Maryland, My Maryland”, that state’s official song from 1939 until 2021.

Quick facts

Tune

Traditional (German, 16th century)

Words

Joachim August Zarnack, 1819, and Ernst Anschütz, 1824

Key

C major

Time signature

3/4

Length

16 bars and a pickup

Tempo

Warmly, crotchet = 100

Difficulty

Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 97 of 201)

Type

Carol

Hands

Both: melody in the right hand, chords in the left

Copyright

Public domain tune; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal and classroom use

Questions and answers