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=                          Away in a Manger                          =
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                             Introduction                             
======================================================================
"Away in a Manger" is a Christmas carol first published in the late
nineteenth century and used widely throughout the English-speaking
world. In Britain, it is one of the most popular carols; a 1996 Gallup
Poll ranked it joint second. Although it was long claimed to be the
work of German religious reformer Martin Luther, the carol is now
thought to be wholly American in origin. The two most common musical
settings are by William J. Kirkpatrick (1895) and James Ramsey Murray
(1887).


                                Words                                 
======================================================================
The popularity of the carol has led to many variants in the words,
which are discussed in detail below. The following are taken from
Kirkpatrick (1895):


 Variants 
==========
Almost every line in the carol has recorded variants. The most
significant include the following:
* Verse 1, line 1: The earliest sources have "no crib for his bed".
"No crib for a bed" is found in Murray (1887).
* Verse 1, line 2: The earliest sources have "lay down his sweet
head." "Laid" is first found in "Little Children's Book" (1885) - see
lie/lay distinction.
* Verse 1, line 2: Some sources, from as early as 1900, have "his wee
head" instead of "his sweet head."
* Verse 1, line 3: The earliest sources have "[t]he stars in the sky
looked down where he lay", leading to this line having only ten
syllables as opposed to the eleven of the other lines of the verse
(unless "looked" is pronounced as two syllables, as is done in some
musical settings). Herbert (1891) substituted "stars in the heaven",
and Gabriel (1892) "stars in the heavens" to regularize the meter.
Kirkpatrick (1895) may have been the first to use "stars in the bright
sky".
* Verse 1, line 4: The earliest sources have "asleep in the hay."
Murray (1887) changes this to "on the hay."
* Verse 2, line 1: The earliest sources have "the poor baby wakes".
"The baby awakes" is found in Herbert (1891).
* Verse 2, line 3: Some sources have "look down from on high".
* Verse 2, line 4: This line has a multitude of variants:
** "And stay by my crib watching my lullaby" ('Christian Cynosure',
1882)
** "And stay by my crib to watch lullaby" ('Seamen's Magazine', 1883)
** "And stay by my cradle to watch lullaby" (Murray, 1887)
** "And watch by me always, and ever be nigh" (1890)
** "And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh" (Herbert, 1891)
** "And watch o'er my bed while in slumber I lie" (1893)
** "And stay by my side until morning is nigh" (1905)
* Verse 3 is absent from the earliest publications. It first appears
in 'Gabriel's Vineyard Songs' (1892).
* Verse 3, line 4: Instead of "take us to heaven", one popular variant
found from 1899 has "fit us for heaven".


 First and second verses 
=========================
The origin of the words is obscure. An early appearance was on 2 March
1882, in the " Corner" section of the anti-Masonic journal 'The
Christian Cynosure'. Under the heading "Luther's Cradle Song", an
anonymous author contributed the first two verses, writing:

A near-identical article appeared in the November 1883 issue of 'The
Sailors' Magazine and Seamen's Friend'.

Another early version was published in 'Little Pilgrim Songs', a book
of Christian music for young children, whose preface is dated 10
November 1883. 'Little Pilgrim Songs' includes a similar claim that
the song was written "by Martin Luther for his own children".

An article in the May 1884 issue of 'The Myrtle', a periodical of the
Universalist Publishing House in Boston, also included the carol,
stating:  All four sources include almost-identical text of the first
two verses, with no music. 'Little Pilgrim Songs' and 'The Myrtle'
both suggest the melody of 'Home! Sweet Home!'


 Third verse 
=============
The third stanza, "Be near me, Lord Jesus", is absent from the known
early sources. Its first known appearance was in 'Gabriel's Vineyard
Songs' (1892), where it was set to a melody by Charles H. Gabriel
(simply marked "C"). Gabriel credited the entire text to Luther and
gave it the title "Cradle Song". Decades later, a story was published
attributing the third verse to John T. MacFarland:



Since this story dates the composition of the stanza to 1904-1908,
over a decade after its first known appearance, Hill judges that "the
1892 publication [of 'Gabriel's Vineyard Songs'] renders the Bishop's
story suspect, and additional evidence must be found before McFarland
can be safely credited with the writing of the third stanza." It has
been suggested that Gabriel may have written the third stanza himself
and attributed it to Luther.


 Popularity 
============
By Christmas of 1883, "Luther's Cradle Song" was already being
performed as a recitation as part of a Sunday School celebration in a
church in Nashville. The early popularity of the hymn may also be
reflected in a report (published in 1885, but covering the year 1884)
from an American mission in Maharashtra, India, stating:  By 1891,
Hill writes, "the carol was sweeping the country [the United States]",
with at least four musical settings published that year.


                    Spurious attribution to Luther                    
======================================================================
The great majority of early publications ascribe the words to German
Protestant reformer Martin Luther. Many go so far as to title the
carol "Luther's Cradle Song" or "Luther's Cradle Hymn", to describe
the English words as having been 'translated' from Luther, or to speak
of its alleged popularity in Germany. The claim of Luther's authorship
continued to be made well into the 20th century, but it is now
rejected as spurious for the following reasons:

* No text in Luther's known writings corresponds to the carol.
* No German text for the carol has been found from earlier than 1934,
more than 50 years after the first English publication. That German
text reads awkwardly, and appears to be a result of a translation from
the English original.
* The unadorned narrative style of the carol is atypical of Luther,
who, Hill states, "could never throw off his role of educator and
doctrinarian."
* When some earlier 19th-century sources do mention a carol written by
Luther for his son Hans, they are referring to a different text: "Vom
Himmel hoch, da komm ich her".

Richard Hill, in a comprehensive study of the carol written in 1945,
suggested that "Away in a Manger" might have originated in "a little
play for children to act or a story about Luther celebrating Christmas
with his children", likely connected with the 400th anniversary of the
reformer's birth in 1883.


 "Mueller" 
===========
\new Staff &lt;&lt;
\autoBeamOff
\time 3/4
\key f \major
\partial 4
\relative c'
{
c4 |
c4. bes8 a4 |
a4. g8 f4 |
f4 e4 d4 |
c2 c4 |
\break
c4. d8 c4 |
c4 g'4 e4 |
d4 c4 f4 |
a2 c4 |
\break
c4. bes8 a4 |
a4. (g8) f4 |
f4 e4 d4 |
c2 c4 |
\break
bes'4. a8 g4 |
a4 g4 f4 |
g4 d4 e4 |
f2 |
\bar "|."
}
\addlyrics {
A -- way in a man -- ger,
No crib for a bed,
The lit -- tle Lord Je -- sus
Laid down His sweet head.
The stars in the sky
Looked down where He lay,
The lit -- tle Lord Je -- sus
A -- sleep on the hay.
}
&gt;&gt;
\layout { indent = #0 }
\midi { \tempo 4 = 106 }

The most popular musical setting in the United States is commonly
known as "Mueller". The melody was first published, under the title
"Luther's Cradle Hymn", by James R. Murray in his collection 'Dainty
Songs for Little Lads and Lasses' (1887).

Murray included a claim that the hymn was "[c]omposed by Martin Luther
for his children". Hill writes:

As a result of this "tactical mistake", Murray's melody appeared,
without credit, in several subsequent publications. By 1914, the
melody was attributed to "Carl Mueller", and this attribution was
repeated several times in other publications. The identity of "Carl
Mueller" is unknown, but the tune is widely known as "Mueller" as a
result.


 "Cradle Song" 
===============
\new Staff &lt;&lt;

\autoBeamOff
\time 3/4
\key f \major
\partial 4
\relative c'{
c4 |
f4 f4 g8 ([a8]) |
f4 f4 a8 ([bes8]) |
c4 c4 d4 |
bes2 g8 ([a8]) |

\break

bes4 bes4 c4 |
a4 a4 f8 ([a8])
g4 d4 f4 |
e2 c4 |

\break

f4 f4 g8 ([a8]) |
f4 f4 a8 ([bes8]) |
c4 c4 d4 |
bes2 g8 ([a8]) |

\break

bes4 bes4 c4 |
a4 a4 f8 ([a8])
g4 d4 e4 |
f2 |
\bar "|."
}

\addlyrics {
A -- way in a man -- ger,
no crib for a bed,
The lit -- tle Lord Je -- sus
laid down his sweet head.
The stars in the bright sky
looked down where he lay,
The lit -- tle Lord Je -- sus
a -- sleep on the hay.}
&gt;&gt;
\layout { indent = #0 }
\midi { \tempo 4 = 106 }


The standard melody in Britain, Ireland and Canada is "Cradle Song".
The tune, written by the American composer William J. Kirkpatrick, was
first published as part of the collection 'Around the World with
Christmas' (1895), a "Christmas Exercise" for schools featuring
material representing various countries: "Away in a Manger" was
included, under the title "Luther's Cradle Hymn", as a representative
of "The German Fatherland".

Kirkpatrick's melody was later published in numerous hymnbooks, and
was the setting that, in Hill's words, "first carried the words beyond
the confines of the United States", being included in collections such
as Carey Bonner's 'Sunday School Hymnary' (1905). It remains the most
popular musical setting of "Away in a Manger" outside the United
States.


 Other musical settings 
========================
In his article "Not So Far Away in a Manger; Forty-One Settings of an
American Carol", published in the 'Music Library Association Notes'
(second series) III, no. 1, for December 1945, Richard Hill treated 41
of the nearly 200 different musical settings of this text.

The first music mentioned in connection with "Away in a Manger" was a
pre-existing composition: 'Home! Sweet Home!' (also known as "There's
No Place Like Home"). This was suggested as a musical setting in
'Little Pilgrim Songs' (1883) and 'The Myrtle' (1884), and continued
to be mentioned as an appropriate melody for decades to come.E.g.
* )
* (
* ()
* () A musical arrangement was published in the early 1920s.

The first known musical setting specifically published with the words
appeared in an Evangelical Lutheran Sunday school collection, 'Little
Children's Book for Schools and Families' (1885; preface dated
Christmas 1884), where it simply bore the title "Away in a Manger". It
was set to a tune called "St. Kilda", credited to J.E. Clark. The
tune, according to Hill, "gives every appearance of being a standard
melody used elsewhere for other hymns", but Hill adds that "no
information on J. E. Clark or any other printing of his tune, previous
or later, has been located." This publication is also notable for
refraining from attributing the carol to Luther.

The melody by John Bunyan Herbert (first published in 1891), is
identified by Hill as among the most popular. Like Murray's, Herbert's
setting was often republished without credit to the original composer,
with the melody sometimes even being misattributed to Luther himself.

Charles H. Gabriel, already mentioned as being the first to publish
the third verse in 1892, is also notable for having published more
different musical arrangements of the hymn than any other known
composer.In detail:
*  (Copyright 1892 by Guide Printing &amp; Pub. Co.)
*  (Copyright 1893 by Chas. H. Gabriel)
*  (Copyright 1896 by Chas. H. Gabriel. E. O. Excell, Owner.) (Melody
almost identical to that of 1892, but with a changed time signature
and addition of a refrain)
*  (Copyright 1899 by Henry Date)
*  cited in Hill His 1896 setting, reprinted in many different
collections, is based on his 1892 melody but adds a chorus at the end
of each verse, with the word "asleep" sung antiphonally.

Another popular arrangement, found at least as early as 1897, sets the
words to Jonathan E. Spilman's 1838 melody "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton".
Hill, writing in 1941, found Spilman's musical setting to be the
second-most published, after Murray's.

An arrangement dating from 1911 sets the words to an "old Normandy
Carol". This melody was subsequently published in Carols for Choirs,
arranged by Reginald Jacques.

An arrangement by Christopher Erskine combines the two most popular
tunes for the hymn, from Kirkpatrick and Murray. Erskine's arrangement
was first performed in 1996 at the annual pair of joint Carol Services
in Manuka, Canberra, sung by the choirs of St Paul's Church (Anglican)
and St Christopher's Cathedral (Roman Catholic). In this version, the
Kirkpatrick setting is sung by one choir, and the Murray setting by
the other choir, alternating through the first two verses. Both
settings are sung together for the third verse.


                               See also                               
======================================================================
* List of Christmas carols
* Nativity scene


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=========
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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Away_in_a_Manger