Across the Fence: O Tannenbaum

Of course, with so many German immigrants in the U.S. population almost from the very beginning, quite a few cultural items have been adopted into American traditions that are undoubtedly German. Among them is the carol O Tannenbaum (pronounce: O ‘tunnen-bowm, meaning o fir tree). Next to Silent Night, it might be one of the best-known German Christmas carols both sides of the Atlantic.

Oh, wait – I never knew the stanzas (beyond the first) because this carol was never, ever sung at our home during the Christmas season. That is, unless an old great-aunt of mine came for a visit and we let her choose her Christmas favorites, none of which was any of ours. But why didn’t we sing O Tannenbaum, at all?

In comes my late mother’s brilliant knowledge of so many topics cultural, musical, historical, and more. In this case, she protested that the first stanza isn’t even about anything that has to do with Christmas. It’s about a tree with “faithful leaves” – even I come up with the question how you can ascribe faithfulness to something whose concept is simply being an evergreen plant. It describes how it stays green through all seasons. And it is based on an old Silesian folksong with that same first stanza; and THAT song didn’t deal with any Christmas concept either. It was all about a false maiden lover. Now, my parents were born Silesians – so, they WOULD know such a thing.

I only learned from Wikipedia that the Christmas lyrics of the follow-up stanzas were written by Leipzig-based organist and composer Ernst Anschuetz in 1824. So, only since then, anybody would have perceived the melody as a Christmas carol. Not our family, though. And we were backed up by Austrian author Karl Heinrich Waggerl, to whose recorded Advent stories we listened faithfully every Advent season.

Of course, I brought home another version of this song, which I learned during my earliest school days. It was a satiric one, the text being about a teacher beating up a student, then placing them into a corner where they stared at the blank wall. My mother was not too impressed when I sang the ditty to her, and it never made it to anything I would brag about, again.

You have figured it out by now: the melody is O Christmas Tree, of course. Non-German nations have also created their own lyrics to the popular melody, from state hymns to that of football teams. It happens when melodies are that catchy, I guess. Especially when they are folksongs and, thus, aren’t copyrighted. It probably won’t happen much to anything created in our times. Not during our lifetimes, that is.

Anyhow, the entire story is, that you will find me fall silent after the first line of the English first stanza if this carol is ever chosen at any festivity without lyrics provided. It’s not ill-will. I’m not blind to the symbolism of firs in Christmas tradition, either. It’s simply that this carol never made it into my musical treasure chest.