Martin Jonas
Dec-21-2014, 4:31pm
This hymn was written by Septimus Winner (1827-1902) under his pseudonym of "Alice Hawthorne". It has been recorded by numerous gospel and country musicians, including Jim Reeves, Willie Nelson, Jo Stafford & Gordon MacRae, Tennesee Ernie Ford, The Statler Brothers, Pat Boone, Daniel O'Donnell & Mary Duff, Slim Whitman and many more. Listening to it, the tune incorporates bits of two older German songs, "Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten" (or "Lorelei") and "Silent Night". Although there is no explicit reference to Christmas in the words, it appears to pop up in a lot of collections of Christmas music.
I have recorded it as a mandolin quintet of two mandolins, octave mandolin (mandola), tenor guitar and mandocello, based on an anonymous Japanese arrangement for mandolin orchestra which I got a while ago from the now-defunct Nakano site (see attached). It's a very effective arrangement, and technically pretty straightforward -- this should work for a gospel or bluegrass band just as well as for a mandolin orchestra.
1921 Gibson Ajr mandolin
Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
Suzuki MC-815 mandocello
Ozark tenor mandolin
hdAdOaKycig
Martin
I have recorded it as a mandolin quintet of two mandolins, octave mandolin (mandola), tenor guitar and mandocello, based on an anonymous Japanese arrangement for mandolin orchestra which I got a while ago from the now-defunct Nakano site (see attached). It's a very effective arrangement, and technically pretty straightforward -- this should work for a gospel or bluegrass band just as well as for a mandolin orchestra.
1921 Gibson Ajr mandolin
Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
Suzuki MC-815 mandocello
Ozark tenor mandolin
hdAdOaKycig
Martin