"The Babe in Bethlem's Manger", also called "The Babe in Bethlehem's Manger Laid", "Old Kentish Carol" [1] and "The Saviour's Work", [2] is an anonymous English folk Christmas carol celebrating the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.
"The Babe in Bethlem's Manger", also called "The Babe in Bethlehem's Manger Laid", "Old Kentish Carol" [1] and "The Saviour's Work", [2] is an anonymous English folk Christmas carol celebrating the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.
The writer of the carol is not known. However, the lyrics are traditionally described as being a traditional folk hymn from the English county of Kent. [3] Erik Routley, though, noted that its composition was "very much of the 18th century". [2] It was first published in print in 1871 [4] by the Church of England's Reverend Henry Ramsden Bramley and hymn writer John Stainer in Christmas Carols New and Old . [5] Bramley included the commonly used tune for the carol. [6] Christopher Chope's 1894 Carols for use in Church attributed the words as being Kentish, which was later confirmed by R R Terry in 1923 in his Old Christmas Carols anthology. [2] The carol later passed into North America and was later published in the Evangelical Lutheran Church's Wartburg Hymnal in 1918. [7] In 1960, it was published in the Church of Ireland's The Church Hymnal. [8]
A critical analysis of the hymn notes that the refrain is intended to provoke thought about the difference in people's lives without Jesus and then the later redemption through Jesus. [9]
Several composers have also written music for "The Babe in Bethlem's Manger". In 1964, an optional obbligato for flute was copyrighted in the United States by Theron Kirk. [10] In 1973, in one of his last works before his death, British composer Patrick Hadley wrote a piece of music for the carol so it could be performed in his Lent cantata. [11]