Wind Through The Olive Trees: A Song History

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The title "Wind Through the Olive Trees" closely matches the first line, "Winds through the olive trees," of a text that Hymnary.org indexes under the title "In Little Bethlehem."[1] Hymnary.org credits the words to Katherine Parker, but its entry for the 1995 collection Christmas Carols for Friends and Families gives the author as anonymous, so sources differ on who wrote them.[1][2] Hymnary.org counts the text in eleven hymnals, among them a 1957 Children's Hymnal that files it under Christmas and reprints it from New Music Horizons, Book II, copyright 1944, by permission of its publisher, Silver Burdett.[1][3]

Painting of a grove of olive trees with swirling brushwork under a pale speckled sky

Vincent van Gogh, Olive Trees, oil on canvas, 1889. Olive trees in Provence rather than Bethlehem, shown for the carol's title.

The words have been sung to more than one melody.[1] Hymnary.org lists one tune by Grace V. Wilson, dated 1944, and another by George W. Wilmot, a New Brunswick, New Jersey, choirmaster who lived from 1858 to 1933.[4][5][6] A setting with music by Joyce Jensen appeared in the Latter-day Saint magazine Ensign in December 1975 as "Long, Long Ago: A Family Carol," and Carol Barnett has set the text for SATB choir and organ.[7][8]

Maureen Sellers's Simply Christmas, a 60-page book of Christmas dulcimer tablature published by Fingers Of Steel, includes a song listed as "Wind Through The Olive Trees," in DAD tuning.[9]

Our book that contains the song "Wind Through The Olive Trees"

Browse more tunes like this: Christmas Dulcimer Tab

Sources

  1. Hymnary.org: "In Little Bethlehem (Winds through the olive trees)".
  2. Hymnary.org: "Christmas Carols for Friends and Families #83: Winds through the olive trees".
  3. Hymnary.org: "Children's Hymnal (1957) #162: Bethlehem".
  4. Hymnary.org: "[Winds through the olive trees] (Wilson)".
  5. Hymnary.org: "[Winds through the olive trees] (Wilmot)".
  6. Hymnary.org: "George W. Wilmot".
  7. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ensign: "Long, Long Ago: A Family Carol" (December 1975).
  8. Boosey & Hawkes: "Carol Barnett, Long, Long Ago".
  9. Fingers Of Steel: "Maureen Sellers, Simply Christmas".
  10. Image: Vincent van Gogh, Olive Trees, oil on canvas, 1889. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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