Christmas carol, sheet music with note names
O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum) piano notes: letter names, key and melody
O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum) in G major, 3/4: all 46 notes with letter names, range D4 to E5, words and a worksheet. Free printable piano PDF.
Two kinds of page: the tune with a letter name under every note, and a worksheet with the names left blank.
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Quick answer
"O Christmas Tree" (German "O Tannenbaum") is 46 notes in 12 bars of 3/4, in G major, with a one-beat pick-up and a range of D4 to E5 (14 semitones). Below: the melody with a letter name under every note, a version you can play, the words and the checks that were run.
O Christmas Tree at a glance
- Key
- G major (one sharp)
- Time signature
- 3/4, with a one-beat pick-up
- Range
- D4 to E5, 14 semitones
- Notes and bars
- 46 notes, 12 bars
- First note
- D4 (scale degree 5)
- Last note
- G4 (scale degree 1)
- Words
- Ernst Anschütz, 1824; the first verse is from August Zarnack's collection of 1820 (Wikipedia)
- Tune
- Traditional German melody; Wikipedia: the song came to be sung to the tune of the student song "Lauriger Horatius"
- Why it is free to use
- The words were published in 1824 and the tune is traditional; the score used is the one printed in Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), checked against two other Wikipedia scores
- Level
- Harder: wider than a major sixth (14 semitones); wider than an octave; sixteenth notes; a leap of a minor sixth or more. How the level is worked out
- Tempo
- about quarter note = 90 when played at normal speed
Press a note on the staff to hear it. The sound is made in your browser from the notes of this page (a plain synthesiser, not a recording).
O Christmas Tree
G major · 3/4 · melody with note names
Key G major (one sharp: F♯) Range D4 to E5 Words Ernst Anschütz, 1824 (the first verse is from August Zarnack, 1820) Music Traditional German tune; Wikipedia: the song came to be sung to the melody of the old student song "Lauriger Horatius"
Scale of G major G A B C D E F♯ I G: G B D IV C: C E G V D: D F♯ A
Melody: Wikipedia, "O Tannenbaum" (the score in the article, melody written out with the D.C. al fine) (CC BY-SA 4.0; revision 1346226101 of 2026-03-30), checked note by note against 3 other editions. Free to print and share. musictheoryprint.com/charts/o-christmas-tree-notes
O Christmas Tree: name the notes
G major · 3/4 · worksheet
Name Date Class
Write the letter name of every note on the line under it. The key signature tells you which notes are sharp: F♯. The last note of a tune is usually the home note, G.
Check your answers against the sheet with the note names. Extra: circle every note that is a G, the home note of the key.
Melody: Wikipedia, "O Tannenbaum" (the score in the article, melody written out with the D.C. al fine) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Free to print and share. musictheoryprint.com/charts/o-christmas-tree-notes
The notes of O Christmas Tree, bar by bar
46 notes in 12 bars, after a pick-up, in G major. Letter names, the do-re-mi syllables (movable do: do is G) and the chord symbols of the setting, where there are any. “held” means a tied note that is not played again.
| Bar | Notes | do re mi |
|---|---|---|
| pick-up | D | sol |
| 1 | G G G A | do do do re |
| 2 | B B B B | mi mi mi mi |
| 3 | A B C F♯ | re mi fa ti |
| 4 | A G rest D | re do (rest) sol |
| 5 | D B E D | sol mi la sol |
| 6 | D C C C | sol fa fa fa |
| 7 | C A D C | fa re sol fa |
| 8 | C B B rest D | fa mi mi (rest) sol |
| 9 | G G G A | do do do re |
| 10 | B B B B | mi mi mi mi |
| 11 | A B C F♯ | re mi fa ti |
| 12 | A G | re do |
What the tune is made of
How the melody moves
Each of the 45 moves from one note to the next, counted.
Which note lengths it uses
Every note counted by its length, as a fraction of a whole note.
Most-used note: B4 (13 times). Longest run of one repeated note: 4. Different pitches: 8, made from 7 note names (some are used in two octaves). Biggest leap: 9 semitones.
The words of O Christmas Tree
English: the version in The Bay View Magazine
Verse 1
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!
How are thy leaves so verdant!
Not only in the summertime,
But even in winter is thy prime.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How are thy leaves so verdant!
Verse 2
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Much pleasure dost thou bring me!
For ev'ry year the Christmas tree,
Brings to us all both joy and glee.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Much pleasure dost thou bring me!
Verse 3
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How lovely are thy branches!
Not only green when summer's here
But in the coldest time of year.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How lovely are thy branches!
Verse 4
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How sturdy God hath made thee!
Thou bidd'st us all place faithfully
Our trust in God, unchangingly!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How sturdy God hath made thee!
Verse 5
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Thy candles shine out brightly!
Each bough doth hold its tiny light,
That makes each toy to sparkle bright.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Thy candles shine out brightly!
Source: Wikipedia, "O Tannenbaum", section Lyrics; English words from 1913 (as the article dates them), public domain; page text CC BY-SA 4.0; revision 1346226101 of 2026-03-30. Wikipedia prints this as "Another English version" and cites The Bay View Magazine (1913), page 175. English words for the tune are many and differ a lot from book to book; the other two English versions in the article (a "loose translation" credited to John Rutter, and one from a web page) are not printed here, because their authors and dates are not given as public domain.
German: Ernst Anschütz, 1824
Verse 1
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Wie treu sind deine Blätter;
Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit,
Nein, auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie treu sind deine Blätter.
Verse 2
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen;
Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit
Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen.
Verse 3
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Dein Kleid will mir was lehren;
Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit
Giebt Trost und Kraft zu jeder Zeit!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Dein Kleid will mir was lehren.
Source: Wikipedia, "O Tannenbaum", section Lyrics; words in the public domain (published 1824); page text CC BY-SA 4.0; revision 1346226101 of 2026-03-30. Wikipedia prints the text of Anschütz's Musikalisches Schulgesangbuch (1824). Its first verse comes from August Zarnack's collection of 1820, and the song does not mention Christmas until verse 2. The English version above has five verses and this one has three, so the two do not match verse for verse.
How the notes were checked
Not one note on this page was typed in or remembered. The melody is read by a program from Wikipedia, "O Tannenbaum" (the score in the article, melody written out with the D.C. al fine) (CC BY-SA 4.0; revision 1346226101 of 2026-03-30). A second program then looked for the same notes, in the same order, in each of the editions below, which were typeset and encoded by other people. The number is the share of this page’s 46 notes that are found there, whatever key the other edition is in.
| Edition | Licence | Notes there | Same pitches | Same pitches and lengths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia in Japanese, "もみの木 (曲)" (the score in the article)revision 93006084 of 2022-12-22; in another key, compared after moving it by -2 semitones | CC BY-SA 3.0 | 46 | 100% | 83% |
| Wikipedia in Hungarian, "O Tannenbaum" (the score in the article)revision 27691147 of 2024-12-16; in another key, compared after moving it by -2 semitones | CC BY-SA 4.0 | 46 | 100% | 85% |
| Wikipedia, "O Tannenbaum": the MIDI file made from the article's scorerevision 1346226101, file SHA-1 5741708a2e | CC BY-SA 4.0 | 46 | 100% | 33% |
The rhythm column is lower than the pitch column because editions write the same long notes in different ways (a half note and a tied pair, a held last note) and because performance MIDI files shorten or lengthen notes. Pitch is the part that matters for the letter names.
O Christmas Tree: questions people ask
What are the notes of "O Christmas Tree"?
In G major the pick-up and the first line, "O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree", are D G G G A B B. The whole tune uses 7 note names (D G A B C F♯ E). Every note is on the printable sheet above.
What key and time signature is "O Christmas Tree" in?
The score used here is in G major (one sharp) and in 3/4, with a one-beat pick-up. Two other Wikipedia scores write the same tune in F major. G major is the number 3 key of 24 in the OpenScore Lieder Corpus (8.1% of 1,462 songs) and number 2 in the Mutopia Project (14.5% of 1,974 pieces).
Is it the same tune as "O Tannenbaum"?
Yes. "O Tannenbaum" is the German title, and "O Christmas Tree" is the usual English one. Wikipedia says the older folk song was collected with three different melodies in 1856, and that Anschütz printed his words with another tune before the song became attached to the melody of the old student song "Lauriger Horatius", which is the tune printed here. It is also the tune of "The Red Flag" and "Maryland, My Maryland", which Wikipedia lists among the songs sung to it.
What chords go with "O Christmas Tree"? What are the guitar chords?
This page prints no chord symbols, because only one edition gives chords and they could not be checked against a second one. For the record, the Wikipedia score names 6 chords in key G major: C, G, D, Am, D7, G7. The home chord is G major (G B D): 28 of the 46 notes of the tune are one of those three notes.
How was this tune checked?
It was read by a program from the score in the English Wikipedia article (revision 1346226101). Two scores in other language editions of Wikipedia were read the same way and compared note by note: the Japanese one agrees with 100% of the notes, and the Hungarian one with 100%. Both write the tune in F major, so they were moved up before comparing. All three agree on every pitch; they differ only in the length of some notes (8 of the 46 notes in the Japanese score and 7 in the Hungarian one), and the checks under the sheet give the share of notes with the same length. Wikipedia's own MIDI file for the score gives the same 46 pitches. The German Wikipedia has the same score as the English one, so it is not counted as a second edition. The Afrikaans, Catalan, Basque, Armenian and Cantonese editions have the same notes as the Japanese score (checked), so they are not counted either.
Why does the tune have a repeat in the middle?
The score is marked "D.C. al fine": after the second line you go back to the start and play the first line again, ending at "Fine". This page writes it out, so the sheet has the first line, the second line and the first line again (12 bars in all).
Who wrote "O Tannenbaum"?
Wikipedia says the lyrics known today were written by Ernst Anschütz, a teacher and organist in Leipzig, and published in his Musikalisches Schulgesangbuch in 1824. He kept the first verse from August Zarnack's collection of 1820 and added two verses. Much older folk songs about the fir tree exist: the article says a song text was already in songbooks in the 16th century.
Can I print this sheet music?
Yes. The words were published in 1824, the tune is traditional, and the sheet is made by this site. The notes come from a Wikipedia score (CC BY-SA 4.0) that credits a 1981 songbook as its source for the notes; the tune itself is traditional. English words differ from book to book, and only one old English version is printed here.
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O Christmas Tree in real music: the numbers
In G major the tune uses 7 of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale, all of them inside the key. It moves by step 16 times out of 45, and ends on the home note, as 75% of major-key art songs do.
This tune against real art songs
| What | This tune | OpenScore Lieder (880 major-key songs) |
|---|---|---|
| First note | D4 (degree 5) | 41.7% start on degree 5 |
| Last note | G4 (degree 1) | 75.1% end on degree 1 |
| Range of the tune | 14 semitones (D4 to E5) | 16% of 1,458 first vocal lines span fewer semitones, 73% more |
The art-song numbers are for the first vocal line of every major-key song whose key signature does not change; the carol numbers are counted on the melody printed above.
How common G major is
| Collection | Items with a key | Share in G major | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenScore Lieder | 1,462 | 8.1% | 3 of 24 |
| Mutopia | 1,974 | 14.5% | 2 of 24 |
| MusicBrainz works | 13,669 | 9.8% | 3 of 24 |
| MusicBrainz works | 5,340 | 8.9% | 2 of 24 |
| Open Opus work titles | 3,587 | 8.7% | 3 of 24 |
| AcousticBrainz recordings | 63,124 | 6.7% | 4 of 24 |
Counts of key signatures (and estimated major or minor) in the collections the site has measured; see the key page for G major.
Where the tune sits among singers' ranges
| Voice type (as labelled in the scores) | Typical range of a real song line | This tune (D4 to E5) |
|---|---|---|
| Soprano | E♭4 to F5 | fits if moved up 1 semitone |
| Alto / Contralto | C4 to C5 | wider than this range by 2 semitones |
| Tenor | F3 to F♯4 | wider than this range by 1 semitone |
| Baritone | C3 to E4 | fits if moved down 12 semitones |
| Bass | A2 to C4 | fits if moved down 16 semitones |
Typical range = the median across song lines of the lowest and highest notes (ignoring one stray note each side), from 285 vocal lines in the OpenScore Lieder Corpus. "Fits" means both ends of the tune are inside it.
Method
- The carol's own numbers are counted by a script on the decoded melody (tied notes counted once, rests ignored).
- Art-song numbers are read from the files behind the site's statistics pages (OpenScore Lieder Corpus: key and scale-degree counts for the first vocal line of every piece, vocal ranges of 1,458 lines).
- Key counts for Mutopia and MusicBrainz come from the same published statistics; a key is counted from its key signature.
Data: computed from the OpenScore Lieder Corpus (CC0), 1,462 scores. Snapshot: commit 6b2dc542ce (2026-04-07).
Background
Excerpts from open reference works, reproduced as published (references, images and tables removed). Every excerpt names its source, licence and original article.
History of "O Christmas Tree"
Overview
"O Tannenbaum" ("O fir tree"), known in English as "O Christmas Tree", is a German Christmas song. Based on a traditional folk song that was unrelated to the holiday, it became associated with the traditional Christmas tree.
History
The song lyrics draw on a long-standing tradition of the Tannenbaum (the German name for a fir tree) as a symbol of faithfulness due to the tree's evergreen quality. As early as the 16th century, songbooks included a text that gave rise to a folk song, "O Tannenbaum, du trägst ein' grünen Zweig" ("O fir tree, you wear a green branch"). In the 1856 edition of the Deutscher Liederhort, folk song collector Ludwig Erk identified three distinct melodies associated with this song in different regions of Germany. While the tunes were only recorded in the 18th and 19th centuries, a line from the song using one of the melodies was quoted in 1605 by Melchior Franck in the quodlibet "Nun fanget an".
In 1820 German educator August Zarnack published the second volume of his collection of folk songs for use in schools, including as No. 51 "Der Tannenbaum". For this number the existing folk song may have served as inspiration, but the text now presented as a lover's complaint, in which the fidelity of the fir tree is contrasted with the fickleness of a maiden. Zarnack also paired the song with a tune a bit different from those collected by Erk, using a melody that had earlier been published with the song "Es lebe hoch der Zimmermannsgeselle" ("Up high works the carpenter's apprentice"). As was occasionally the practice of folklorists under German Romanticism, Zarnack may well have written much or all of the text himself, basing the song on his own conception of a suitably folk idiom.
Other uses
The tune has also been used (as a contrafactum) to carry other texts on many occasions. Notable uses include:
Source: Wikipedia, “O Tannenbaum” — CC BY-SA 4.0 — text excerpted; see the article for the full text and authors. Revision of 2026-03-30.
Sources and licences for the text, scores and recordings on this page are on the credits page.
Sources: Wikipedia, "O Tannenbaum" (the score in the article, melody written out with the D.C. al fine), Wikipedia in Japanese, "もみの木 (曲)" (the score in the article), Wikipedia in Hungarian, "O Tannenbaum" (the score in the article).