Away in a Manger sheet music for easy piano

The Away in a Manger sheet music above is in F major and 3/4 time, with the letter name printed under every note; the Letter notes tab gives the same melody as plain letters. The tune is Mueller, the setting most Americans know, arranged for the right hand from the first word to the last, all within the octave from middle C to the C above it. The only black key is B-flat. Listen plays the carol and highlights each note in the sheet, and Practice lights the next key and waits for you. With its gentle waltz rhythm and small steps, it is an easy carol for a first Christmas program.

About Away in a Manger

The words are anonymous and American. The earliest known printing, in an American journal in 1882, calls them "Luther's Cradle Song", and for decades the carol was said to be a hymn Martin Luther wrote for his children. Historians now reject that story: nothing like it appears in Luther's writings, and no German version is known from before the 1930s. One historian has suggested that it began as part of a children's piece about Luther, connected with the 400th anniversary of his birth in 1883.

The tune on this page was first published in 1887 by James Ramsey Murray, in a collection called Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses, where he also credited it to Luther. Later books named the composer "Carl Mueller", a person no one has identified, which is why the tune is called Mueller. It became the most popular setting in the United States, while Britain, Ireland and Canada usually sing a different tune, Cradle Song, by William J. Kirkpatrick.

How to play Away in a Manger

• The opening descent. The first line walks almost straight down the F major scale, from the C above middle C to middle C. Put your little finger on that high C and your thumb on F: C, B-flat, A, G, F are fingers 5 4 3 2 1. Then cross finger 3 over your thumb onto E, and finish D and middle C with fingers 2 and 1.
• The second line. Stay low, in the middle C position, with your thumb on middle C and a finger on each white key up to G. The line rocks around middle C, jumps up to G and back, rises to F, and ends on a long A, one key past your little finger. The pickup C that follows takes you back up.
• The third line. It is exactly the same as the first.
• The last line. It begins on B-flat, finger 4 in the F position, and steps down to F, then turns G, D, E and settles on F. The D and E sit below the F position, so move your hand down a little for them.

Counting the rhythm

Count three beats in each bar, slowly. The carol begins with a pickup: one C on beat 3. Several bars share a gentle long-short rhythm: a dotted quarter note held for a beat and a half, a short eighth note, then a quarter note, counted "1 2-and 3". The first full bar is like that, C held, B-flat short, then A.

Half notes, two beats long, end each line. The lullaby feel comes from the steady three-beat swing, so keep the pulse even rather than lingering on the long notes.

Practice tips

• Practice the scale first. Play C down to middle C with the finger crossing a few times; it is the opening line almost exactly.
• Learn line one, get line three free. The two are identical, so the carol really has three different lines to learn.
• Find B-flat by touch. It is the top black key in the group of three; tap it before you start so your finger knows where it is.
• Play softly. On a keyboard with touch-sensitive keys, a light touch suits this lullaby best.

For another gentle carol in 3/4 time, try Silent Night.

Printable sheet music

Here is the same arrangement on a single page, with the letter name under every note. Open the image to print it or save it; the Print sheet music button above the keyboard prints it too.