Above is a rather gross piece of music analysis done by me.
Away in a Manger is a christmas carol first published by composer James Ramsey Murray (1841-1905) during the year of 1885 in an Evangelical Lutheran Sunday School collection entitled "Little Children's Book for Schools and Families". It was set to a tune called "St. Kilda" credited to J.E. Clark. In recent context, this tune is affectionately known as, 'Mueller'.
This piece is an adaptation of the original tune harmonised by Edward L. Stauff. The song flows in an A-B-A-C structure, with the seperation of each section being defined by a pause denoted by a minum. Section A starts from bar 1 and ends on the first note of bar 5. Section B, second note of bar 5 to first note of bar 9. Section A is then replicated for the next 5 bars, and the song finishes with a different melody from section B, hence section C.
The harmonic function starts with a T-PD-D-T function. It is then followed by a short D-T progression of section B. The repeat of section A follows a T-PD-D-T function as expected, and the last section is quite unique, having a PD function preceding a T-PD-D-T ending. This preceding PD could probably be a preparation function to the ending functional progression.
Regarding chord progression, the writer uses much tonic expansions and voice exchanges to decorate the piece. Note the chords after the passing 6/4 in bar 8: I 6/4 - 5/3 ... I. He uses three different chord configurations for the F major tonic chord in the perfect cadential ending of the phrase. Voice exchanges also exist in bars 3-4, bars 11-12, and bars 14-15.
The phrase structure of this piece follows a double period which actually encompasses the entire song. The antecedent period flows from bars 1 to 9, while the consequent period overlaps in bar 9 and ends on the last bar. Within the antecedent period, the antecedent phrase is from bars 1-5, while the consequent phrase overlaps from bar 5 and ends on the first note of bar 9. In the consequent period, the antecedent phrase starts on the 2nd note of bar 5 and ends on the first note of bar 9, while the consequent phrase starts on the 2nd note of bar 9 and ends on the last bar.
Regarding sentence structure, there is no clear definition of and short or long sections within each sentence as the sentence segregation follows a fairly constant pace. If I were to define it, it would be a "long-long" configuration.
