Category: History - American
The ancestors of the bearers of the Southern tradition of folk-music began in very ancient times the practice of singing religious songs to folk-tunes. Nor must one think that this custom showed a lack of respect for religion. On the contrary, it rather emphasized the respect...
A note on this song in the _Social Harp_ says that the compiler, John G. McCurry, Hartwell, Georgia, "when eight years old, learned the air of this tune from Mrs. Catherine Penn...
15. Part 15The song is found also in Mason's _Harp of the South_, p. 272, where the composer is given as "Husband". The same tune with minor variations appeared in the 1859 edition of the...
6. Part 6She took him in pity and thought him so pretty; That made little Moses so glad. She called him her own, her beautiful son, And sent for a nurse that was near.
11. Part 11To see a pilgrim as he dies, With glory in his view; To heav'n he lifts his longing eyes And bids the world adieu. While friends are weeping all around, And loth to let him go,...
12. Part 12For variant forms of the tune see 'Marion' and 'I Will Arise' in this collection. Among its related secular tunes are 'Greenwood Siding' ('Cruel Mother'), Cox, p. 522; an unname...
5. Part 5When sorrows oppress you and sickness comes on, You'll cry for your mother, but, oh, she is gone; Your father, in anger, struck her on the head, She bled, groan'd, and languish'...
8. Part 8The tune is attributed in the southern books to "Dare". Found also GCM 165, OSH 48, SOC 175, HOC 45, WP 16. The tune is of a type which was widely sung to texts of the extremely...
9. Part 9The tune is attributed to W. B. Gillham. It is member of the 'Lord Lovel' group mentioned in the Introduction, page 14. Noteworthy in this connection is a variant of the above t...
13. Part 13It was bad when that great ship went down, It was bad when that great ship went down, There was husbands and wives, Little child'en lost their lives, It was bad when that great...
10. Part 10The poem is by Joseph Grigg (b. 1720). Ananias Davisson of the Valley of Virginia named and claimed the tune in his _Kentucky Harmony_ (1815). Annabel Morris Buchanan has found...
14. Part 14O when shall I see Jesus And reign with Him above, Shout glory, halle, hallelujah; And from the flowing fountain Drink everlasting love? Shout glory, halle, hallelujah. When we...
4. Part 4This collection challenges, I feel, the attention also of those interested in the songs of the churches. Urban congregational singing depends on hymnals. Hymnals are made by suc...
3. Part 3There are literally thousands of songs in the books searched. In the _Original Sacred Harp_ alone there are 609, and the _Hesperian Harp_ holds 677. And while other books are sl...
2. Part 2Some years after Sharp missed all but completely his opportunity to become the discoverer, or uncoverer, of American religious folk-songs, one of his English co-workers, Anne G....
1. Part 1The ancestors of the bearers of the Southern tradition of folk-music began in very ancient times the practice of singing religious songs to folk-tunes. Nor must one think that t...
16. Part 16I recorded this song from the singing of Donald Davidson, Vanderbilt University, June, 1935. Joseph Hart published this poem in 1759. The refrain text is probably of camp-meetin...
17. Part 17Alderice, Catherine. Manuscript 4-shape-note song book, written in or near Emmittsburg, Maryland, between 1800 and 1830. Allen, William Francis; Ware, Charles Pickard; and Garri...
18. Part 18I I Am Bound for the Kingdom 205 I Belong to This Band (A) 220 I Belong to This Band (B) 181 I Can Not Tarry Here 247 I Can't Stay Away 153 I Don't Care to Stay Here Long 183 I...
19. Part 19O O brethren, will you meet me 180 O brother, be faithful 203 O, brother, in that day 188 O, for a thousand tongues to sing 124 O happy souls, how fast you go 50 Oh, brethren, I...