Let trouble and danger my progress oppose;
They’ll only make heaven more bright at the close;
Come joy, then, or sorrow—whate’er may befall—
One moment in glory will make up for all.
A scrip on my back, and a staff in my hand,
I march on in haste thro’ an enemy’s land;
The road may be rough, but it cannot be long;
I’ll smooth it with hope, and I’ll cheer it with song.
The tune is related to ‘Be Gone Unbelief’, in this collection, and to the worldly tunes listed under that song. Negro adoptions of the tune are Marsh, pp. 144 and 173, and SS 33.
Pentatonic, mode 3 (I II III — V VI —)
My heav’nly home is bright and fair,
No pain nor death can enter there;
Its glitt’ring tow’rs the sun outshine,
I hope that mansion shall be mine.
Chorus
I’m going home to Christ above,
I’m going to the Christian’s rest,
To die no more to, die no more,
I’m going home to die no more.
My Father’s house is built on high,
Far, far above the starry sky;
When from this earthly prison free,
I hope that mansion mine shall be.
Chorus
I envy not the rich and great,
Their pomp of wealth and pride of state;
My Father is a richer King,
That heav’nly mansion still I sing.
Chorus
The tune is identical with one used with the worldly ballad ‘Three Ravens’, see Davis 562.
Pentatonic, mode 2 (I — 3 IV V — 7)
Oh, once I had a glorious view
Of my redeeming Lord;
He said, I’ll be a God to you,
And I believ’d his word.
But now I have a deeper stroke
Than all my groanings are;
My God has me of late forsook,
He’s gone I know not where.
Oh, what immortal joys I felt
On that celestial day,
When my hard heart began to melt,
By love dissolved away!
But my complaint is bitter now,
For all my joys are gone;
I’ve strayed! I’m left! I know not how;
The light’s from me withdrawn.
Once I could joy the saints to meet,
To me they were most dear;
I then could stoop to wash their feet,
And shed a joyful tear;
But now I meet them as the rest,
And with them joyless stay;
My conversation’s spiritless,
Or else I’ve nought to say.
The words appeared in Mercer’s Cluster, a Georgia hymn and spiritual-song collection of the 1820’s. The earliest appearance of the tune seems to have been in the Southern Harmony (1835). Found also in HH 128, UH 57, KNH 42, HOC 37, SOC 109, GOS 380, PB 343. The tune is a variant of ‘Antioch’, in this collection.
For negro tune derivatives see White Spirituals, 259. Among the tunes in secular environment, ‘Virginian Lover’, Sharp, ii., 149, tune B, shows closest relationship to the above. See also ‘Flat River Girl’, Rickaby, p. 6; and ‘Driving Saw Logs on the Plover’, Rickaby, p. 89.
Hexatonic, mode 3 b (I II III IV V VI —)
Father, I sing thy wondrous grace
And bless my Savior’s name,
Who bought salvation for the poor,
And bore the sinner’s shame.
His deep distress has raised us high;
His duty and his zeal
Fulfilled the law which mortals broke,
And finished all thy will.
Zion is thine, most holy God;
Thy Son shall bless her gates;
And glory, purchased by his blood,
For thine own Israel waits.
The 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 tune as sung by a negro in North Carolina; see Scarbrough, p. 55. Further tunes belonging to the ‘Lord Lovel’ group are listed under ‘Dulcimer’ in this collection.
Heptatonic ionian, mode 3 A + b (I II III IV V VI VII)
Dark was the hour, Gethsemane,
When through thy walks was heard
The lowly Man of Galilee,
Still pleading with the Lord.
Down in the garden, hear that mournful sound;
There behold the Saviour weeping,
Praying on the cold damp ground.
Jesus, my Saviour, let me weep with thee;
Mercy, O thou Son of David,
Mercy’s coming down to me.
Alone in sorrow see him bow,
As all our griefs he bears;
Not words may tell his anguish now,
But sweat and blood and tears.
Down in the garden etc.
Four more stanzas of the text are given in the Revivalist. The last part of the tune and the whole text are obvious parodies of the Foster song ‘Massa’s in the Cold, Cold Ground’. For possible folk sources of Foster’s song, see my article “Stephen Foster’s Debt to American Folk-Song”, The Musical Quarterly, xxii (1936), No. 2, p. 159.
Pentachordal, cannot be classified (I II III IV V — —)
Come, ye that love the Lord,
And let your love be known;
Join in a song of sweet accord
And thus surround the throne,
And thus surround the throne.
The sorrows of the mind
Be banished from this place;
Religion never was designed
To make our pleasures less,
To make our pleasures less.
Let those refuse to sing,
Who never knew our God;
But fav’rites of the heav’nly King
May speak their joys abroad,
May speak their joys abroad.
The words are by Watts. The tune is ascribed to R(obert) Boyd. It is found also, KYH 18, GCM 171, SOH 23, UH 21, GOS 126, KNH 51, OSH 52, HH 201, HOC 12. It sounds like one of the old psalm tunes.
Hexatonic, mode 3 A (I II III — V VI VII)
My God, My Portion, and my Love,
My everlasting all,
I’ve none but thee in heav’n above,
Or on this earthly ball.
What empty things are all the skies,
And this inferior clod!
There’s nothing here deserves my joys,
There’s nothing like my God.
In vain the bright, the burning sun
Scatters his feeble light;
’Tis thy sweet beams create my noon;
If thou withdraw, ’tis night.
The words are Watts’. The tune is given as by F(reeman) Lewis. Found also, GCM 63, SOC 238, WP 44, TZ 77, GOS 650, SKH 83, CM 120, Baptist Hymn and Tune Book (1857), p. 106, where it is called a ‘Western Melody’. It is practically the same as ‘Wife of Usher’s Well’, Sharp, i., 160, Q. See Introduction, page 14, for mention of the ‘Lord Lovel’ type of tune to which ‘Dunlaps’ Creek’ belongs.
Pentatonic, mode 3 (I II III — V VI —)
Sinner go, will you go
To the highlands of heaven,
Where the storms never blow
And the long summer’s given,
Where the bright blooming flow’rs
Are their odors emitting
And the leaves of the bow’rs
In the breezes are flitting.
Where the rich golden fruit
Is in bright clusters pending,
And the deep laden boughs
Of life’s fair tree are bending;
And where life’s crystal stream
Is unceasingly flowing,
And the verdure is green,
And eternally growing.
The tune and words which are parodied here are those of the ‘Braes o’ Balquhidder’. The text is attributed, by the compiler of the Olive Leaf, to “Rev. Wm. McDonald, I guess”. The Scotch song begins:
Will you go, lassie, go to the braes o’Balquhidder,
Where the blackberries grow in the bonnie blooming heather.
See Gilchrist, JFSS, viii., 77. Another variant of the ‘Braes o’ Balquhidder’ tune in this collection is ‘Lone Pilgrim’. Gilchrist traces the Scotch tune back still farther to ‘Brochan Buirn’, an old Gaelic air. See JFSS, viii., 76. It influenced Stephen Foster in his making of the tune ‘Linda Has Departed’. (See my article in The Musical Quarterly, vol. xxii, No. 2.)
Pentatonic, mode 3 (I II III — V VI —)
There is a land of pure delight
Where saints immortal reign,
Infinite day excludes the night
And pleasures banish pain.
O the land of rest, O the land of rest,
Where Christ and His people meet;
The land of the blest, all in beauty drest,
Where the saints all their lov’d ones greet.
“Inspiration of this tune,” says the compiler of the Olive Leaf, “caught from a female voice at a distance, at Barbee Hotel, High Point, N. C., June 9th, 1868.” The mountain woman must have been singing ‘Lord Lovel’; for the tunes of that ballad, as found for example in Davis, p. 574, O; and Sharp, i., 148, are practically the same as ‘Land of Rest’. See Introduction, page 14.
Pentatonic, mode 3 (I II III — V VI —)
Not many years their rounds shall roll,
Each moment brings it nigh,
Ere all its glories stand revealed,
To our admiring eye.
Ye wheels of nature, speed your course,
Ye mortal pow’rs decay;
Fast as ye bring the night of death,
Ye bring eternal day.
“It is an old melody”, J. S. James, editor of the 1911 Original Sacred Harp, says. “Prof. T. S. Carter of Georgia took the outlines and arranged it in 1844.”
The tune is found also, SOC 77, GOS 178. A variant is GOS 165, entitled ‘Lonesome Dove’. Another variant is ‘The Weary Soul’, OSH 72. I find this tune to be a member of the group which I have called the ‘Roll Jordan’ family of melodies. See the song with that title in this collection.
Heptatonic ionian, mode 3 A + b (I II III IV V VI VII)
My brethren all, on you I call,
Arise and look around you,
How many foes bound to oppose,
Who’re waiting to confound you;
How many foes bound to oppose,
Who’re waiting to confound you.
Credited in the Social Harp to E. R. White and dated 1855. The tune is a clear adaptation of ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me’.
Hexatonic, mode 3 A (I II III — V VI VII)
Hear the royal proclamation,
The glad tidings of salvation,
Publishing to every creature,
To the ruin’d sons of nature.
Jesus reigns, he reigns victorious,
Over heaven and earth most glorious,
Jesus reigns.
See the royal banner flying,
Hear the heralds loudly crying:
“Rebel sinners, royal favour
Now is offer’d by the Saviour.”
Jesus reigns, etc.
Hear, ye sons of wrath and ruin,
Who have wrought your own undoing,
Here is life and free salvation,
Offered to the whole creation.
Jesus reigns, etc.
Although Ananias Davisson claims, in the Supplement to The Kentucky Harmony, to have made the tune, no subsequent user of the song seems to have looked on him as its author. It has all the earmarks of an eighteenth century fife-and-drum-corps tune which was appropriately set to the religio-martial text. Found also, UH 91, KNH 91, HH 468, SKH 107, GOS 643.
Hexatonic, mode 3 b (I II III IV V VI —)
While trav’ling through this world below,
Where sore afflictions come,
My soul abounds with joy to know
That I will rest at home.
Carry me home, carry me home,
When my life is o’er;
Then carry me to my long sought home where pain is felt no more.
Yes, when my eyes are closed in death,
My body cease to roam,
I’ll bid farewell to all below
And meet my friends at home.
Carry me home etc.
And then I want these lines to be
Inscribed upon my tomb:
“Here lies the dust of S. R. P.,
His spirit sings at home.”
Carry me home etc.
The initials in the third stanza belonged to “Professor S. R. Penick, a devoted Christian man, and one who was very fond of music,” according to James, 1911 editor of the OSH. But he ascribes tune and words to M. Sikes, a singing-school teacher in Georgia before the Civil War. The tune is a variant of ‘Dying Boy’ in this collection.
Heptatonic ionian, mode 3 A + b (I II III IV V VI VII)
On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand
And cast a wishful eye,
To Canaan’s fair and happy land
Where my possessions lie.
O the transporting rapt’rous scene
That rises to my sight,
Sweet fields arrayed in living green
And rivers of delight.
There generous fruits that never fail
On trees immortal grow;
There rocks and hills and brooks and vales
With milk and honey flow.
(Four stanzas omitted.)
Soon will the Lord my soul prepare
For joys beyond the skies,
Where never-ceasing pleasures roll,
And praises never die.
The tune belongs to the ‘Roll Jordan’ group; see Introduction, page 14. See also the song by that title in this collection.
Hexatonic, mode 4 a (I II — IV V 6 7)
I’m not asham’d to own my Lord,
Or to defend his cause,
Maintain the honor of his word,
The glory of his cross.
Jesus, my God, I know his name;
His name is all my trust;
Nor will he put my soul to shame,
Nor let my hope be lost.
Firm as his throne his promise stands,
And he can well secure
What I’ve committed to his hands,
Till the decisive hour.
Then will he own my worthless name,
Before his Father’s face,
And in the new Jerusalem
Appoint my soul a place.
The words are attributed to Isaac Watts; the tune to B. F. White of Georgia, and dated 1844. The tune is a member of the ‘Babe of Bethlehem’ group. See Introduction, p. 14, and, ‘Babe of Bethlehem’ in this collection. A secular related tune is ‘Lowlands of Holland’, Sharp, i., 200. Since the tune has clear dorian implications, its proper key signature is one flat.
Hexatonic, mode 4 a (I II — IV V 6 7)
What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul;
What wondrous love is this, O my soul;
What wondrous love is this That caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.
When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down;
When I was sinking down, sinking down;
When I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul;
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.
To God and to the Lamb I will sing, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb who is the great I AM,
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing;
While millions join the theme I will sing.
And when from death I’m free I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
And when from death I’m free I’ll sing on.
And when from death I’m free I’ll sing and joyful be,
And through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
And through eternity I’ll sing on.
The song is found also, SOH (1854) 252, GOS 436, PB 384, OL 371, and in various tune books of the Baptists up to the present time. The Southern Harmony attributes the tune to “Christopher”; Good Old Songs, to “J. Christopher”; and the Hesperian Harp attributes the words to the “Rev. Alex Means, A. M., M. D., D. D., LL. D.”, a Methodist minister of Oxford, Ga. It looks as though tune and words were born together, so beautifully they fit. The stanzaic form is that of the ‘Captain Kidd’ ballad which has been widely sung and parodied since the beginning of the eighteenth century. A spiritual song tune related to ‘Wondrous Love’ is ‘Villulia’ in this collection. I have heard the country folk sing this tune with the dorian raised sixth.
Hexatonic, mode 1 B (I II — IV V VI VII)
O thou God of my salvation,
My Redeemer from all sin,
Moved by thy divine compassion,
Who hast died my heart to win.
I will praise thee, I will praise thee;
Where shall I thy praise begin?
Angels now are hov’ring round us,
Unperceived amid the throng;
Wond’ring at the love that crown’d us,
Glad to join the holy song;
Hallelujah, hallelujah,
Love and praise to Christ belong.
The tune is evidently a remake of ‘Locks and Bolts’. Compare, for example, Sharp, ii., 19. The difference between the two tunes is probably due in part to their structure, which provided real difficulties for their recorders, and in part to the efforts of the Bible Songs arranger to make the apparently dorian tune fit into current scale formulas. Compare also ‘Bed of Primroses’, Thomas, p. 176.
Heptatonic dorian, mode 2 A + B (I II 3 IV V VI 7)
Death shall not destroy my comfort,
Christ shall guide me thro’ the gloom;
Down he’ll send some heav’nly convoy,
To escort my spirit home.
Chorus
O hallelujah! how I love my Savior,
O hallelujah! that I do;
O hallelujah! how I love my Savior!
Mourners, you may love him too.
Jordan’s stream shall not o’erflow me,
While my Savior’s by my side;
Canaan, Canaan lies before me!
Soon I’ll cross the swelling tide.
O hallelujah etc.
See the happy spirits waiting,
On the banks beyond the stream!
Sweet responses still repeating,
“Jesus! Jesus!” is their theme.
O hallelujah etc.
William Hauser, compiler of the Olive Leaf, informs us that “this tune [is] called after Rev. John H. Watson, whom, in my youth [in the 1820’s], I used to hear sing [it]”. It is a variant of the beautiful traditional secular ballad ‘The Poor Little Fisherman Girl’ or ‘Green Willow’.
Heptatonic aeolian, mode 2 A + b (I II 3 IV V 6 7)
Did Christ the great example lead
For all his humble train,
In washing the disciples’ feet
And wiping them again?
And did my Lord and Master say:
“If I have wash’d your feet,
Ye also ought to watch and pray
And wash each other’s feet.”
O blessed Jesus, at thy board
I have thy children met;
The bread I’ve broke, the wine I’ve poured,
We’ve washed each other’s feet.
In imitation of my Lord
Whose blood for me did sweat,
I yield unto his sacred word
And wash the pilgrims’ feet.
Yea, blessed Jesus, I, like thee,
Would Christians often meet;
The least of all the flock would be,
And wash his children’s feet.
For this let men reproach, defame,
And call me what they will;
I still would follow Christ the Lamb,
And be his servant still.
The loving labor I repeat,
Obedient to his word,
And wash his dear disciples’ feet
And wait upon the Lord.
Shall I, a worm, refuse to stoop?
My fellow worm disdain?
I give my vain distinctions up,
Since Christ did wait on man.
The words were quite evidently made to go with the celebration of the footwashing rite still observed by the Primitive Baptists, from whose hymn book the song is taken. The tune is ascribed to L. P. Breedlove of Georgia. I find it to be a close variant of ‘James Harris’ (or ‘Daemon Lover’ or ‘House Carpenter’) turned around; that is, with the second part of the above tune coming first in the secular ballad tune. For versions of the ‘James Harris’ tune see Thomas 172, Davis 592-594, Cox 524, and Sharp, i., 244-258. The oldest variant tune known to me is that in Motherwell associated with ‘Blue Flowers and Yellow’ (Appendix, Musick, No. 17.) After comparing the above tune with its worldly relatives, it becomes evident that the GOS signature of b-flat should be changed to that of f-natural, raising the sixth and restoring what was evidently a dorian tune.
Hexatonic, mode 3 b (I II III IV V VI —)
There is a land of pleasure
Where streams of joy forever roll;
’Tis there I have my treasure,
And there I long to rest my soul.
Long darkness dwelt around me
With scarcely once a cheering ray,
But since my Savior found me,
A lamp has shown along the way.
My way is full of danger,
But ’tis the path that leads to God,
And like a faithful soldier
I’ll march along the heav’nly road.
Now I must gird my sword on,
My breast plate, helmet and my shield,
And fight the host of Satan,
Until I reach the heav’nly field.
I’m on the way to Zion,
Still guided by my Saviour’s hand,
O come along dear sinners
And see Emanuel’s happy land.
To all that stay behind me,
I bid a long, a sad farewell.
Come now, or you’ll repent it
When you do reach the gates of hell.
Echoes of ‘Turkey in the Straw’ (see Sandburg, p. 94) are heard in this tune. Compare also ‘My Grandma Lived on Yonder Little Green’, WS 166. The immediate ancestor of the tune, and the source of its title, is the secular song ‘A Rose-Tree in Full Bearing’, The English Musical Repository, Edinburgh, 1811, p. 127. It appeared in William Shield’s ballad opera ‘The Poor Soldier’, 1783. The ‘Rose Tree’ air was known in Ireland also as ‘Moreen O’Cullenan’ and was associated, among other texts, with Moore’s ‘I’d Mourn the Hopes that Leave Us’. See Joyce, p. 40.
Heptatonic aeolian, mode 2 A + b (I II 3 IV V 6 7)
Say now, ye lovely social band,
Who walk the way to Canaan’s land;
Ye who have fled from Sodom’s plain,
Say do you wish to turn again?
O have you ventured to the field,
Well arm’d with helmet, sword and shield?
And shall the world with dread alarms,
Compel you now to ground your arms?
Beware of pleasure’s siren song,
Alas, it cannot soothe thee long.
It cannot quiet Jordan’s wave,
Nor cheer the dark and silent grave.
O what contentment did you find,
While love of pleasure ruled your mind?
No sweet reflection lulled your rest,
Nor conscious virtue calmed your breast.
O, come, young soldiers, count the cost,
And say, what pleasures have you lost?
Or what misfortune does it bring,
To have Jehovah for your king?
Shall sin entice you back again,
And bind you with its iron chain?
Has vice to you such lovely charms,
That you must die within its arms?
Is folly’s way the way of peace,
Where fear, and pain, and sorrow cease?
Does pleasure roll its living stream,
And is religion all a dream?
Say, what contentment did you find
When love of pleasure ruled your mind?
No sweet reflection gave you rest,
Nor conscious virtue calm’d your breast.
Tune found also in CHI 12, KNH 109, UH 63, SOC 168, HH 28, SKH 47, GOS 26. The text, taken from the Dover Selection, as well as the tune, attributed to ‘Chapin’, seem to be closely related to a Christmas carol in JFSS, ii., 115. Its first stanza begins: “Come all ye faithful Christians, That dwell within this land. That pass your time in rioting, Remember you are but man.” The English folk-song, ‘Just as the Tide Was a-Flowing’, has an almost identical tune. See Gould and Sharp, English Folk-Songs for Schools, p. 52.
Heptatonic aeolian, mode 2 A + b (I II 3 IV V 6 7)
Bright scenes of glory strike my sense,
And all my passions capture;
Eternal beauties round me shine,
Infusing warmest rapture.
I dive in pleasure deep and full,
In swelling waves of glory;
And feel my Savior in my soul,
And groan to tell my story;
And feel my Savior in my soul,
And groan to tell my story.
I feast on honey, milk and wine,
I drink perpetual sweetness;
Mount Zion’s odours through me shine,
While Christ unfolds his glory.
No mortal tongue can lisp my joys,
Nor can an angel tell them;
Ten thousand times surpassing all
Terrestrial worlds [words?] or emblems.
My captivated spirit flies,
Through shining worlds of beauty;
Dissolv’d in blushes, loud I cry,
In praises loud and mighty;
And here I’ll sing and swell the strains
Of harmony delighted,
And with the millions learn the notes
Of saints in Christ united.
The compiler of the SKH attributes the tune to Lowry. See White Spirituals, p. 167, for a secular relative of the tune. See also ‘St. Patrick was a Gentleman’, Petrie, No. 346; and I’m Seventeen Come Sunday’, JFSS, ii., 269f.
Heptatonic aeolian, mode 2 A + b (I II 3 IV V 6 7)
Come, humble sinner in whose breast
A thousand thoughts revolve;
Come with your guilt and fear opprest
And make this last resolve.
I’ll go to Jesus though my sin
Hath like a mountain rose.
I know his courts, I’ll enter in,
Whatever may oppose.
Prostrate I’ll lie before his throne,
And there my guilt confess;
I’ll tell him I’m a wretch undone,
Without his sovereign grace.
I’ll to the gracious King approach,
Whose sceptre pardon gives;
Perhaps he may command my touch,
And then the suppliant lives.
Of the text which the compiler of the Southern Harmony found in “Rippon”, three further stanzas are found in Caldwell’s Union Harmony, p. 35. The tune, ascribed to Robert Boyd, is found also KYH 22, GCM 136, UH 34, KNH 32, HH 71, HOC 24, TZ 101, and GOS 144. A variant tune is ‘Come All Ye Worthy Christian Men’, Sharp, One Hundred English Folksongs, No. 91. Note similarity in the opening words of both songs. See also Sharp’s note as to other old related songs. The first melodic sentence is quite similar to that of the tune to ‘The Three Ravens’ as Motherwell gives it in Minstrelsy Ancient and Modern, Edition 1873, Appendix, Musick, No. 12:
Hexatonic, mode 2 A (I II 3 IV V — 7)
High o’er the hills the mountains rise,
Their summits tow’r toward the skies;
But far above them I must dwell,
Or sink beneath the flames of hell.
Although I walk the mountains high,
Ere long my body low must lie,
And in some lonesome place must rot,
And by the living be forgot.
There it must lie till that great day,
When Gabriel’s awful trump shall say,
“Arise, the judgment day is come,
When all must hear their final doom.”
Four more stanzas in the Southern Harmony. Found also GOS 218, CHH 208. William Walker, compiler of the Southern Harmony, appends the note: “This song was composed by the author in the fall of 1831, while traveling over the mountains, on French Broad River, in North Carolina and Tennessee”. Walker must have been referring simply to the words. He was melodizing, probably unconsciously, in beaten paths. For his tune is almost identical with the older ‘Kedron’ (this collection) which was attributed to “Dare”. Walker declares, in his later song book, Christian Harmony, 1866, p. 208, that he “learned the air of this tune from my mother when only five years old.” That would have been 1814. Both the Dare and the Walker tunes are closely related to the melody of ‘McAfee’s Confession’, Sharp, ii., 16, lower tune, a western North Carolina recording of 1918; and to the Old World song, ‘The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies O’, One Hundred English Folk-Songs, p. 13.
Pentatonic, mode 4 (I II — IV V — 7)
Jesus, and shall it ever be
A mortal man asham’d of thee,
Asham’d of thee whom angels praise,
Whose glories shine through endless days.