Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

In identifying the modal character of the "gapped" tunes I have
deemed it advisable to proceed by an entirely arbitrary method, free
from any sort of theoretical connotation. Should a missing tone be
presupposed to make either a major or minor, perfect or imperfect,
interval with the tonic, there arise at once ambiguities of
modality. For purposes of harmonic treatment it is quite necessary
to decide upon which particular mode a gapped tune suggests, but in
studying the purely melodic aspects it is reasonable to accept the
tune as an entity, considering it in its actual tonal structure and
not with regard to its possible modal permutations. To accomplish
this purpose I have evolved a chart, based on methods used by Cecil
J. Sharp in his _English Folksongs from the Southern Appalachians_,
which for the great majority of the tunes in this collection is an
adequate system of classification. The arrangement of the chart is
very simple: there are five columns, each beginning with one of the
five pentatonic scales. Immediately below each pentatonic scale are
four hexatonic scales which are formed by the addition of the
missing tones, singly and in their variable positions. The system
permits these variables to be read in terms of natural and flatted
tones. Lastly in each column are three regular heptatonic modes
which are the outgrowth of supplying both missing tones
simultaneously and in variable combination. The gaps in the
pentatonic and hexatonic scales are indicated by slurs and the
numerical positions from the tonic of the missing tones. The
supplied missing tones are indicated by black notes, and in fitting
any given tune to any scale on the chart I have endeavored where
possible to let these black notes indicate the weak tones. Since it
was possible, so far as the _actual tonal structure_ of the tunes
was concerned, to have a choice in the placing of them, the device
of indicating weak tones was a happy solution to a more careful
classification. Above each tune in this book I have indicated the
modal and, following this and in parentheses, the tonal pattern of
the tune with the heptatonic scale as a norm, that is, treating
gapped tunes arbitrarily as broken-down heptatonic tunes. A Roman
numeral indicates a major or perfect interval with the tonic; an
Arabic numeral a minor interval. In event of augmented or diminished
fourths or fifths I have used conventional signs. A gap is indicated
by a dash.

As a practical example of classification let us take at random, say,
'Weeping Savior', a song of the present collection. Counting the
tones of the melody we find six with the sixth degree missing. We
observe that the tune has a major second, minor third, perfect
fourth and fifth, no sixth, and a minor seventh. By transposition we
see that from a standpoint of the tonal pattern alone the tune can
be listed either as Hexatonic, Mode 2, A or Mode 4, b. But the
examination of structural detail shows clearly that 3 being a strong
tone and 2 being decidedly weak gives preference to the first
classification under Mode 2.

While pentachordal and hexachordal tunes (which do not conform to
this system of classification) may be perfect entities, I have,
nevertheless, for purposes of uniformity classified them on a
heptatonic basis, that is, as heptatonic tunes with the sixth and
seventh, or seventh alone, missing respectively. Similarly, while it
is somewhat tautological to say, for instance, a tune is heptatonic
ionian, I have prefixed the term heptatonic to facilitate
identification and to balance the constantly recurrent pentatonic
and hexatonic.

An examination of these spiritual folk-tunes reveals a great predominance of gapped scales. Only 23 per cent of them use the full seven-tone series; 44 per cent are hexatonic; 23 per cent are pentatonic; and seven tunes use only from 1 to 5 of their scale.

The incidence of the different modes has been impossible to ascertain. We are sure of a mode, as Mr. Rufty has noted, only when the scale tones are all represented in the melody. Proceeding however in questionable instances according to the more or less clear modal _implication_, I have found that about 52 per cent of these tunes may be interpreted as ionian (major), about 30 per cent as aeolian, 7.5 per cent each as dorian[12] and mixolydian, and three tunes as phrygian.

I leave the interpretation of the significance of these figures to others. I venture to suggest however that they will be found to indicate a survival of gapped and modal tunes that is unique in the folk-music of today among peoples of European stock.[13]

A modally constructed tune is, as I have indicated, almost sure to be a folk-tune. And if a melody shows the characteristic gaps, its folk nature is quite assured. Indeed, the complete filling-in of the gaps, creating two half steps, is a sign, though not always a sure one, of art influence.[14]

The above paragraphs show in a general way a few of the more important and evident _features by which American folk-tunes may be recognised_.[15] Their presence or absence in specific cases has helped me to decide as to the fitness of a tune for acceptance into this collection.

_Tunes of Religious and Worldly Folk-Songs Compared_

I have indicated above (page 6) that many of the present tunes were borrowed outright from secular folk-songs. The tune-to-tune relationships were discovered to some degree, as I have indicated, by accident. A spiritual tune would remind me of a secular one. I would look it up in Sharp or elsewhere, verify the relationship, and note it under the proper song in this collection. Such accidents, however, account for but comparatively few of my related-tune discoveries. In most instances they came to light as the result of a methodical comparison made possible by my having catalogued my spiritual folk-tunes and a large number of secular folk-melodies. I shall not go into a detailed explanation of this cataloguing method here, chiefly because it is one which, though it answered my own purposes well, would probably be found inadequate as a tool for students of comparative melody in general. I shall say merely that the catalog was a card index of tune beginnings, all transposed to a key which had two flats as its signature. The arrangement was based on the scale position or relative pitch of the first few tones. At the beginning of the catalog were those tunes which began on _b_-flat, then came those beginning on _c_ and so on. The arrangement among those tunes beginning on any one tone, followed the same pitch sequence, from lowest to highest, taking into consideration the second, third, and more notes of the tune beginnings where necessary. That is, my lexicographical arrangement was like that of the dictionary, but with notes on a regular staff taking the place of letters, and with the scale steps taking the place of alphabetical sequence.

The actual working out of this scheme may be observed in the arrangement of tunes in this collection. In each of the three parts the tunes appear in their catalog sequence.[16]

Through a consistent comparison of the tunes in this catalog with those in secular tune files made on the same plan, I have been able to discover the organic relationship of upwards of 150 melodies in this collection to an even greater number of traditional folk-tunes associated with _secular_ texts. This greater number is explained by the fact that one and the same tune in this collection was often found related to a number of worldly songs. To one tune 'Pilgrim', for example, I discovered 17 secular related melodies. The relationship runs in degree all the way from one which is barely recognizable to one which consists in an almost note-for-note identity.

The catalogs were also of distinct value in bringing to light scores of interrelated tunes _within_ the collection, and thus in bringing to light the tune families mentioned on page 14 above.

The search for kindred secular tunes was most fruitful in the case of the ballads and somewhat less so for the hymns. Among the spiritual songs the search yielded surprizingly meager results. The reason lay probably in the nature of the spiritual-song tunes themselves. These tunes--whatever their source--were often altered through the arbitrary intrusion of refrains and choruses. Among these tunes, therefore, my finding of secular analogies was limited usually to melodic _parts_ instead of whole tunes.

To be sure, the tune relationships, religious to secular, which I have pointed out, touch little more than half the songs under scrutiny. But when it is taken into consideration that the related secular tunes were all found in a body of British Isles-American melodies not much greater than that of the spiritual tunes themselves, then it would not seem unreasonable to assume that a complete catalog of American worldly folk-tunes would reveal cognates to many more, possibly to all of the tunes presented here. The kinships already discovered, however, warrant the assumption that _these spiritual tunes are part and parcel of the ancestral folk-melodism of the English-speaking peoples_.

The worldly-religious tune comparison has also shed more light on the motives which led the revival folk to borrow from the store of secular melody and on the manner of that borrowing. We have indicated above our belief that one motive was the crying need for rousing and familiar tunes. Another reason seems to have been the mere fact that the borrowed tunes _were_ worldly. Worldliness was of itself an asset. Fighting the devil with his own weapons had its distinct advantages in revival technics. But just how and why a _particular_ secular tune came into the religious atmosphere is not always evident. In some instances, however, the examination of the secular original song makes this clear.

When the revivalist heard the Scottish-American sing

Will you go, Lassie, go
To the braes o' Balquhidder?

he evidently saw at once the possibilities of turning the text to his own evangelistic purposes, and wasted little time in making it over into 'Sinner's Invitation:'

Sinners go, will you go
To the highlands of heaven?

which he sang to the same tune.

The ballad tune to

O'Reilly on the rolling sea
Bound for Amerikee

went over easily into the song which told of the Christian voyager who was 'Bound for Canaan.'

The old ballad 'Geordie' begins

As I walked over London bridge.

The revival singers took this hint, with its tune phrase, and produced, in 'Victoria':

I have but one more river to cross.

In the traditional ballad 'In Seaport Town' there is a recurring phrase:

Till at last they came to that lonesome valley.

This "valley" suggested to the religious mind the emotional depression of the almost converted mourner as well as the valley of death; and thus came into existence the beautiful spiritual 'Lonesome Valley':

You got to go that lonesome valley,
You got to go there by yourself

whose tune is closely related to that of the secular song.

The 'Poor Stranger' of the English secular ballad who appeared also as "poor strange girl," a "roving soldier," and a "rebel soldier," all of whom are "far from my home," exerted both melodic and textual influence on the 'Heaven-Born Soldier' who urges his comrades to

Come along and shout along
And pray by the way.

The melody which Johann Sebastian Bach, the great adapter of folk-tunes, made a peasant sing in his _Cantata_ 'Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet' spread to England and became there the setting of a number of popular texts in the first half of the eighteenth century. One of these songs, dating from 1772, was 'Farewell, Ye Green Fields and Sweet Groves' which gave birth, probably also in England, to the religious song 'Green Fields', found in every old southern fasola book. Its opening lines are

How tedious and tasteless the hours
When Jesus no longer I see.
Sweet prospects, sweet birds and sweet flowers
Have all lost their sweetness to me.

With 'Saw Ye my True Love' as a model, the task of making the religious text 'Saw Ye My Savior,' sung to the same tune, was a grateful one.

The happy inebriate who is his own hero in 'Way Up On Clinch Mountain' is reformed and regretful in 'John Adkins' Farewell' where he gives warning to other alcoholics in the same melodic strain.

From the above examples it would seem that the secular text contained often some hint which led the religious adapter in making his new poetic lines; and that the secular tune usually followed as a matter of course.

The comparison of tunes shed no actually new light on the age of the tunes. But it made clear the fact that the folk's stock of melodies is assembled from divers times. The tunes of two songs in this collection, 'New Orleans', and 'Hark my Soul', have tonal trends strikingly similar to that of melodies found in the eleventh and early thirteenth centuries respectively. From the early seventeenth century we find 'Mourner's Lamentation' which was in those earlier times 'Wae is Me for Prince Charley', a Jacobite song about Charles II of England. 'Beggar' is a remake of 'A-Begging We Will Go' which has been traced back to 1611. 'Captain Kidd' or 'Kidd', as it is disguised in the fasola books, dates from the first part of the eighteenth century. It is significant that most of the tunes mentioned in the above paragraphs are comparatively modern in their musical aspects. This fact leads to the suspicion that the really old-sounding tunes, those in the antique modes--dorian, phrygian, and the like, especially in their gapped forms--originated in still earlier times. Here is an inviting field for the student of comparative folk-melodism.

_Conclusion_

I have been impressed, as I have come to know these tunes better, with their variety and beauty. They are believed, by the country folk who still sing them, to be "the most beautiful music on earth." When I first heard this sweeping judgment I put it down as emanating from an understandable though extravagant zeal, one which was all the greater perhaps since the singers, mostly oldsters, felt they were fighting for the very life of a dying cause. But I now see I was mistaken. The songs are living vigorously without being fought for. The country folk clearly realized--however they may have expressed the realisation--that the "good old songs" were ingrained in their racial souls and that for this reason it was the most completely soul-satisfying of all music from whatever source.

If this was and still is the firm belief of those uncounted thousands who know and sing the country songs, those who are still carrying on the tradition for the sheer love of it and the joy they get out of it; then is there not an inspiration for us? Is that picture not an incentive to look into, to learn to know this _tonal tradition_, the chief one in our ethnic background? This quest might well lead to an examination of our other _acquired_, not _inherited_, musical concepts and judgments, in search for reasons why, in acquiring them, we have ignored the simpler art of the past. And from this approach we might open the question as to whether these reasons are valid,--wise or unwise.

American folk-music, basing squarely on that of the British Isles, is purer, I assert, and more completely representative of the _peoples_ among whom it has developed, and less representative of _individual_ creative activity than is the folk-music of other Western peoples. As evidence of this I present this collection, commending it to the serious consideration of those interested in fundamental phases of American culture.

This 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 successions of revision committees. These committees have been either hostile to, or incognisant of, American folk-hymns. The perusal of almost any protestant hymn-and-tune book will prove this. Thus we have the strange anomaly: _groups whose prime purpose is to induce more general singing by the masses, refusing recognition, in their books of songs, to the melodism of those masses and putting in its place the tonal products of individuals_.

There are of late some exceptions to this attitude. In the _Christian Science Hymnal_, where one finds numerous folk-tunes from many other lands, there are two variants of melodies to be found in the present collection, that is, of 'Pilgrim' and 'Marion'. The editors found these tunes, however, not in America but in the British Isles.

The Methodists who were, as we have seen, originally largely responsible for the appearance of folk-tunes in the American religious environment, have for the past fifty years progressively eliminated them from their authorized hymnals. But their latest revised edition of 1935 indicates that this tendency has been checked. I find in that volume seven tunes which are identical with melodies in the present collection, namely, with 'Green Fields', 'New Britain', 'Beloved', 'Nettleton', 'Friends of Freedom', 'Plenary', and 'Romish Lady'. There are also five other tunes in the Hymnal called "early American melodies" which I have not been able to identify as folk-melodies.

In England the evangelical protestant hymnal makers seem now to be folk-minded. The English Methodists, at least, have welcomed into their latest _Hymn Book_ no less than 43 traditional folk-tunes of the British Isles. They have even used two tunes--'Rhode Island' and 'Pisgah'--the latter of which appears in the present collection, and have called them "American", even though one of them, 'Pisgah', came hither from England, as Miss Gilchrist has pointed out.

Then there are the folklorists. How will they greet this collection? My stressing of tunes and saying little about texts will be regarded by some of the old-line folklorists--especially those who still conceive all such material as "popular poetry"--with disapproval. Others, those who are sure that folk-song is dying out and therefore see the collector's duty simply as that of retrieving the last bits of it, may greet the present collection as a new acquisition to the museums. Such a response would arouse in me no enthusiasm and little satisfaction; for I demur completely from narrow interpretations of the status, meaning, import, and destiny of folk-lore, folk-songs, _these_ folk-songs. I do not participate in the pessimism of the folk-song fatalists.

The lore of a folk comprehends, as I understand it, the whole of its basic cultural accomplishments. Understood in this broadest and deepest sense, a folk-lore is truer, more vital and more significant than an art-lore. It is a clearer mirror of a people's past, a more reliable interpreter of its present trends, and a safer prophet of its culture to come. It is all this because it is the body and soul of that culture, where art is merely a vestment. The art which fits best this body and soul, this basic ethnic character, is the best art. The art of ancient Greece was great for this reason. All students of esthetics since Lessing and Winckelmann have recognized this. They have recognized also that the great periods in the art of any enduring people are those when its gifted creators are in closest harmony with the genius of their race; and that its barren periods are those when the masters have been faithless to their own and have sought afar "the good which lies so near."

_Acknowledgements_

I wish to express here my deep gratitude to Mr. Hilton Rufty for his generous help in verifying the musical aspects of this collection and in helping me solve many a knotty problem in interpreting the tunes which I have transcribed from the old singing-school books. Mr. John Powell has earned my sincere thanks for reading critically the entire manuscript, calling my attention to a number of inaccuracies, and to many secular melodies related to those in this volume.

The present collection would have been far less comprehensive without the use of a number of unique source books placed at my disposal by friends. I wish therefore to acknowledge gratefully the co-operation of Mr. Will H. Ruebush for providing me with _The Olive Leaf_ and _The Social Harp_; Mrs. Annabel Morris Buchanan for _The Union Harmony_ (Hendrickson); Mr. E. S. Lorenz for _The Revivalist_ and _Songs of Grace_; Mr. John Lair for the _Scots Musical Museum_; The Lawson McGhee Library (Knoxville, Tennessee) for _The Church Harmony_ and _The Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony_; Mr. W. E. Bird for _The Southern and Western Pocket Harmonist_; and Miss Lucille Wilkin for _The Western Harmony_. The University of North Carolina Press has kindly allowed me to reproduce several songs from _White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands_. For this I wish to express my sincere thanks.

I wish also to thank those who have furnished me with songs from oral tradition. Among such helpful contributors are Professor Donald Davidson, Mr. Don West, Mr. Samuel E. Asbury, Mr. Francis Arthur Robinson, and Miss Will Allen Dromgoole. My gratitude is hereby expressed also to Dr. Carleton Sprague Smith, Chief of the Music Division of the New York Public Library, and to Dr. Oliver Strunk, Chief of the Music Division of the Library of Congress for their helpfulness.

My daughter, Frances Helen Parker, and my sisters, Carol Jackson Ransom and Genevieve Jackson Beckwith, have given me invaluable help in preparing this book for the printer and in correcting the proofs. For this I am deeply and lastingly grateful to them.

George Pullen Jackson
Vanderbilt University

Nashville, Tennessee, April 10, 1937

Fifty-one Religious Ballads

No. 1
ROMISH LADY, HH 257

Pentatonic, mode 3 (I II III -- V VI --)

[Music]

There was a Romish lady, Brought up in popery,
Her mother always taught her, The priest she must obey.
"O pardon me, dear mother, I humbly pray thee now,
But unto these false idols I can no longer bow."

Assisted by her handmaid, a bible she conceal'd,
And there she gain'd instruction, till God his love reveal'd.
No more she prostrates herself to pictures deck'd with gold;
But soon she was betrayed and her bible from her stole.

"I'll bow to my dear Jesus, I'll worship God unseen,
I'll live by faith forever, the works of men are vain.
I cannot worship angels nor pictures made by men:
Dear Mother, use your pleasure, but pardon if you can."

With grief and great vexation her mother straight did go
T' inform the Roman clergy, the cause of all her wo.
The priests were soon assembled, and for the maid did call,
And forced her in the dungeon to fright her soul withal.

The more they strove to fright her, the more she did endure;
Although her age was tender, her faith was strong and sure.
The chains of gold so costly, they from this lady took,
And she, with all her spirits, the pride of life forsook.

Before the pope they brought her, in hopes of her return,
And there she was condem-ned in horrid flames to burn.
Before the place of torment they brought her speedily;
With lifted hands to heaven she then agreed to die.

There being many ladies assembled at the place,
She raised her eyes to heaven and begged supplying grace:
"Weep not, ye tender ladies, shed not a tear for me,
While my poor body's burning, my soul the Lord shall see.

"Yourselves you need to pity, and Zion's deep decay;
Dear ladies, turn to Jesus, no longer make delay."
In comes her raving mother, her daughter to behold,
And in her hand she brought her the pictures deck'd with gold.

"O take from me these idols, remove them from my sight;
Restore to me my bible, wherein I take delight!--
Alas, my aged mother, why on my ruin bent?
'Twas you that did betray me, but I am innocent.

"Tormentors, use your pleasure, and do as you think best;
I hope my blessed Jesus will take my soul to rest."
Soon as these words were spoken, up steps the man of death,
And kindled up the fire to stop her mortal breath.

Instead of golden bracelets, with chains they bound her fast;
She cried, "My God give power, now must I die at last?
With Jesus and his angels forever I shall dwell;
God pardon priest and people, and so I bid farewell."

The text--undoubtedly of Inquisition times origin--indicates the age of the ballad. It is to be found in the _Roxburghe Ballads_, i., 43. It is mentioned in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Knight of the Burning Pestle" (1613). A parody on the opening words:

There was a moanish lady
Lived in a moanish land;
She had a moanish daughter
Could moan at the Lord's command _etc._

is in Sandburg's _American Songbag_, p. 11. Another echo of this ballad text is:

The Romish Lady, she had babes,

in 'The Wife of Usher's Well', Sharp, i., 159. I recorded the tune in Dayton, Virginia; see _White Spirituals_, 202. _The Methodist Hymnal_ (1935, No. 436) has a variant of the tune which it calls a "traditional English carol".

No. 2
BEGGAR or TO BEGGING I WILL GO, SOC 212.

Heptatonic ionian, mode 3 A + b (I II III IV V VI VII)

[Music]

I'd rather live a beggar while here on earth I stay,
Than to possess the riches of all America;
And to begging I will go.
And to begging I will go, will go, will go,
And to begging I will go.

With thoughts of keen emotion our hearts are running o'er,
While parting from the friends we love for China's distant shore,
We're off for China's shore.
We're off for China's shore, China's shore,
We're off for China's shore.

We need your prayers, your sympathies more now than e'er before,
For few the friends and hard the task on China's distant shore;
We're off for China's shore.
We're off _etc._

We'll heed our Master's call; He is with us ever more;
Then farewell, dear friends, adieu, we're off for China's shore;
We're off for China's shore.
We're off _etc._

A close tune variant is 'Lost City', or 'To Glory I Will Go' in this collection. Tune and words are a parody of 'A-Begging We Will Go' which was widely popular in the latter part of the seventeenth century and traces of whose existence are found as early as 1611.

See Chappell's _Old English Popular Music_, ii., 42-43.

The first stanza of the song as it appeared in _Choyce Ayres_ etc., 1676, runs:

There was a jovial beggar,
He had a wooden leg,
Lame from his cradle and forced for to beg.
And a begging we will go, we'll go, we'll go,
And a begging we will go.

Other songs for which the early song became the prototype were 'A Bowling We Will Go', 'A Fishing We Will Go', 'A Hawking We Will Go' and 'A Hunting We Will Go.'

No. 3
REVEREND JAMES AXLEY'S SONG, OL 369

Hexatonic, mode 4 A (I II -- IV V VI 7)

[Music]

Tho' sinners would vex me, tho' troubles perplex me,
Against inclination, O what shall I do?
No longer a rover, my follies are over.
But one thing is needful, and that I'll pursue.

Vain pleasure is deceitful, and sin is all hateful,
But genuine pleasure in Jesus I find:
This world is a bubble, a life full of trouble;
My thoughts now fly upward, and leave all behind.

I hear the bells tolling; and wheels are now rolling;
Some gallant, gay, fair one goes to her long home:
If dead out of Jesus--the Lord will not save us,
And to him in glory we never can come.

Oh! pray for conversion; shun foolish diversion;
Adopt self-denial, and take up your cross:
These do for a season, and use your own reason,
And you will see clearly you suffer no loss.

Your time is a treasure (there's none in vain pleasure),
Then look up to Jesus with faith's steadfast eye:
Oh, haste to believe in the crucified Savior,
For time flies apace, and eternity's nigh!

My soul starts with wonder, to think how God's thunder,
Will shake all creation at Gabriel's call!
When time is no longer, the aged and younger,
Before the great Judge, in their trouble, will fall.

The Judgment decided, friends now are divided;
And all the ungodly are turned into hell:
But glory to Jesus! believing, He'll save us,
With angels in glory his praises to swell.

_The Olive Leaf_ arranger spoiled the tune's apparent mixolydian purity by changing the _d_'s to _d_-sharps. As to title and source the editor says: "Reverend James Axley was one of the pioneer preachers of the Holston Conference, and a very holy, laborious, and successful minister. I learned this tune and song of Reverend Russell Reneau, who died in Arkansas during our late unhappy Civil War. Crude as the song is, I choose to preserve it in memory of Mr. Axley and Mr. Reneau." The tune is a variant of 'Christian Warfare', GOS 603. Further information as to the Reverend James Axley, whose period of activity in the methodist conferences of Tennessee, Kentucky and other states was during the first decades of the nineteenth century, may be found in Peter Cartwright's _Autobiography_, p. 62 and elsewhere.

No. 4
HICKS' FAREWELL, SOH 19

Pentatonic, mode 2 (I -- 3 IV V -- 7)

[Music]

The time is swiftly rolling on
When I must faint and die;
My body to the dust return
And there forgotten lie.

William Walker claims the tune. See 'Farewell' in this collection for different melodies associated with this text. Cecil Sharp recorded five versions of the song as he heard them in the Appalachian Mountains in 1916 and 1918. See Sharp, ii., 142-143. The text (given more fully under 'Farewell') was written by the Reverend B. Hicks of South Carolina. See _White Spirituals_, 202ff.

No. 5
FREE SALVATION, _Wesleyan Psalmist_

Pentatonic, mode 3 (I II III -- V VI --)

[Music]

Man at his first creation in Eden God did place,
The public head and father of all the human race;
But by the subtle serpent beguil'd he was and fell,
And by his disobedience was doom'd to death and hell.

While in this situation a promise there was made,
The offspring of the woman should bruise the serpent's head,
Against the power of Satan that man might only feel
The malice of the serpent enraging at his heel.

Now at the time appointed Jesus unveiled his face,
Assumed our human nature and suffered in our place;
He suffered on Mount Calvary and ransomed all for me,
The law demands attention, to pay the penalty.

They laid him in a sepulchre, it being near at hand,
The grave could not now hold him, nor death's cold iron hand;
He burst them all asunder and pulled their kingdoms down,
He's overcome his enemies and wears a starry crown.

Miss Gilchrist finds this "reminiscent of the old Cornish 'When God at first had Adam made', and of the style of the Manx-Gaelic carvals." See JFSS, viii., 83.

No. 6
SAILOR'S HOME, SOH 182

Hexatonic, mode 3 A (I II III -- V VI VII)

[Music]

When for eternal worlds we steer,
And seas are calm and skies are clear;
And faith in lively exercise,
And distant hills of Canaan rise;
The soul for joy then claps her wings,
And loud her lovely sonnet sings,
I'm going home, I'm going home;
And loud her lovely sonnet sings,
I'm going home.

With cheerful hope his eyes explore
Each landmark on the distant shore;
The trees of life, the pasture green,
The crystal stream, delightful scene.
Again for joy she plumes her wings,
And loud her lovely sonnet sings:
I'm almost home, I'm almost home!
And loud her lovely sonnet sings:
I'm almost home.

The nearer still she draws to land,
More eager all her pow'rs expand;
With steady helm and free bent sail,
Her anchor drops within the vale.
And now for joy she folds her wings
And her celestial sonnet sings:
I'm home at last, I'm home at last!
And her celestial sonnet sings:
I'm home at last!

She meets with those who're gone before,
On heaven's high and genial shore
Around the dear Redeemer's feet,
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
And loud they shout: Our God and King!
And ceaseless hallelujahs sing,
We're safe at last! We're safe at last!
And ceaseless hallelujahs sing,
We're safe at last!

The song is attributed in the _Southern Harmony_ to Wm. M. Caudill and Wm. Walker. The tune bears some resemblance to 'Liverpool' in this collection. The song is found also in REV 396, entitled 'Sonnet'.

No. 7
LIVERPOOL or SOLEMN ADDRESS TO YOUNG PEOPLE, OSH 37

Hexatonic, mode 3 A (I II III -- V VI VII)

[Music]

Young people all attention give,
And hear what I shall say;
I wish your souls with Christ to live
In everlasting day.

Remember you are hastening on
To death's dark gloomy shade;
Your joys on earth will soon be gone,
Your flesh in dust be laid.

Death's iron gate you must pass through,
Ere long, my dear young friends;
With whom then do you think to go,
With saints or fiery fiends?

Pray meditate before too late,
While in a gospel land;
Behold! King Jesus at the gate
Most lovingly doth stand.

Young men, how can you turn face
From such a glorious friend;
Will you pursue your dang'rous ways?
O don't you fear the end?

Will you pursue that dang'rous road
Which leads to death and hell?
Will you refuse all peace with God,
With devils for to dwell?

Young women too, what will you do,
If out of Christ you die?
From all God's people you must go,
To weep, lament and cry.

Where you the least relief can't find,
To mitigate your pain;
Your good things all be left behind,
Your souls in death remain.

Young people all, I pray then view
The fountain open'd wide;
The spring of life open'd for sin,
Which flow'd from Jesus' side.

There you may drink in endless joy,
And reign with Christ, your king,
In his glad notes your souls employ,
And hallelujahs sing.

The earliest appearance of the text is in _Mercer's Cluster_, a collection of rurally used hymns (not tunes) by Jesse Mercer, benefactor of Mercer University, who lived in Powellton, Georgia, in the 1820's. The editor of the _Sacred Harp_ attributes the tune to M. C. H. Davis, a southern rural. The song is found also UH 27, HH 83, HOC 113, WP 36, SOC 76, SOH I and CHH 58. The tune is a member of the 'Lord Lovel' family mentioned in the introduction, p. 14, and is closely related to 'Mermaid', Sharp, i., 291, and to 'The Broom of Cowdenknows', SMM No. 3, and its seventeenth-century country-dance form 'The Bonny Bonny Broome', Playford's _The English Dancing Master_, p. 74. For a list of other members of the 'Lord Lovel' tune family see 'Dulcimer' in this collection.

No. 8
LITTLE FAMILY, WS 195 ff.

Pentatonic, mode 1 (I II -- IV V VI --)

[Music]

There was a little fam'ly
That liv'd in Bethany,
Two sisters and a brother
Compos'd that family.

With shouting and with singing
Like angels in the sky,
At morning and at evening
They rais'd their voices high.

See _White Spirituals_ for the full text of seven stanzas about the raising of Lazarus. For references see JAFL, xxv., 17, and xxix., 182.

Almost the same tune is 'Johnny German', Sharp, ii., 256. 'Joe Bowers', Cox, 527, is also similar. Another spiritual ballad using this tune in variant form is 'Wedlock (A)', in this collection.

No. 9
MISS HATAWAY'S EXPERIENCE, HH 421

Heptatonic ionian, Mode 3 A + b (I II III IV V VI VII)

[Music]

Young women all, I pray draw near,
Listen a while and you shall hear
How sin and Satan both did try
To land my soul in misery.

The full text is reproduced in _White Spirituals_, 186f. The tune is closely related to 'McAfee's Confession', Sharp, ii., 15 and 16. John Powell notes in connection with this song: "I have collected this tune often as 'Young People Who Delight in Sin' and it is always mixolydian." He then makes the suggestion: "Why not take out the _g_-sharp from the signature? In that case the modal indication would be heptatonic mixolydian, mode 3 a + b (I II III IV V VI 7)."

No. 10
DYING CALIFORNIAN, OSH 410

Hexatonic, mode 3 A (I II III -- V VI VII)

[Music]

Lay up nearer, brother, nearer,
For my limbs are growing cold,
And thy presence seemeth nearer,
When thine arms around me fold.

I am dying, brother, dying;
Soon you'll miss me in your berth,
For my form will soon be lying
'Neath the ocean's briney deep.

I am going, surely going,
But my hope in God is strong;
I am willing, brother, knowing
That he doth nothing wrong.

Tell my father, when you greet him,
That in death I prayed for him,
Prayed that I might only meet him
In a world that's free from sin.

Tell my mother,--God assist her,
Now that she is growing old,--
That her child would glad have kissed her
When his lips grew pale and cold.

Listen, brother, catch each whisper,
'Tis my wife I'll speak of now;
Tell, O tell her how I missed her,
When the fever burned my brow.

Tell her she must kiss my children,
Like the kiss I last impressed;
Hold them as when last I held them,
Folded closely to my breast.

Give them early to their maker,
Putting all her trust in God;
And he never will forsake her,
For he's said so in his word.

Oh! my children, Heaven bless them,
They were all my life to me;
Would I could once more caress them
Before I sink beneath the sea.

'Twas for them I crossed the ocean,
What my hopes were I'd not tell,
But they gained an orphan's portion,--
Yet he doth all things well.

Listen, brother, closely listen,
Don't forget a single word,
That in death my eyes did glisten
With the tears her memory stored.

Tell them I never reached the haven,
Where I sought the precious dust,
But I've gained a port called heaven
Where the gold will never rust.

Tell my sisters I remember
Every kind and parting word,
And my heart has been kept tender
By the thoughts its memory stirred.

Urge them to secure an entrance,
For they'll find a brother there.
Faith in Jesus and repentance
Will secure for them a share.

Hark! I hear my Savior speaking;
'Tis--I know his voice so well,
When I'm gone, O don't be weeping,
Brother, hear my last farewell.

The song seems to have been inspired by the fate of one of the "forty-niners." It made its first appearance in fasola circles in the 1859 edition of the _Sacred Harp_ where it is attributed to Ball and Drinkard. For references as to its origin see Hudson, _Folksongs of Mississippi_, 221.

No. 11
JOHN ADKINS' FAREWELL, SOC 200

Hexatonic, mode 3 b (I II III IV V VI --)

[Music]

Poor drunkards, poor drunkards, take warning by me,
The fruits of transgression behold now I see;
My soul is tormented, my body confin'd;
My friends and my children left weeping behind.

Much intoxication my ruin has been,
And my dear companion I've barbarously slain;
In yonder cold graveyard her body doth lie,
And I am confined and must shortly die.

A solemn death warning to drunkards I leave,
While my poor body lies cold in the dark grave;
Remember John Adkins, his death and reform,
Lest justice o'ertakes you and sorrow comes on.

A whole life of sorrow can never atone,
For that cruel murder that my hands have done;
I am justly condemned, it's right that I should die,
Therefore, let all drunkards take warning hereby.

Farewell, my dear children, wherever you be;
Though quite young and tender and dear unto me;
I leave you exposed in nature's wide field,
In which God is able poor orphans to shield.

No mother to teach you, no mother to guide
Your tender affections from sin's awful tide;
No portion to shun you from hunger or cold,
My poor little orphans are cast on the world.

When 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'd, and now she is dead.

My heart swells with sorrow, my eyes overflow,
Soon, oh my dear children, I'll bid you adieu;
Oh may my kind neighbors your guardians prove,
And heaven, kind heaven, protect you above.

My soul to His pleasure I humbly submit,
And with my last burthen fall down at His feet;
To plead for His mercy that flows from above,
That pardons poor drunkards, and crowns them above.

John G. McCurry, compiler of the _Social Harp_, claims this song and dates it 1851. The tune is identical with that of 'When Boys Go A-Courting', Sharp, ii., 206. The "drunkard" theme may have been the textual source of 'Way Up On Clinch Mountain', where, to the same tune, the singer glories in his excesses including that of whiskey drinking. See Sandburg, 307. Miss Scarbrough has a negro adoption of the same tune in 'Noble Skewball'; see _On the Trail of the Negro Folk-Song_, 63. An English folk-song 'Sweet England' has a variant tune. See _English Folk-Songs for Schools_, 46. For an Irish variant see Petrie, No. 1172. A Scotch variant is 'My Ain Fireside', _Lyric Gems of Scotland_, 186, which in turn borrowed its tune from 'Todlen Hame'.

No. 12
REDEMPTION (C), KHN 185

Heptatonic ionian, mode 3 A + b (I II III IV V VI VII)

[Music]

Come all ye young people of every relation,
Come listen a while and to you I will tell,
How I was first called to seek for salvation,
Redemption through Jesus which sav'd me from hell.
I scarcely was sixteen when I was first called
To think of my soul and the state it was in;
I saw myself standing a distance from Jesus;
Between him and me was a mountain of sin.

The devil perceived that I was convicted,
And strove to persuade me that I was too young,
That I would get wearied before my days ended,
And wish that I had not so early begun;
Sometimes he persuaded me that Jesus was partial,
When he was a-setting of poor sinners free,
That I was forgotten and was reprobated,
And there was no mercy at all for poor me.

But glory to Jesus, his love's not confined,
To princes or men of a nobler degree;
His love it is boundless to all human creatures,
He died for poor sinners when nail'd to the tree.
For while I lay groaning in sad lamentation,
My soul overwhelmed in sorrow and grief,
He drew near in mercy, looked on me in pity,
He pardon'd my sins and he gave me relief.

The tune is practically the same as 'Grenadier and the Lady', JFSS, viii., 194.

No. 13
WEDLOCK (A), SOC 188

Heptatonic ionian, mode 3 A + b (I II III IV V VI VII)

[Music]

When Adam was created,
He dwelt in Eden's shade,
As Moses has related,
Before a bride was made.

Ten thousand times ten thousand
Things wheeled all around,
Before a bride was formed,
Or yet a mate was found.

Another tune and additional stanzas of the text are given in this collection under the title 'Wedlock (B)'. The song is attributed, in the _Social Harp_, to Henry F. Chandler and is dated 1854. The tunes of 'Johnny German', Sharp, ii., 256; 'I Rode My Little Horse', Baring-Gould, _Songs of the West_, No. 101; 'The Auld House', _Lyric Gems of Scotland_, 49; and 'Joe Bowers', are similar to the above air. Another ballad in this collection using this tune in variant form is 'Little Family'. Stephen Foster's song 'Virginia Belle' leans melodically on 'Wedlock (A)'. (See my article in _The Musical Quarterly_, xxii., No. 2.)

No. 14
PATTON, OL 40

Hexatonic, mode 3 A (I II III -- V VI VII)

[Music]

Young people all, attention give,
While I address you in God's name,
You who in sin and folly live,
Come hear the counsel of a friend.
I sought for bliss in glitt'ring toys,
And ranged th' alluring scenes of vice,
But never found substantial joys
Until I heard my Savior's voice.

He spake at once my sins forgiven
And wash'd my load of guilt away;
He gave me glory, peace and heaven,
And thus I found the heav'nly way.
And now with trembling sense I view
The billows roll beneath your feet;
For death eternal waits for you
Who slight the force of gospel truth.

Youth, like the spring, will soon be gone
By fleeting time or conquering death;
Your morning sun may set at noon
And leave you ever in the dark.
Your sparkling eyes and blooming cheeks
Must wither like the blasted rose;
The coffin, earth and winding-sheet
Will soon your active limbs enclose.

Ye heedless ones that wildly stroll,
The grave will soon become your bed,
Where silence reigns and vapors roll
In solemn darkness round your head.
Your friends will pass the lonesome place
And with a sigh move slow along;
Still gazing on the spires of grass
With which your graves are overgrown.

The compiler of _Olive Leaf_ gives the following notes: "From McAnally's _Western Harp_" and "Called after the late Wm. Patton, of Mo. Heard him sing it, first, at a camp-meeting, North Cove, Burk Co., N. C., in 1831 or 1832. Published by the admirable A. S. Hayden, perhaps in 1829." The Celtic melodic influence is clearly felt in the above tune.

No. 15
DYING BOY, OSH 398

Hexatonic, mode 3 A (I II III -- V VI VII)

[Music]

I'm dying, Mother, dying now,
Please raise my aching head;
And fan my heated, burning brow,
Your boy will soon be dead.
Turn o'er my pillow once again,
And kiss my fever'd cheek;
I'll soon be free from all the pain,
For now I am so weak.

Now light the lamps, my mother dear,
The sun has pass'd away;
I soon must go, but do not fear,
I'll live in endless day.
I'm sinking fast, my mother dear;
I can no longer dwell;
Yet I'll be with you, do not fear;
But now, O now, farewell.

A band of angels beckon me,
I can no longer stay;
Hark! how they sing: "We welcome thee;
Dear brother, haste away."
The hour has come, my end is near;
My soul is mounting higher.
What glorious strains salute my ear
From heaven's angelic choir.

Their flowing robes in brightness shine;
A crown is on each head;
Say, mother, will not such be mine
When I am with the dead?
Then do not weep, sweet mother, now,
'Twill break this body frail;
Those burning tears fall o'er my brow,
Farewell, O fare thee well.

The _Sacred Harp_ says this was "composed by H. S. Rees, 1859". Is it perhaps a parody of Wm. Haines Lytle's 'I'm Dying, Egypt, Dying'? Lytle was a cousin of Stephen Collins Foster whose own song 'For the Dear Old Flag I Die' shows close kinship in words and tune to 'Dying Boy'. (See my article in _The Musical Quarterly_, xxii., No. 2.) There is a resemblance also between the 'Dying Boy' tune and a seventeenth century psalm tune called variously 'Bella', 'Leeds', 'Needham' and 'Derby'; see _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, Historical ed., London, Clowes, 1909, p. 79.

No. 16
SAW YE MY SAVIOR, CH 42

Heptatonic ionian, mode 1 A + B (I II III IV V VI VII)

[Music]

Saw ye my Savior, saw ye my Savior,
Saw ye my Savior and God?
Oh! he died on Calvary to atone for you and me
And to purchase our pardon with blood.

He was extended, he was extended,
Painfully nailed to the cross;
Then he bowed his head and died, thus my Lord was crucified,
To atone for a world that was lost.

Jesus hung bleeding, Jesus hung bleeding,
Three dreadful hours in pain;
Whilst the sun refused to shine, when his majesty divine
Was derided, insulted and slain.

Darkness prevail-ed, darkness prevail-ed,
Darkness prevailed through the land;
Oh, the solid rocks were rent, through creation's vast extent
When the Jews crucified the God-Man.

When it was finish'd, when it was finish'd,
And the atonement was made;
He was taken by the great, and embalmed in spices sweet,
And was in a new sepulchre laid.

Hail, mighty Savior, hail mighty Savior!
Prince and the Author of peace!
Oh, he burst the bars of death, and triumphing left the earth,
He ascended to mansions of bliss.

Now interceding, now interceding,
Pleading that sinners might live;
Saying, "Father, I have died, (O, behold my hands and side!)
To redeem them, I pray thee, forgive."

"I will forgive them, I will forgive them,
When they repent and believe;
Let them now return to thee, and be reconciled to me,
And salvation they all shall receive."

This song occurs also in _Olive Leaf_, p. 203, where it is called "a Scotch air". Miss Gilchrist tells us, in the article often cited here, that 'Saw Ye My Savior' is 'Saw Ye My Father', or 'The Grey Cock', found in both Scotch and English versions. A text is in Herd's collections of 1769 and 1772, and another with the tune, in Chappell's _Popular Music_. Chappell's version begins:

Saw you my father, saw you my mother,
Saw you my true love John?
He told his only dear that he would soon be here,
But he to another is gone.

The melodic phrase above, which coincides with the text "Oh ... me", is used to build up the tune for 'Simple Ploughboy', Sharp, i., 369. As to the influence of this impressive text on the crucifixion songs of the negroes, see _White Spirituals_, 277. Stephen Foster seems to have been influenced by the 'Saw Ye My Savior' tune or its secular relatives in composing his 'Old Black Joe'. (See my article in _The Musical Quarterly_, xxii., No. 2.) For further references as to 'The Grey Cock' see _British Ballads from Maine_, 310ff.

No. 17
ESTER, OSH 437

Pentatonic, mode 3 (I II III -- V VI --)

[Music]

Young ladies all, attention give,
You that in wicked pleasures live;
One of your sex the other day
Was call'd by death's cold hand away.

This lesson she has left for you,
To teach the careless what to do;
To seek Jehovah while you live
And everlasting honors give.

Her honored mother she addrest,
While tears were streaming down her breast;
She grasped her tender hands and said,
"Remember me when I am dead."

She called her father to her bed,
And thus in dying anguish said:
"My days on earth are at an end,
My soul is summoned to attend;

Before Jehovah's awful bar,
To hear my awful sentence there;
And now, dear father, do repent,
And read the holy testament."

The _Sacred Harp_ ascribes the song to John S. Terry and dates it 1869. Terry was a singing-school teacher of Georgia and later lived in Alabama. The singing-school teacher took for his warning song the 'Lord Lovel' tune type that has been used for many secular ballads. Among them are 'Barbara Allen', Sharp, i., 195, tune O; 'Gypsy Laddie', Sharp, i., 237, tune F; 'Come all Ye Fair and Tender Ladies', Sharp, ii., 135, tune P. For other tunes of the same type see 'Dulcimer' in this collection.

No. 18
LONE PILGRIM, SOH 256

Hexatonic, mode 3 A (I II III -- V VI VII)

[Music]

I came to the place where the lone pilgrim lay,
And pensively stood by the tomb,
When in a low whisper I heard something say,
"How sweetly I sleep here alone."

"The tempest may howl and the loud thunder roar,
And gathering storms may arise,
Yet calm is my feeling, at rest is my soul
The tears are all wiped from my eyes.

"The cause of my master compelled me from home,
I bade my companions farewell;
I blessed my dear children who now for me mourn,--
In far distant regions they dwell.

"I wandered an exile and stranger from home,
No kindred or relative nigh;
I met the contagion and sank to the tomb,
My soul flew to mansions on high.

"O tell my companion and children most dear,
To weep not for me now I'm gone;
The same hand that led me through scenes most severe,
Has kindly assisted me home.

"And there is a crown that doth glitter and shine,
That I shall for evermore wear;
Then turn to the Savior, his love's all divine,
All you that would dwell with me there."

The text is attributed, by the 1911 editor of the _Sacred Harp_, to B. F. White, original compiler of that book. He wrote it "on the lone prairie in Texas", while standing "at the grave of a friend who once lived in Georgia". In _Folksongs of Mississippi_ Hudson gives a variant text from oral tradition and tells of a local legend as to its source which agrees in the main with that given in the _Sacred Harp_ which book, I suspect, was the source of the Mississippi legend.

The tune, variously claimed in the fasola books, is identical with the 'Braes o' Balquhidder'. See Gilchrist, JFSS, viii., 77. Other derivatives of the same tune are 'Sinner's Invitation', 'Florence', and 'Orphan Girl' in this collection. In _The Musical Quarterly_, xxii., No. 2, I have shown the relationship between this tune and Stephen Foster's 'Linda Has Departed'.