747. I'm Going Home
'I'm Going Home.' Anonymous singer with banjo accompaniment. No place or date given. Owing to more than ordinary poor diction and the noisy banjo accompaniment, it is not possible to get more of the text. The incredible enthusiasm with which the singer intones 'I'm Going Home' is absolutely contagious. The freedom of treatment with regard to the holds (which are very long), and the abandon exhibited by the banjoist (probably the same person), give this song, in performance, a rhapsodic character. Cf. here SS 84, which has different text; also Guy B. Johnson's Tracking Down a Negro Legend, 1929, 74-5, and 105. The chorus with up-beat is really a free fantasy based on the general melodic outline of measures 5-10 of the stanza.
F-646
Two long years have I been a - driv - ,in'
I'll hang my ham - mer up - on the wall. I'm a - go - in'
home-
I'm a - goin' home.
I'm a - go - in' home, I'm a - go - in' home-
Lord, I'm gon - na leave-these hills.
Scale: Mode III, plagal. Tonal Center: e-flat. Structure: abcdecM^ei
(2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2) = abbi (4,6,6) = nmmi = inverted barform. The art of
free, extemporaneous improvisation of a variation on a given tonal material
finds a masterly example in c^diei. The editor uses "extemporaneous im-
provisation" advisedly, as he has witnessed other performances, where on
several occasions the organist followed a well-prepared "recipe" in his "im-
provisation."