The Folk Element in Early Revival Hymns and Tunes
by Anne G. Gilchrist
Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 8, No. 32 (Dec., 1928), pp. 61-95
THE FOLK ELEMENT IN EARLY REVIVAL HYMNS AND TUNES
BY ANNE G. GILCHRIST
INTRODUCTION
FOLK-HYMNS form a department of folk-music apt to be ignored-except in the case of those found amongst American negroes (and over-exploited to-day), whose indebtedness to early Methodism has not been sufficiently realised by some modern
writers.
The camp-meetings of the early Methodists-as distinct from the field-preaching of Wesley and other divines-seem to have had their rise both in England and America about the beginning of last century, as a feature of religious revivals among the humbler classes. In America a revival about the year i8oo started camp-meetings in Kentucky and Ohio, and these meetings of the " Western Methodists " were the source of some primitive hymns, which though destitute of poetry served to arouse feelings of devotion and stir up a spirit of excitement amongst the company assembled.*
[* Mrs.. Trollope, in The Domestic Manners of the Americans (I832t, paints in very harsh colours the Revivalism and camp-meetings of the America of a century ago, and the religious hysteria which was too often a repellent feature of these gatherings. She describes a large camp-meeting held in a wild district in Indiana, where a space of about twenty acres on the verge of an unbroken forest hadl been partially cleared for the assemblv and surrounde(d by tents, with an outer circle of vehicles and horses. The only thing about the proceedings which seems to have affected her with feelings of anything but disgust was the singing of the vast assembly, when by degrees the voices of the whole multitude joined in the chorus of a hymn with solemn and beautiful effect, at dead of night and in the depths of the forest-a scene weirdly lit by the beams of the moon and the flares of elevated bonfires.]
In England, Hugh Bourne-expelled from the Connexion in 1808 for his camp-meeting methods-became the founder of Primitive Methodism. The first hymn-book of this body was issued c. I823, but without tunes. Many of the hymns in it are of illiterate character, but interesting as pointing to early Methodist sources for many lines and phrases afterwards to be found embedded in negro spirituals. "Meeting in the air"- "Shout salvation as I fly to glory, glory, glory" - "Cross bold Jordan's stormy main" - " Shout and sing for evermore "- "Glory hallelujah " refrains-the couplet I do believe without a doubt That a Christian has a right to shout! and the hymn-motto "This old-time religion is good enough for me "-with many others, may be culled from the early Methodist revival-books.*
[* Relics of old English carols and rhymes may also be recognised amongst collections of
spirituals. A few specimens are here given.
M for Mary and P for Paul,
C for Christ who died for us all.
* * * * * *
O hell is deep and hell is wide,
O hell ain't got no bottom or side.
* * * * * *
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Tell me where my Master's gone.
* * * * * *
Dig my grave long and narrow,
Make my coffin long and strong;
Bright angels to my feet, bright angels to my head,
Bright angels to carry me when I'm dead.
-the tune of the last (printed with the verse in Krehbiel's Afro-American Folk-Songs) being as recognisably English as the words.]
Though some hymns and tunes of a primitive character seem to have been spontaneous expressions of a sincere if sometimes uncouth religious emotion, many others are obviously the result of simple people working upon material familiar to them so
as to make a thing peculiarly their own. The most primitive type of camp-meeting folk-hymn was merely a sentence or a phrase repeated several times to a short and simple musical strain-changing but a word or two in each successive verse-if verse it can be called. The children's game-song and the sailor's shanty-" Nuts in May" and "What to do with a drunken sailor "-illustrate the type-improvisatory, and lengthened by incremental repetition, or by variation, at will. But many of the early Methodists both in England and America, it is evident, knew the eighteenth century gospel hymns of Watts and Doddridge, Cowper and John Newton, Charles Wesley and John Cennick, and these they adapted to their own methods and their own tunes, the negroes afterwards carrying the process still further and fitting these religious songs into the framework of their own African songs of labour.
The chorus was an important-almost indispensable-part of the hymn, though it must be confessed that it was sometimes of an irrelevant character; but as none of the old gospel-hymn writers of the eighteenth century had dreamt of refrains or choruses to their common, short, and long metre verses, such embellishments had to be borrowed or invented. Sometimes the quatrains were reduced to couplets, interlined with refrain (even a hymn in 8 8 6.8 8 6 metre may be found thus reduced by omitting lines 3 and 6), and followed by a lusty chorus. (The same sort of thing happened when sailors took land-songs to sea with them and turned them into shanties.) The negroes dropped-or forgot-still more of the original stanzas, merely retaining some of the most striking lines or phrases, which in time became the nuclei of new spirituals-thus gradually developing their own particular type of religious song, which even yet seems to be in a fluid state. It seems necessary to emphasize the ultimate source of many of these earlier spirituals, which without research amongst early English and American revival hymns are apt to be classed as the purely native product of the negro's imagination and musical genius.
When the hymns were sung to traditional ballad-airs of simple character (as in the case of the Manx carvals) the place of the refrain or chorus was usually taken by a repetition of the second or last part of the tune-which was probably the method of
the ballad associated with the tune.
Hymn-books were likely to be scarce at camp-meetings, and tune-books were for long unknown; hence tunes had either to be remembered or improvised. The old psalm-tunes were either forgotten or else they did not satisfy the religious fervour of the assemblies. Until the 'forties-and perhaps especially the American revival of 1842-the American camp-meeting tunes, though widely sung and known, remained unprinted. But about the above period a small pocket-sized book of these tunes, crudely harmonized-mostly in three parts-was issued under the name of The Wesleyan Psalmist or Songs of Canaan, and from it many of the tunes which here follow are taken.
The American revival of I858-9 gave impetus to the issue of the Rev. J. W. Dadmun's Revival Melodies and The Melodeon-the compilation-as is evident-of another imperfectly trained musician. Some folk-tunes, besides various adaptations of English, Scotch, and Irish airs, still survived in collections of hymns issued in 1855 and I864, after which they seem to have been discarded by American musical editors.
Until recent times, a folk-tune stood a poor chance of preserving any modal character it possessed through the hazards of a first notation and then of revision for the printed collection; and unfortunately a certain amount of the modernisation
once considered necessary is apparent, with a corresponding loss of modal character, in some of the tunes which illustrate this article, though they are still recognisable as members of their respective families. It is not possible to say how far such tunes had already become modernised in American communities before they ever appeared in print.
Nevertheless, an analysis of the forty-five folk-tunes here printed shows that almost exactly half of them are in the gapped modes characteristic of Scottish and Border folk-airs, seven being purely pentatonic, the rest having one or other of the two gaps (the fourth and seventh degrees of our major scale) filled up-though thinly, as with a passing or non-essential note. For further discussion of this modal system see my "Note on the Modal System of Gaelic Tunes " prefacing Miss Tolmie's Skye collection in the Journal, Vol. iv, Part 3, pp. I50-I53. With slight modifications, Mr. Sharp found he was able to use the modal classification I had there worked out, for his Appalachian collection. The groups of gapped airs from Social Hymns and the
Melodeon, together with half-a-dozen other examples from the Wesleyan Psalmist, are specially interesting as apparent relics, like the Appalachian songs, of Scottish and Border balladry. Unfortunately I possess no clue to what district in America
these folk-tunes came from, as they are not even described as " Western Melody," and it is more than sixty years since they were noted down.
Incidentally, the tunes here collected should be of use to any who care to trace the evolution of the " mission " type of hymn and tune, which Messrs. Moody and Sankey and other evangelists were afterwards to develop in America and England. Whatever the defects in rhyme and reason of these old folk-hymns-and it is permissible to smile at the English Primitive Methodist poet of a century ago who announces that when he gets to Heaven he will "blow the golden lute"- they possessed a naive but real earnestness and sincerity, and they reflect a powerful influence in the life of the folk, and a phase of religious thought, feeling, and custom, not unworthy of attention by the student of a later century.
CHIEF SOURCES OF MATERIAL
AMERICAN
1845. The Wesleyan Psalmist or Songs of Canaan, a collection of Hymns and Tunes designed to be used at Camp-meetings and at class and prayer-meetings and other occasions of social devotion. Compiled by M. L. Scudder of the New England Conference . . . Ninth Edition of 2000. Boston: Waite, Peirce and Company, I845. [On flyleaf Entered according to Act of Congress in the year I842, by M. L. Scudder. [In the Introduction, dated I842, this is said to be a large and improved form of Songs of Canaan, " many new tunes of great popularity " being introduced, and the edition containing about twice the number of tunes. The book is of pocket size, and contains io6 tunes, mostly in three-part harmony. This was, Mr. Frank
Metcalf of Washington states, the very earliest camp-meeting hymn-book containing tunes.]
1855. I856. The Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes; for the use of Christian Congregations.
Compiled by Henry Ward Beecher. [A comprehensive collection, containing hymns and tunes drawn from " every denomination of Christians," including Roman Catholics. Many apparently unidentified folk-tunes in this collection are described simply as " Western Air," signifying that they came from the region west of the Alleghanies, where there were revivals and camp-meetings in the early years of last century.]
1861. The Melodeon, a collection of Hymns and Tunes, original and selected, adapted to all occasions of Social Worship. By Rev. J. W. Dadmun, author of Revival Melodies, [I859] etc. Boston, 1861. [Preface dated July i86o. Tunes named and
composers' names given where known.]
1865. The Social Hymn and Tune Book, for the Lecture Room, Prayer Meeting, Family Circle, and Mission Church. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Publication Committee.
. . . [In the preface the tunes are said to be " old tunes chiefly, with such approved new ones as the church will not let die." There is an index to tune-titles, but no composers' names are given.]
ENGLISH
1861. Richard Weaver's Tune-Book, containing the Tunes sung by him to.the hymns in Richard Weaver's Hymn-Book. London. Morgan and Chase, " Revival" Office, 38 Ludgate Hill, E.C. [Richard Weaver, I827-I896, " the converted collier" and reformed Lancashire pugilist, was a singer-evangelist, famous in his day, whi conducted missions from c. I856 onwards for many years. He made extensive use of the popular tunes of his period, adapting his revival hymns to them. His Tune-Book also contains about a dozen folk-airs, similarly adapted. The tunes are merely numbered. Some may be old Methodist, as Weaver's first evangelistic efforts were associated with Wesleyan lay preachers.]
N.D. Favourite Hymns and Solos (Old and New) compiled by Leonard Weaver. [No relation to Richard Weaver.] "Many of the tunes have never before been published in book form . . . all are not new, for we have had in mind the Hymns that
were so greatly used fifty years ago . . ." (Preface.) London: W. Nicholson & Sons, I4 Paternoster Square, E.C. 4.
1925. American Writers and Compilers of Sacred Music by Frank J. Metcalf [of Washington, U.S.A.] Member of the American Historical Association. The Abingdon Press, New York and Cincinnati.
Note. I wish to acknowledge here the generous help given to me by Mr. Metcalf in the preparation of this article. Mr. Metcalf possesses a library of 4,500 volumes, including 1,500 hymn-books and 150 reference books on hymnology, and placed
several rare books at my service. To Miss Broadwood-so long our editor-I am also indebted for a number of interesting suggestions in connection with the tunes here gathered together. To American students of folk-song I offer sincere apologies
for any blunders I may have made in reference to American matters, arising from " pure ignorance, sir," of their great country " across the water."-A. G. G.
NOTES ON VARIOUS TYPES OF FOLK-ItYMNS AND TUNES WITH EXAMPLES
THE first three folk-hymns here printed illustrate the primitive unrhymed type, with incremental repetition. "Weeping Mary" is No. 5I in the first English Primitive Methodist hymn-book (c. I823) called the "Small Book." I have seen the edition of 1825, bound up with the " Large Book." As there are no tunes it is not possible to say whether " Weeping Mary" was originally sung to the Dorian tune here given, which was noted in Boyle Co., Kentucky, from an old woman who had been a slave.
An old Wesleyan minister told me that as a boy (in the 'fifties of last century) he had heard " Weeping Mary " sung at a camp-meeting in a Wiltshire village to the " Ranter's Hymn " tune printed in the Journal, Vol. iv, p. 295. After " weeping
Mary " come " sinking Peter," " faithless Thomas," " blind Bartimeus " and finally "anybody here that wants salvation."
Another primitive hymn on the same model, and to the same English" Ranter's"
tune, was sung in England in the 'sixties and 'seventies of last century:
Where is now the great Elijah ? " [repeat thrice]
Safe in the Promised Land !
He went up in a fiery chariot, [repeat thrice]
Safe to the Promised Land."
Then followed " Where is now the prophet Daniel ? " "He went through a den of
lions " to the same happy destination, and the Hebrew Children through a " fiery
furnace," and so on.* Both this and " Weeping Mary" have survived in fragments
amongst American negroes.
i.-WEEPING MARY.
Noted by Miss MILDRED J. HILL, OF LOUISVILLE. Krehbiel's AFRO-AMERICAN
[DORIAN.] FOLK-SONGS.
-7ill ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ -
1. If there's a - ny - bo - dy here like weep - ing Ma - ry,
2. If there's a - ny - bo - dy here like pray - ing Sam - uel,
3. If there's a - ny - bo - dy here like doubt - ing Tho - mas,
Call up - on your Je - sus, and He'll draw nigh.
Call up - on your Je - sus, and He'll draw nigh. Cho.Oh I........ glo - ry,
Call up - on your Je - sus, and He'll draw nigh.
glo - ry, hal - le - lu
-jah,
Glo - ry be to my God who rules
on high.
Mr. John Buchan, the well-known writer, told me that he remembered this lively ditty in the
Scottish manse nursery of his childhood, and that having exhausted the good Bible characters,
they used to proceed with the names of their favourite heroes, " Prince Charles Edward," " Andy
Wauchope," and others, to carry on the tale of those who had arrived safe in the Promised Land!
66
2.-FIDELITY.
[GAPPED MODE. No 7TH.] WESLEYAN PSALMIST.
1. Oh, brethren, be faith - ful, Oh, brethren, be faith - ful, Oh, brethren, be
2. Oh, sis-ters, be faith - ful, Oh, sis-ters, be faith - ful, Oh, sis-ters, be
4. Then we will shout glo - ry, Then we will shout glo - ry, Then wewillshout
-- -> *__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _-__ _ _ _
faith - ful, faith- ful, faith - ful Till we all ar - rive at home.
faith - ful, faith - ful, faith - ful Till we all ar - rive at home.
glo - ry, glo - ry, glo - ry When we all ar - rive at home.
3.-THERE ARE ANGELS HOVERING ROUND.
WESLEYAN PSALMIST.
1. There are an - gels hov-'ring round, There are an - gels hov-'ring round, There are
2. To .... carry the tid -ings home, To ........ carry the tid -ings home, To
3. To the New Je- ru- sa - lem, To the New Je- r -sa -lem, To the
an - - gels, an - - gels hov - 'ring round.
car - - ry, car - - ry the tid - ings home.
New . New ...... Je ru - sa lem.
Another tune of the simplest construction was " Remember Me." The editor of
the Wesleyan Psalmist remarks " During the great revival at Bennett St., Boston, in
I842, this tune was an especial favorite." In the Plymouth Collection a note to
the second version " Freeland " describes it as heard on the camp-ground sung by
hundreds of voices. There are two quite different second strains to this tune,
probably added later by different hands, to relieve the monotony, as the added
chorus caused the eight-bar strain to be sung four times for each verse.
67
G
4.-REMEMBER ME.
FIRST VERSION.
WESLEYAN PSALMIST.
n4^
D.C.
9~~~~~~~~- -J .l"JC lrw
A - las, and did my Sa - vior bleed, And did mv Sov -'reign die ?
Would He de - vote His Sa - cred head For such a worm as I?
SECOND VERSION.
(FREELAND-First Strain).
PLYMOUTH COLLECTION.
2+6:-re I_z 1 4 l 1_J'lim>X iW-e1j -dO
Chorus (repeating the tune twice)
Remember me, remember me,
Dear Lord, remember me;
Remember, Lord, thy dying groans,
And then remember me.
The verses are by Dr. Watts, but the chorus has been added. There is an old
plantation-song (quoted in The ATegro and his Songs by Messrs. Odum and Johnson,
1925) " Do, Lord, remember me"
Up on de house-top an' can't come down,
Do, Lord, remember me.
When I am hungry do feed me, Lord,
Do, Lord, remember me.
But which suggested the other, I leave others to decide.
I7.-OH! WHEN SHALL I SEE JESUS.
[GAPPED MODE. No 6TH*.] SOCIAL HYMNS.
} - _ ,I_ _G__ __ zil__ _._
NN -r,lIJJJt- - .
____ __ ~$]~ ~~~~[? [?]
ti t-->0C8--^_t _
* -4th of major mode.
75
The next tune, set to a favourite old hymn by John Newton, who had indeed .a
" wild career " in his youth, has, I think, a sailor tang, and reminds me of " Rounding
the Horn'" (see Journal, Vol. v, p. I65). This last is a Mixolydian tune, and from
the way " The Prodigal's Return " lies between F and its octave, and from the prominence
of E flat, I suspect that the tune here printed may have been altered from
a Mixolydian on F. The verse " I'll die no more for bread," used apparently as a
refrain, does not occur in the Olney Hymns (edition of I797).
i8.-THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN.
Dadmun's MELODEON
(also in WESLEYAN PSALMIST).
=t __ -4- T4 " " - J~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i-
Af - flic - tions, tho' they seem se - vere, In mer - cv oft are
Cho. cont. I'll die no more for bread," he cried, "Nor starve in for - eign
S= =
sent, They stopp'd the pro - di gal's ca - reer, and
lands, My fa - ther's house hath large sup - plies, and
FINE. D. C.
= X-~~~~~~F
caus'd him to re - pent. Cho.," I'll die no more for bread,
boun- teous are his hands."
There could be no doubt about the former associations of the three following tunes,
as the hymn-words are-more or less-imitations of the original songs. There are
many instances in these revival hymn-books of imitations-sacred parodies in factof
secular popular songs, but fewer of traditional stuff. " The Sinner's Invitation,"
however, directly imitates the old Scotch song " The Braes o' Balquidder," and is
set to a traditional tune to that song not to be found in the usual printed collections
of Scotch songs but already printed in the journal, Vol. ii, p. 229, and belonging also
to the Napoleonic song " The Island of St. Helena." Though the " Braes of Balquidder"
words are not of great antiquity, the tune.is derived from an old Gaelic
air " Brochan buirn." To show the parody, I quote two lines of the original:
Will you go, lassie, go, to the braes o' Balquidder,
Where the blaeberries grow in the bonnie blooming heather ?
76
ig.--THE SINNER'S INVITATION.
"From WESLEYAN SACRED HARP
[PENTATONIC. No 4TH OR 7TH.] Dadmun's MELODEON.
1. Sin - ner, go, will you go to the high - lands of hea - ven?}
Where the storms nev - er blow And the long sum - mer's giv - en.
Where the bright bloom - ing flowers Are their o - dors e - mit - ting
And3 the leaves of the bowers In the breez - es are flit - ting.
A second instance of the kind is a rollicking " Come-all-ye" tune which would
seem to have been sung to " Captain Kidd":
Oh, my name is Captain Kidd,
As I sailed, as I sailedthough
it may also have belonged to other songs in the same old and peculiar stanza,
including " Admiral Benbow " and " My name it is Jack [or Sam] Hall "-all
celebrities who came to their deaths with honour or dishonour in the opening years
of the eighteenth century. The " Captain Kidd" song, of which a full text of
twenty-five verses is given in an American publication, Our Familiar Songs and
Those Who Made Them (i889), begins and ends with a warning against losing one's
soul. It is a sort of dying speech and testament-probably dating from about I70I,
in which year Kidd and nine of his associates were hanged in Execution Dock. The
last verse but one runs:
Come all ye, young and old,
See me die, see me die,
Come all ye, young and old,
See me die.
Come all ye, young and old,
You're welcome to my gold,
For by it I've lost my soul
And must die!
The " Captain Kidd " tune in the collection above-noted has some likeness to that
of " Mv luve's in Germanie, Send him hame, send him hame "-a Scotch song in the
same stanza. Richard Weaver's tune, here printed, has an Irish flavour, like other
"Come-all-ye's."
77
20.--COME, YE THAT FEAR THE LORD, UNTO ME.
RICHARD WEAVER'S TUNE-BOOK.
A
__ l_ _ _ __ _ _ st._ __ _ _
1~JL~22ZE1 JW-' 11Z
1. Come; ye that fear the Lord .... un - to me, un - to me.
Come; ye that fear the Lord.... un - to
__d __
me. I've... some-thing good to say A - bout the nar - row
way, For.... Christ the o - ther day ........ Saved my soul, saved my
soul, For... Christ the o - ther day,... Saved my soul.
2 He gave me first to see
What I was ; Lrepetition as befoye]
He gave me first to see
My guilt and misery,
And then He set me free,
Bless His name.
3 My old companions said
He's undone,
My old companions said
He's surely going mad,
But Jesus makes me glad,
Bless His name.
4 Oh, if thev did but know
What I feel,
Had they got eyes to see
Their guilt and misery,
They'd be as mad as me,
I believe.
5 Some said he'll soon give o'er,
You shall see,
But months have passed away
Since I began to pray,
And I feel His love to-day,
Bless His name.
78
A tune to be found in nearly all the collections of revival hymns I have examined
is " Saw ye my father ? " (" The Grey Cock "). This belongs to an old song which
in both English and Scottish versions appears to be a patchwork, combining as it
does as strong suggestion of the aube with a scrap of old ballad-verse and of an
evidently more modern song. A text is in Herd's collections of I769 and I776, and
another, with the tune, in Chappell's Popular Music. Chappell traces this tune to
VocalM usic, I772, and variousb roadsides,a lso Thompson'sC ountryD ances,I 775,
and suggests that it may have been composed by James Hook. Chappell's English
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.
Mr. Sharp noted an Appalachian version, " The Grey Cock," to a different tune.
2I.-SAW YE MY SAVIOR?
WESLEYAN PSALMIST.
Very slow. sic.
? I ~~~~l~~-r > ;><-;-"=C-i , :4L. 1t~1J~ ~~~I
M
Saw ye my Sa-viorI Saw ye my Sa - vior! Saw ye my Sa -vior God? 0 He
[or ' and God?']
died on Cal-va-ry to a -tone for you and me, And to pur-chase our par-don with blood.
A fourth specimen of this kind of spiritualising is in the Plymouth Collection. It
is based on " The Poor Stranger" (Sweet Europe) and sung to its tune. The title
is " Gethsemane, or Christ in the Garden," and it begins:
When Nature was sinking in stillness to rest
The last beam of daylight shone dim in the west,
In deep meditation I wandered my feet
Over fields of pale moonlight in lonely retreat.
When passing a garden I pausid to hear
A voice faint and plaintive from one that was there-
The voice was that of the " loving Stranger " and " loveliest Being," " who banished
my fears."
79
Another allegorical piece was called " Jesus, or the Poor Wayfaring Man." The
words of this were by Montgomery, and it was set to a Welsh secular air, a version
of which appears as " Rhosyn Saron " In Welsh hymn-books.
Another class of revival tunes appear to be old dance-airs, or lively six-eight lilts
reminiscent of " Frog and Mouse'" songs with a " Kitty alone " or " Cuddy alone "
refrain. The two following examples both suggest such an origin-the first with its
queer " Un-i-on, un-i-on " refrain, the second with its reiterated " Will you go ?
will you go ? " The second strain of this is almost identical with the corresponding
part of " Gently, Johnny, my jingalow " in Mr. Sharp's Folk-Songs from Somerset.
22.-UNION HYMN.
RICHARD WEAVER'S TUNE:-BOOK.
'm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~n Come, saints and sin - ners, hear me tell The won - ders of Im -
- man - u - el, Who saved me from a burn - ing hell And
FINE.
brought my soul with him to dwell, And gave me heav'n - ly un - ion.
U - ni - on, u - ni - on, And gave me heav'n-ly u - ni - on, And
23.-WE'RE TRAV'LING HOME.
RICHARD WEAVER'S TUNE-BOOK.
FINE.
We're trav-'ling home to heaven a - bove. Will you go ? Will you go ?
D.C.
80
The next three tunes also appear to be adaptations of old dance-airs. "Western
Melody -as earlier explained under " Chief Sources "-means that the tune came
from west of the Alleghanies. Such a tune may be supposed to have been first sung
(as a hymn-tune) at the camp-meetings of the Western Methodists, and afterwards
to have found its way into printed tune-books. The two first are of the children's
game-song type, such tunes often being scraps of old dance-tunes.
24.-COME AND LET US ALL PROCLAIM.
RICHARD WEAVER'S TUNE-BOOK.
1. Come and let.... us all pro-claim The won - ders of.. the
Cho, Love shall be... the con - que - ror [thrice]
F -; * < -- -- L i *AP - > Ag >
Saviour's name, Whose love to us.... is still the same To make an end of sin.....
To bring the glo - ry in.....
25.-GLORY.
WESLEYAN PSALMIST.
Come, thou fount of ev - 'ry bless - ing,
_n4
Cho. Glo - ry, glo - ry, glo - ry, glo - ry, glo - ry, glo - ry, God is love.
Glo - ry, glo - ry, glo - ry, glo - rv, Hal - le - lu - jah, God is love.
26.-ADVENT.
"Western Melody,"
PLYMOUTH COLLECTION.
_
Another tune of lively movement is "The Voice of Mercy "-which is familiar to
Miss Broadwood as a Gaelic air, being like a whole tribe of North Highland airs, all
in six-eight time, in Patrick Macdonald's collection-many of them being workingsongs.
t Though one would not expect to find a Gaelic air used as an American revival
hymn-tune, there is a similar instance in Krehbiel's Afro-American Folk-Songs of
a negro spiritual, also in six-eight time, which bears a striking likeness to the old
Irish and Scottish air best known as " Wha'll be king but Charlie ? " (The allusion
in the hymn to " King Jesus " suiggests that the name of the tune was known to its
adaptor.)
27.-THE VOICE OF MERCY.
[GAPPED MODE. No 6TH, 2ND ONCE.*] WLESLEYAN PSALMIST.
FINE.
* 4th and 7th of major mode.
t See also the Highland tune printed in the Appendix to this article.-A. G. G.
82
The Wesleyan Psalmist contains a solitary specimen of the Scripture narrative
carol-reminiscent of the old Cornish " When God at first had Adam made," and of
the style of the Manx-Gaelicca rvals. (See Part 2 of the ClagueC ollectionin Journal,
Vol. vii.) I have not traced this example elsewhere.
28.-FREE SALVATION.
[PENTATONIC. No 4TH OR 7TH.] WESLEYAN PSALMIST.
1. Man at his first cre - a - tion In E - den God did place,.... The
sic
pub - lic head and fa - ther Of all the hu - man race;
But by the sub - tle ser - pent Be - guil'd he was and fell, And by his R$ 1 v ~~~~~~si|cJ >>
dis - o be - di - ence Was doomed to death and hell..
2 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.
3 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.
4 They laid him in a sepulchre, it being near at hand,
The grave now could not hold him, nor death's cold iron band;
He burst them all asunder and pulled their kingdoms down,
He's overcome his enemies and wears a starry crown.
(Three more verses)
The "Union Hymn " I should guess to be an old Methodist hymn-tune de-rived
from the class of ballad-tunest o which " execution-song"s and " farewells" used to
be sung through the streets. It recalls "Fortune, my foe."
83
H
29.-UN1ON HYMN.
[DORIAN INFLUENCE.] Dadmun's MELODEON.
MrM -
1. From whence does this un - ion a - rise, That ha - tred is
con quer'd by love ? That fast - ens our souls in such
ties As na - ture and time can't re - move.
The next tune, " Judgment," I have been unable to trace, but, like the one which
follows it, it would seem to have originally belonged to a song of much more lively
character than this Judgment hymn. (Miss Broadwood suggests that it may be a
French folk-song.)
30.-JUDGMENT.
"[from] SPIRITUAL SONGS "
PLYMOUTH COLLECTION.
1. Oh, there will be mourn - ing Be - fore the judg - ment seat,......
(2nd time to refrain.)
h op
. : - -
When this world is burn - ing Be - neath je - ho - vah's feet.........
Wrath will sink the reb - el's heart While saints on high a - dore.........
D.S.
3 ?l X ,,^ Jt~~-= TE - S @
Friends and kin - dred there will part, Will part ........ to meet no more.
REFRAIN.
FJ2~~~" * -.?' 1 - - ~E2J
Oh, there will be mourn - ing Be - fore the judg - ment seat
* ? Spiritual Songs for Social WVorshipT, . HASTINGS and L. MASON, 1833.
84
3I.-THE JUDGMENT SCENE.
WESLEYAN PSALMIST.
O thee -
morHng wll- be -In or ing m o
The judg-mentday is rol - ling on, The judgment day is rol -ling on, The
judg-ment day is rol - ling on As... fast as time can roll .......
B S$~~~~~~~~~~~~i
Oh, there will be mourn - ing, mournA- ing, mourn - ing, moue ing,
bid ae-J well to al m er An wip my wee - ing yes
Oh, there will be mourn - ing At the judg - ment seat of God .......
32.-O ! THAT WILL BE JOYFUL.
WESLEYAN PSALMIST.
C 1. When I can read my ti - tle clear To man- sions in the skies,\
I'll bid fare - well to ev - 'ry fear, And wipe my weep-ing eyes.
And wipe myweep-ing es .. .m yA8nwde ewp ipe - ing eyes, ........ I'll
FINE.
bid fare - well to all my fear And wipe my weep - ing eyes........
EWSSAIL CHORUS ?]
ReOfh. , that will be joy -ful, joy -ful, jo y - ful, joy -ful,
Oh, that will be joy - ful, To meet to part no more .......
85
" 0 that will be joyful " shows the natural revolt of a more hopeful spirit against the
gloom of the above productions; and some years later a Sunday-school hymn with
the same " joyful" refrain made its appearance, set to new verses " Here we suffer
grief and pain." But the last tune above has a particular interest as the earliest
printed copy which I have seen of the "'traditional " tune to " The Seven Joys of
Mary." It is here set to a hymn by Dr. Watts-which of course had no refrain.
In Richard Weaver's Tune Book (i86i) it again appears, in exactly the form printed
in Bramley and Stainer's Christmas Carols, (I867), but set to " On Jordan's stormy
banks I stand." It was printed in a somewhat different version, about the same
date as Bramley and Stainer's copy, in a nursery song-book, to a ditty about " Three
Little Kittens " who lost their mittens. And, in nursery days, before I ever saw the
tune in Bramley and Stainer, it was familiar not only as the " Kittens" tune, but
as sung to a scurrilous song about John Wesley and the ghosts at Epworth Rectorythe
first verse of which ran:
"John Wesley had a little ghost,
The colour of it was white;
It used to swarm up his bed-post,
And frighten him at night.
Chores: And frighten him at ni-i-ght, etc.
Now whether this tune (as sung to hymn-words) was first generally known amongst
Wesleyans-whose first printed copy of it (c. I845) antedates all these others-is a
curious question. Such a circumstance might account for a mocking song to the
same tune being concocted to annoy John Wesley's followers. Whether the" joyful "
refrain originally belonged to the tune is another matter of doubt, but the character
of the tune and of that of " The Judgment Scene " certainly suggest an old wassail
song with a lusty chorus. It has been called a " traditional West of England " tune
(as set to the " Seven Joys "), but as far as my knowledge goes the tune and caroltext
were first printed together by Bramley and Stainer. Other tunes to the " Seven
Joys" are in Journal, Vol. v, Pt. i, pp. I8-2o. The Sussex tune there printed, if
put into six-eight time, would show a likeness to " The Judgment Scene."
The next tune is of the old English carol type (see " King Pharim," Journal, Vol. i,
p. I83). The hymn-verses, by John Newton, are printed amongst the Olney Hymns,
but the added refrain suggests an imitation of the old stock refrain or ending of
carols (e.g. " The Seven Virgins ") and ballads:
0 the rose, the gentle rose,
The fennel that grows so green;
God give us grace in every place
To pray for our king and queen.
-even the internal rhyme in line three being imitated. Cf. the tune also with the
"Bonnie Mermaid " in Motherwell's Minstrelsy. (Miss Broadwood is strongly of
opinion that this hymn-tune belongs to the " Broom of the Cowdenknowes " family,
86
with refrain " 0 the broom, the bonnie, bonnie broom "-which old refrain may also
have belonged to the " Bonny Broomhill" ballad. Though a likeness is evident, it
seems to me that the tune has reached the form here printed through a carol stagethe
ballad-carol tune often seeming to occupy a place half-way between the balladtune
and the C.M. hymn-tune. But it is evident that the writer of the hymn-or at
any rate the chorus-knew the tune as associated with " 0 the rose," or " 0 the
broom," or "Oh, the bush, the prickly bush," or some other refrain on the same
pattern.)
33.-A VIEW OF CALVARY.
FAVOURITE HYMNS.
In e - vil long I took de light, Un - awed by shame or fear, ~~~~~~~~~~~
Till a new ob - ject met my sight, And stopp'd my wild ca- reer.
Cho. cont.TheLamb that was slain,that liv - eth a-gain To in - ter- cede for me.
Cho. Oh, the Lamb, the bleed - ing Lamb, the Lamb of Cal - va - ry,
The group of seven tunes which follow suggest an origin quite distinct from those
hitherto considered, as they show what we are accustomed to recognise as " negro "
character. It may be that some of these tunes were borrowed from working-songs
of negroes; they are of particular interest as having been in use by white folk, and
in print, nearly twenty years before the American Civil War, and more than twenty
years before the first collection of Slave Songs was published, in I867. This I have
not seen, but the tunes here printed are not to be found-at any rate in the same
versions-in Jubilee Songs, I874, and they are of value as indicating how the negro
spirituals in later collections have developed during the last eighty years along their
own lines-largely, it would seem, by a continual breaking-up into new forms and
combinations. And as evidence of how little some writers have realised the interrelations
of Methodist preachers, white and coloured, and the negroes of preemancipation
days, the first hymn here, " Give me Jesus," has been described as the
product of " over-free spirit and super-religiousness " just after the Civil Warwhereas,
as we see, it antedates that period by at least twenty years, perhaps much
longer.
The construction is primitive-though no more so than in our English carol " I
saw three ships a-sailing by." Cf. this version with that printed in Jubilee Songs,
twenty years later.
87
34.-GIVE ME JESUS.
[GAPPED MODE. No 7TH.] WESLEYAN PSALMIST.
1. When I'm hap - py hear me cry, When I'm hap -py hear me cry, When I'm
ad lib.
7Ssj7tzz __S ___1
= !- 1
hap -py hear me cry,' Give me Je - sus, Give me Je - sus, Give me
Je - sus, You may have all the world, Give me Je - sus."
The next two tunes illustrate the revival or negro method of interlining an old
gospel-hymn with a refrain and adding a chorus. The words of " Jesus, my all"
are by John Cennick; the hymn is printed in eight-line stanzas in other collections,
but two lines only are taken for each verse in this case. " Jesus says He will be with
us " is adapted to the same pattern. Some of its phrases recall " Turn Back Ole
Pharaoh's Army, Hallelu " in Jubilee Songs.
35.-JESUS MY ALL TO HEAVEN IS GONE.
[I WANT TO WEAR THE CROWN.]
WESIEYAN PSALMIST.
1. Je - sus, my all, to heaven is gone, I want to wear the crown. He whom I fix my
CHORUS.
hopes up- on, I want to wear the crown. Oh myheartsays praise theLord,
@~~~~do~s^4- 1 : Ia
Myheartsays praisetheLord, Myheart says praisetheLord, I want to wear the crown.
88
36.-JESUS SAYS HE WILL BE WITH US.
WESLEYAN PSALMIST.
[REFRAIN.]
4- F- rr1*-'bdr
1. Chil - dren of God, re - nounce your fears, Je - sus says He will be
Lo, Je - sus for your help ap - pears, Je - sus says He will be
-CHORUS.
wit s tnoth eMP,r e a be nowt s andoH
with us to the end.f
with us to the end. f For He has been with us, and He
4~~~-~, I~I ~~~~~~~~~t
still is with u.s, A nd He says He will be vifh. us to the ernd.
In " Jesus reigns" and " Shouting Victory " a terminal chorus only has been
added. In " Cornet " a " verse " of two non-rhyming lines has been clumsily fitted
to the first part of the tune. The elaborate chorus also seems to belong to the tune
rather than the hymn. The lines " Oh, had I the wings of the morning," etc., are
sung by the old negro slave, Tom, in " Uncle Tom's Cabin."
The " Holy City," which seems to be another form of the same tune, loses its
" revival " character by being set to an ordinary hymn in sevens and sixes, without
any chorus.
37.-JESUS REIGNS.
WESLEYAN PSALMIST.
4_i -A IF ___ p
1. Earth, re-joice, the Lord is King, Sons of men His prais-es sing; Sing ye in tri-um-phant
CHORUS.
I II
strains, Je - sus the Mes- si - ah reigns. Oh ride on, Je - sus, Oh ride onl
89
38.-SHOUTING VICTORY.
WESLEYAN PSALMIST.
jZ7*-rTC ;->CvcZ44 ;: c r ,^1
1. When I can read my ti - tle clear To man - sions in the skies, I
CHORUS. Quick.
w<-c~~~~~t I O^d 1-:C ;;SS
bid farewell to all my fear And wipe myweeping eyes. Shouting vic - to - ry, vic - to - ry,
vic - t'ry o - ver death, Shouting vic - to -ry, vic - to - ry, I long to see that day.
39.-CORNET.
PLYMOUTH COLLECTION.
[PENTATONIC. No 4TH, No 7TH.] "Arranged from a Western Melody."
REFRAIN.
1. Oh, Thou Al-might-y Fa - ther, Come help me now to praise Thy glo - ry, Me
thinks I hear the trum- pet sound be - fore the break of day, Oh,...
had I the wings of the morn . ing, I'd fly a-way to Canaan'sshore, Bright
an - gels should con - vey me home To the new Je * ru sa lem.
go
40.-HOLY CITY.
PLYMOUTH COLLECTION.
[GAPPED MODE. No 7TH, 4TH ONCE.] "Arranged from a Western M1elody.
-Lf
ASJ J- J J J IJ I r r L
1. There.... is a Ho -ly ci- ty, A hap- py world a
- bove.
[CHORUS?]
F-~~~~~~0~-OW 5o
W<0- r c--r-
The two following tunes belong to the "Yonder stands a charming creature"
group, the first having a second strain which suggests the "Twenty, eighteen "
chorus of the version in English County Songs. The song is known as a singing-game
in America, to one of its English tunes. See Newell's Games and Songs of American
Children (No. 6).
41.-JESUS IS REIGNING.
[GAPPED MODE. No 7TH.] WESLEYAN PSALMIST.
_-F E 2 X I J_
9'
Mr
42.-PILGRIM STRANGER.
[GAPPED MODE. No 7TH, 4TH ONCE.] D)admnun's MELODEON.
1. Vlhi - ther go'st thou, pil -grim stran-ger, Pass-ing thro' this dark-some vale, \
Know'st thou not 'tis full of dan - ger, And will not thy cour- age fail? f
REFRAIN.
X --r~~~~~~~~b~-~4~1^~~- ~~~~~M
No, I'm bound for the king - dom,Will you go to glo - rv with me?
Hal - le - lu - jah, Praise the Lord.
A hexatonic form of "Pilgrim Stranger " is printed in The Christian Lyre, Vol. ii,
p. 2I2, as " Female Pilgrim" ("Whither goest thou, female pilgrim ? "-probably
the original first line !).
The " Cuckoo " (song of an inconstant lover) type of triple-time air is exemplified
in " Hallelujah " (or " Nettleton "), which shows in its earliest printed form Irish or-
Scottish character, though much vulgarised in later mission-hymnals. In the early
copies it is quite distinct from another triple-time tune-the once popular " Miss
Dillon's Waltz," upon which some versions of the "Cuckoo" tune seem to be based
which begin:
Both tunes, however, have been sung to a hymn called "The Good Shepherd."
" Hallelujah " has been attributed to the Rev. Asahel Nettleton (hence one title),
I783-I844, but on insufficient evidence. It was printed in Wyeth's Repository*-
with a common-time signature (here reproduced), corrected by later editors to that
triple measure which seems so often not to have been grasped by recorders of hymn
and carol-tunes a century ago.
* The music in this book is worth notice, being based on a curious system of differently shaped
notes-the shapes of these " character notes," as they were called, denoting not their value but
their position on the staff. Do and FA had triangular heads; MI and LA were square-headed;
RE and SOL were round, and Si diamond-shaped-a system invented in the fond belief that it
would enable the singer to learn his tunes more easily and sing them at sight.
92
43.-HALLELUJAH [or NETTLETON].
[Actually in triple time.] WYETH'S REPOSITORYP, T. II, 1813.
Come, thou fount of ev -'ry bless - ing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace.
[Eight-line stanza. Second part of tune repeats for Chorus.]
SiAVI _
Cho. Hal-le-lu v jah, Hal- le - lu - jah, We are on our jour-ney home, Hal-Ic -
1 l2._
- lu - jah, Hal - le - lu jah, We are on our jour-ney home. home.
In the American collections from which these tunes have come there are also
various tunes which one would class as folk-airs were there not composers' names
attached to them. This leads to the conclusion that either the alleged composers
were merely adaptors, or else that these more or less untrained musicians unconsciously
formed their simple tunes on lines familiar to them from traditional ballads
and songs sung in their homes and villages.* Two " Sprig of Thyme " tunes above
printed, one as by " A. Chapin," are built on the pentatonic scale. Another, " Bartimeus,"
attributed to Daniel Read (I757-I836), is constructed on the " a.b.b.a"
pattern of many Irish tunes, and so is " Expostulation "-assigned to "J. Hopkins"
in one American collection-this tune being a complete (or else extended) form of
" Eaisht shiu as clasht shiu " in the Clague Collection (see Journal, Vol. vii, p. 307).
* A Scottish instance of this is the well-known " Martyrdom." The question whether it was
an " old Scottish tune " or not led, after its publication as such in R. A. Smith's Sacred Music,
I825, to a legal dispute. It was proved to have been the composition of Hugh Wilson, shoemaker,
occasional precentor, and teacher of music classes-a native of Fenwick, Ayrshire,-but
it bears much general resemblance to a traditional air to " Helen of Kirkconnel " (O wad I were
where Eelin lies) and is pentatonic in construction-in fact written in Wilson's native folk-idiom.
R. A. Smith (as already noted) had himself framed the pentatonic tune " Selma" upon a traditional
Scottish air, and Neil Dougal's " Kilmarnock " is also a pentatonic tune.
93
44.-EXPOSTULATION.
PLYMOUTH COLLECTION.
0 turn ye, 0 turn ye, for why will ye die ?
When God in great mer - cy is com - ing... so nigh ?
f - -SAnother
American tune, " China "-said with justice to be " one of the most
unscientific tunes ever published "-was invented by one Timothy Swan (I758-1842),
who began to compose while still ignorant of the rules both of musical composition
and harmony. He was in earlier life a hatter. Timothy considered " China " to be
his best tune, and wild though it sounds to modern ears it seems to have become
popular from the time it was first sung in public in I794, and has even survived
in some modern American hymn-books. It has sufficient modal character to suggest
that it was consciously or unconsciously based upon a folk-air*-or else was one of
the rare cases in which a folk-tune can be traced to its original inventor.
45.-CHINA.
LGAPPED MODE. No 4TH.] Jenks' DELIGHTS OF HARMONY, 1804.
Why should we mourn de - part - ing friends Or
shake at ...... death's a - larms ?
With these two examples-which might be multiplied-of "folk hymn-tunes,"
as the late Frank Kidson would have described them, these notes and suggestions
come to a close on the threshold of " composed " music.
* Miss Broadwood believes this to be a Chinese tune, from its likeness to some examples known
to her, and thinks that " Pilgrim Stranger " may be another, or else Japanese. Neither of these,
one may remark, is purely pentatonic-as one would expect of a Chinese tune. At the same time,
pentatonic tunes are apt to become hexa- or hepta-tonic when sung by people used to the modern
semitones.
94
APPENDIX.
AT the time the musical illustrations for the above notes were selected, I had not
been able to see a copy of The Christian Lyre* (compiled by Joshua Leavitt)-a
slightly earlier American collection than The Wesleyan Psalmist, and containing a
number of folk-tunes, including variants of those printed above. Two, at least,
seem to me worth printing as an appendix. The first has the character of a Highland
Gaelic " iorraim" (rowing song)-though how it became an American hymntune
is a puzzle. The second is the only Aeolian form I have ever seen of the
well-known English traditional tune " Stormy Winds "=" Valiant Lady " "Gosterwood
" (hymn-tune), and being a modal is probably an old version-possibly older
than the major form.-A. G. G.
46.-NIGHT THOUGHT.
[PENTATONIC. No 2ND OR 5TH [rare)]. THE CHRISTIAN LYRE.
-?' |1dJ -1. 1 2_S
t _~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~7
$~~~o -0tz
47.-LIGHT.
[STORMY WINDS.]
[AEOLIAN.] THE CHRISTIAN LYRE.
_4_
* The Christian Lyre; a [Collection of Hymns and Tunes adapted for Social Worship, Prayer
Meetings and Revivals of Religion. The work complete, two volumes in one, with a supplement.
By Joshua Leavitt. Eighteenth Edition, revised. New-York, etc., I838.