Subject: Lyrics to the song Going Home (Dvorak) From: davisd@ucs.orst.edu davdon@teleport.com Date: 28 Jun 97 - 04:58 AM What I know of the lyrics.... Goin home, goin home Yes I'm goin home Goin home, goin home Yes I'm goin home Mama dear, papa dear yes I'm comin home I heard Diana Durbin sing it in the movie, "It started with Eve" It is based on the symphony "Voyage to the New World" by Dvorzak (sp?). The words are quite old, written in the 1880's and adapted to the music. The above is all from memory and is probably flawed. Anyone know the lyrics, or where I could get a copy? Thanks in advance David Davis Click for related thread |
Subject: Lyrics to the song Going Home From: Jerry Friedman, jfriedman@nnm.cc.nm.us Date: 28 Jun 97 - 07:23 PM "Dvorak" There's a little mark over the r that gives it that sound that I can't make. That beautiful symphony is known as "From the New World". Sorry, no information on the words. Other words have been written for the same tune: the deservedly forgotten "Massa Dear", a slave's lament for his dead master! |
Subject: Lyr Add: GOIN' HOME / GOING HOME From: Joe Offer Date: 29 Jun 97 - 11:06 PM Well, I found this on a Deja News search, but the lyrics aren't quite what I'm familiar with. I think the familiar lyrics are by jazzman Art Tatum, but I haven't found them yet. The tune, apparently, is a Dvorak original, written in the style of a American Negro spriritual. the words came later. Can anybody come up with the other lyrics? -Joe Offer- The source for this particular version is "The Church Piper" by K. E. MacDonald.
Goin' Home Here's another version: Going Home Going Home Going Home Jesus calls me home Going Home Going Home Music by A. Dvorak, Public Domain |
Subject: RE: From: Joe Offer Date: 08 Jul 97 - 03:37 PM Has anybody found more conventional lyrics for this song? I'm sure I've heard it sung at presidential funerals, but not to the lyrics I posted. -Joe Offer- |
Subject: Lyr Add: GOING HOME (Dvorak, et al) From: Joe Offer Date: 16 Aug 97 - 03:40 AM I found another version that's not quite so bogged down in simulated dialect. This is from the wonderful "Voices" CD, a choral collection from Windham Hill. Goin' Home Words & adaptation by William Arms Fisher Music by Antonin Dvorak Goin' home, goin' home, I'm a goin' home Quiet like, some still day, I'm just goin' home It's not far, just close by, through an open door Work all done, care laid by, goin' to fear no more Mother's there expecting me, Father's waiting too Lots o' folk gather'd there, all the friends I knew (All the friends I knew.) Home, home, I'm goin' home. Nothin' lost, all' gain No more fret or pain No more stumblin'on the way No more longin'for the day Goin'to roam no more Mornin' star, lights the way Restless dream, all done Shadows gone, break o' day Real life just begun There's no break, ain't no end Just a livin' on Wide awake, with a smile Through an open door. I'm a goin' home, I'm just goin' home Goin' home, goin' home (repeat) |
Subject: RE: "Goin' Home" From: PattyG Date: 16 Aug 97 - 04:07 PM Joe - You mention that you've heard it sung at presidential funerals? Do you recall which ones? I don't ever remember having heard that. As I'd mentioned in another thread, this song was sung at my father's funeral and I found it interesting that several people who are usually quite knowledgeable regarding music, had never heard this beautiful song. |
Subject: RE: From: Joe Offer Date: 16 Aug 97 - 05:38 PM I may have a faulty memory, Patty, but I thought it was sung during JFK's funeral. I also make a connection with FDR, deep down in the recesses of my memory. If I saw THAT funeral on TV, it was a "dramatized reenactment." All I can say with certainty is that I saw it performed on a televised funeral. My memory isn't all THAT good. :) -Joe Offer- |
Subject: RE: From: Date: 18 Mar 99 - 06:50 PM refresh! |
Subject: Lyr Add: I'M GOING HOME (D. D. Hunter) From: Gene Date: 18 Mar 99 - 07:15 PM And then, there's this one from Great Inspirational Songs Albert E. Brumley Co., Powell, Missouri I'M GOING HOME Writer: D. D. Hunter Arr: W. McDonald My heav'nly home is bright and fair No pain, nor death can enter there It's glitt'ring tow'rs the sun outshine That heav'nly mansion shall be mine. My Father's house is built on high Far, far above the starry sky When from this earthly prison free That heav'nly mansion, shall be mine. Let others seek a home below Which flames devour, or waves o'er flow Be mine a happier lot to own A heav'nly mansion near the throne. Then fail this earth, let stars decline And sun and moon refuse to shine All nature sing and cease to be That heav'nly mansion stands for me. CHORUS I'm Going Home, I'm Going Home, I'm Going Home To die no more, to die no more, to die no more I'm Going Home to die no more. |
Subject: RE: From: lesblank Date: 18 Mar 99 - 07:43 PM Back in the late forties Olivia DeHavilland (sp) made a movie titled "The Snake Pit". The heroine was mistakenly confined to a mental hospital -- she eventually shed her fear and fought to reform. The song "Going Home" was their "national anthem" and sung by the patients several times during the movie. It was quite moving, at least it moved me. When I hummed it for my clarinet teacher, he told me the origin. The ways we learn !! |
Subject: RE: From: Ferrara Date: 18 Mar 99 - 08:06 PM The story I heard from my mother, or my first piano teacher maybe, was that Dvor>ak based the theme in his symphony on a spiritual called "Down the Road." This doesn't seem to gel with anything anyone else has heard, though. Mom sang a fragment from the so-called spiritual. |
Subject: RE: Going Home From: Night Owl Date: 18 Mar 99 - 11:40 PM I learned a slightly different version and again it seems its a song I've always known and have no idea where I first heard it. It's a beautiful song for the Autoharp and I know it to be sung frequently at funerals. I've also heard it sung in a few movies but can't remember what ones. Also thought this was an old "spiritual" as well, and the harmonies in it can be astounding in a group. I learned: "Going home, going home, I'm a going home, Mother's there, father too, I'm a going home". I can't quite remember the rest of the verses but will probably wake up from a sound sleep at some point remembering a few more lines. The only other lines I can remember now are...."It's not far, over there, through an open door......" |
Subject: RE: From: dick greenhaus Date: 19 Mar 99 - 01:01 AM Rita- The theme from New World Symphony is a variation on a terribly obscure melody called Swanee River. So help me. |
Subject: RE: From: Barbara Date: 19 Mar 99 - 01:06 AM Rita, there is a song called "Way Down the Road" about leaving the south and working in the car factories in the north, Howard Bursten and Sally Rogers, is that right? Had it on a cassette(that I once owned),and the melody line sounds a lot like Dvorak, but I don't think the song I've heard predates the New World Symphony. When was it written? Blow the whistle up to the pines Down across the border to the Hinchfield line (?) Blow for a better time Way down the road...
Has the "Way down the road" part as second and fourth lines in the verses as well. Something about going north in '41...
Sorry, that's all that floats to the surface with a judicious application of dynamite...
Blessings, |
Subject: Info: Way Down the Road (Craig Johnson) From: Ferrara Date: 20 Mar 99 - 12:55 PM Barbara, "Way Down The Road," the one you mention, is a stunning song written by Craig Johnson, the fiddler in the Double Decker String Band. Craig has the ability to write songs that should have been traditional, even if they aren't. My own hearing of the song's chorus (without verifying this by looking up the bootleg tape Bill made when Craig did a house concert in our home, because that would be too much like work) is, "Blow your whistle all through the pines, / Out across the mountain to the Clinchfield line (?)/Blow for better times, Way down the Road." Better times, in the sense of an end to economic depression and hardship. I wish with all my heart that Craig would record a CD of his own songs. Someone else has recorded "New Harmony" and "Keewanaw Light," both songs of his. No, my "Down De Road" (to give it its proper spelling) was to the tune of the spiritual in Dvor>ak's New World Symphony. (The ">" is a substitute for the actual mark that's supposed to be over the r.) Dick, can you get hold of the obscure "Swanee River"? |
Subject: RE: From: Barbara Shaw Date: 20 Mar 99 - 10:45 PM Here's a link to a classical midi site. When you get there, look for the Dvorak New World Symphony, Largo, to play the Goin' Home melody. http://www.prs.net/midi-a-e.html#DVORAK |
Subject: RE: From: murray@mpce.mq.edu.au Date: 21 Mar 99 - 06:22 AM Then there is Charley Patton's "Goin' Home"--great, but as far as I can see unrelated to the melody Dvorak used in NWS. It starts: Goin' home, goin' home, goin' home I may never ever see you again I don't know about funerals, but I wish more of our politicians sang that. Murray |
Subject: RE: From: Craig Date: 22 Mar 99 - 03:18 AM This puts me in mind of another spiritual with the words, I'm just a poor wafarin' stranger,. Does anyone else remember it. Craig (Not Ferrara's Craig) |
Subject: RE: From: Ferrara Date: 22 Mar 99 - 09:49 AM Craig, Wayfaring Stranger's in the DT. I just looked for wayfarin* and it found it. One of the things I love about this forum is all the songs it brings up that were a part of my life once upon a time and just aren't sung much any more. |
Subject: RE: From: Craig Date: 22 Mar 99 - 09:47 PM Thanks Ferrara. I went brain dead and screwed up the spelling.
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Subject: RE: From: wysiwyg Date: 03 Jun 01 - 12:52 AM We sang it at the funeral of a deacon of the Episcopal church. It was printed as a bulletin insert and I have done it from that version in our church. What has driven me nuts is that I am not sure my "B" part is like others sing it, since I had only the one time of hearing it and they did not print the source from which they took the words-only version they used! "My" version is quite Dvorak-like tho so I hope I have it "right." I just bought a book of spirituals and other negro folk songs, and I will see if anything mentioned here pops up as I peruse it. ~S~ |
Subject: RE: From: DaveJ Date: 03 Jun 01 - 04:12 AM Barbara Shaw, Thanks for the great site!
With a little help from your fellow Mudcats and little practice, you, too, can make blue clickie things. Its what you don't see that counts.
Ferrara, DaveJ |
Subject: RE: From: Jenny S Date: 03 Jun 01 - 05:09 AM Is this related to "Rolling Home"? Rolling Home, Rolling Home, Rolling Home across the sea. Rolling Home to dear old England, Rolling Home dear land to thee... Same Dvorak tune, I think. Jenny |
Subject: Lyr Add: GOING HOME (David Davis) From: GUEST,David Davis, vorblesnak@yahoo.com Date: 31 Jan 02 - 08:38 PM Man this thing has been around a while ... I rewrote the lyrics and used it in two funerals, that of a good friend and at my fathers funeral. (Lost it on the last line). Tried to do Whispering Hope for my mom's service, but could only remember the Prarie Home Companion words.
Going Home |
Subject: RE: Going Home From: wysiwyg Date: 31 Jan 02 - 09:32 PM David, thank you, we will use it like that in church. ~Susan |
Subject: DTADD: Goin' Home From: Joe Offer Date: 09 Oct 03 - 06:09 AM This version is from the New National Baptist Hymnal, a wonderful book that Jerry Rasmussen led me to. -Joe Offer- Goin' Home Words: William Arms Fisher Music: Antonin Dvorak Goin' home, goin' home, I'm a-goin' home Quiet-like, some still day, I'm just goin' home It's not far, just close by, Through an open door Work all done, care laid by, going to fear no more Mother's there expecting me, Father's waiting, too Lots of folk gathered there, All the friends I knew Morning star lights the way, Restless dream all done Shadows gone, break of day, Real life just begun There's no break, there's no end, Just a-living on Wide awake, with a smile going on and on Goin' home, goin' home, I'm just goin' home It's not far, just close by, Through an open door © 1922, Oliver Ditson Co. |
Subject: Lyr Add: FOLLOW ME (Jean Norman) From: wysiwyg Date: 29 Oct 03 - 11:09 AM Cajun-French singer-songwriter, Jean Norman of Church Point, Louisiana, seems to have used this tune for a new item. (The English verses I have transcribed below are followed by verses in Cajun-French.) You can hear a live recording of it at VOICES ACROSS AMERICA. ~S~ ================================================================ FOLLOW ME Jean Norman 1. When I woke from my sleep my life was in despair. As I knelt right there to pray, a Voice just filled the air. REFRAIN: "Follow Me, follow Me. Why don't you follow Me? If you but follow Me, my child, I can set you free." 2. Now my life on earth is o'er, and my Lord has come for me. Peace and joy now fills my soul, as I have followed Him. SH |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Goin Home (Dvorak) From: Joe Offer Date: 29 Oct 03 - 12:24 PM I guess the best-known lyrics for this tune are the ones by William Arms Fisher, published in 1922. I posted several versions above. I felt uncomfortable using them because they were written in so-called "Negro dialect." Recently, I found a version of those lyrics in the New National Baptist Hymnal (above) - Jerry Rasmussen led me to that hymnal, which costs only ten bucks for the current edition. I suppose that one could complain that somebody "sanitized" traditional lyrics and made them "politically correct." I don't think that's the case here. The original lyrics were in the fake "dialect" that came from blackface minstrel shows. I'm glad somebody came up with a rendition that does away with that without making the song sound too "sanitary." -Joe Offer- |
Subject: RE: Going Home / Goin' Home From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 29 Oct 03 - 01:39 PM William Arms Fisher was a student of Dvorak's during Dvorak's brief sojourn in the United States as a visiting professor of music (1892-1895). Dvorak was upset with statements that American ideas had influenced his Symphony No. 9, especially the Largo, and said "the motifs are my own, and some I brought with me. This is and remains Czech music." At the time, no one could see that the pentatonic scales and the syncopation in the themes are just as characteristic of Bohemian folk music as of Negro spirituals (Uwe Kraemer, music historian). As stated in threads here before, no elements in the symphony have any antecedants in American music. (To a man from Prague, the epithet "New World," attached to his symphony later, would have been amusing, since in Prague, the "New World" was the district for restaurants, entertainment and prostitutes.) In 1922, Fisher wrote the lyrics and made the arrangement of "Goin' Home", set to Dvorak's Largo from his "Symphony No. 9." Paul Robson was one of the first to popularize the song, using the "dialect" which some people think is demeaning. Fisher is responsible for the most heard arrangement of "Deep River" and several other spirituals. Fisher's important "Seventy Negro Spirituals," for "low voices" and published in the Musicians Library by Oliver Ditson, 1926, is the basis of many of the versions used by musicians today. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Going Home / Goin' Home From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 29 Oct 03 - 02:42 PM Lyrics to "Goin' Home," posted by Joe, 29 Jun 97, from the Church Piper, by K. E. MacDonald, are the words in the sheet music composed by Fisher and published by Ditson in 1922. "Sanitized" versions change the meaning and intent of the lyrics. In "Songs of Zion," ed. J. Jefferson Cleveland and Verolga Nix, which grew out of the Consultation on the Black Church in Atlanta, 1973, the Section on Worship of the Board of Discipleship has approved "Songs of Zion." The compilation is recommended to United Methodist churches. Among the recommendations for singing Negro Spirituals are the following; "Perform these compositions as written; however, many can be improvised to a restricted degree without distorting their overall effect. Pay close attention to the dialect. Do not change it into correct English or overexaggerate it because both would destroy the intent of the composition as well as its performance. a. General guidelines to follow when using dialect: (1) The dialect should be articulated as clearly as you would sing the word in other songs. (2) The English words "the," "this," and "that" in dialect would become "de," "dis," and "dat." "De" is generally pronounced "dee" before vowels and "duh" before consonants." Examples are given. It is noted that words are altered to fit the rhythm of the music, e. g. children may become chillun or chil-dun, Lord becomes Lawd, Lo'd, Lohd, etc. For Gospel songs, "improvisation, both vocal and instrumental, is highly recommended." |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Going Home / Goin' Home From: wilbyhillbilly Date: 29 Oct 03 - 03:07 PM I have a version of this released in 1978 by Annie Haslam on Warner Bros label (45rpm) Number K17563. It was obviously meant to appeal to the "pop" market, but its quite nice , with a touch of male voice choir involved. Not quite the same I know, but I thought I would just add it to the list so far!! Wilby |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Going Home / Goin' Home From: Joe Offer Date: 29 Oct 03 - 10:57 PM It's interesting to trace Robeson's use of "Negro dialect" through his career - you can do it easily by following his numerous recodings of "Ol' Man River." When he first sang it, his dialect was thick - just like the white guys wanted him to sing it. By the 1950's, his lyrics were more powerful, and his dialect almost nonexistant. In this day and age, I think it's more appropriate to sing "Goin' Home" in plain English. Songs of Zion is a wonderful hymnal, but it was prepared in the 1970's and published in 1981/82. I think you'll find that the African-American hymnals published after 1990 leave out most of the dialect, and nothing is really lost by leaving it. Actually, the entire idea of "Goin Home" is on the borderline nowadays, and I'll bet you won't hear those lyrics used in worship very much - although it's still an appropriate concert piece. The words don't speak to the current human condition. The song sounds pretty, but the only part of the lyrics that speaks to people is the repeated phrase, "Goin' Home." -Joe Offer- |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Going Home / Goin' Home From: masato sakurai Date: 30 Oct 03 - 08:02 AM Dvoøák (Shift to "Central European languages). |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Going Home / Goin' Home From: masato sakurai Date: 30 Oct 03 - 08:18 AM Orchestral scores -- Dvorak, Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9. Go to "Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 -- Movement II: Largo." |
Subject: Lyr Add: GOIN' HOME (Dvorak/Colyer) From: Roger the Skiffler Date: 30 Oct 03 - 08:31 AM Strangely, though the late Ken Colyer (jazz trumpeter, skiffle lefty guitarist)credits his own song with this title to "Dvorak/Colyer" it certainly isn't the tune used for the spiritual, and I don't recognise it from any other section of the New World. Goin' Home (Dvorak/Colyer) Goin' home He's goin' home He'll be leavin' here today But if he don't leave now He won't be goin' nowhere If home is where the heart is Then my home's in New Orleans Take me to that land of dreams Lord and if I don't leave now I won't be goin' nowhere Goin' home He's goin' home (yeah yeah) He's leavin' here today Well if you don't leave now You won't be goin' nowhere What you say And what you do Well it's tight like that And I'm telling you Well if I don't leave now I won't be goin' nowhere (nowhere nowhere) Well if I don't leave now I won't be goin' nowhere Well if I don't leave now I won't be goin' nowhere If you want the tune, try the Lonnie Donegan/Van Morrison Skiffle Sessions Live in Belfast CD. RtS |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Going Home / Goin' Home From: GUEST,batfic400@yahoo.com Date: 17 Mar 04 - 02:30 PM Up the thread, a poster thought that this had been sung at presidential funerals. I can't say, but there is a famous photograph from Life Magazine showing mourners watching FDRs funeral prosession that references this song. The person photographed is a black man in some sort of uniform (I don't believe it is military - more like a band uniform or a service uniform.) He is weeping and playing the piano accordian. The caption reads that the musician is playing "Going Home." The scene from the film, "The Snake Pit," mentioned by some, is heart rending. It takes place at the "good" institution, where the heroine is actually getting help. The patients are allowed a dance party. And at one point a very striking (but not "pretty") woman starts to sing the song. All noise and frolick cease; all eyes turn to her. Not a dry eye in the house... |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Going Home / Goin' Home From: GUEST Date: 19 Feb 08 - 02:08 PM Here's the melody progression (C)Go (D) ing (G) home (E)Go (D) ing (C) home (D) I (E) am (G) go (E) ing (D) home EGG EDC DEDAC ACCBGA ACCGA etc. and repeat |
Subject: RE: req/ADD: Going Home / Goin' Home (Dvorak) From: GUEST,Lord Richard Date: 19 Feb 10 - 10:00 PM Roger the Skiffler says that Ken Colyer credits Dvorak with his version of Goin' Home. The original 78rpm and LP both credit Colyer, only. As far as I can see, it is only the Van Morrison. Lonnie Donegan, Chris Barber - The Skiffle Sessions - Live in Belfast - that credits Dvorak. I think it is a mistake. Any ideas on who made the mistake and why? The Skiffle session says 'GOIN' HOME Writer Dvorak. Arr. Ken Colyer. Publisher: Dash Music Co. Ltd. Lord Richard |
Subject: RE: req/ADD: Going Home / Goin' Home (Dvorak) From: GUEST Date: 30 Apr 10 - 07:34 PM Ues Paul Robeson did indeed sing "Going Home" at FDR's funeral. |
Subject: RE: req/ADD: Going Home / Goin' Home (Dvorak) From: GUEST Date: 01 Sep 10 - 05:43 PM here is another version going home going home i am going home going home going home never more to roam though the roads been so long now im going home to the place i belong i am going home |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Going Home / Goin' Home (Dvorak) From: GUEST,BugJuice Date: 10 Jun 12 - 02:00 PM Back in hi school we had a music teacher named Leonard Bernstein and he taught the BOYS' Chourus to sing the old, unexpurgated version which, when properly interpreted is in no way any insult to the Black Race, since it is a Hymn to freedom disguised as a slave's tribute to a dead master. Paul Robeson chose to interpret it otherwise and that has always made me sad, since he was such a great guy and had such a magnificent bass voice, altho his revulsion at slavery led him to admire Josef Stalin who had more slaves, treated worse, than ever happened in the New World. The lyrics reflected the singers desire to unite with GOD, sung as Massa Dear:
Oh look down awhile. Heav'n am clear, Winds am still; You can hear dis chile. All the home folks is gone And it's lonesome here. Work is o'er Day is done, Call me, Massa Dear. There's a bird in the air, Sweet and low he sings. Voices all Drawing nigh, How de banjo rings! There were other verses. One line was, "And the clear, shining moon, made the night the dawn!" but I don't recall more of it; this was more than 70 years ago. The point to all this is that these gorgeous lyrics didn't demean black folks at all and shouldn't be censored and expurgated. It would be a mistake to pretend that slavery never existed. We need to be proud that we abolished it! Remember, slavery still exists in some parts of the world (Islamic places) and we need to direct our energies toward outlaweing slavery everywhere.
-Joe Offer, Mudcat Music Editor- |
Subject: RE: Origins: Going Home / Goin' Home (Dvorak) From: GUEST Date: 26 Nov 21 - 08:33 PM I totally agree with GUEST bug juice. I have been looking everywhere for the original lyrics to this lovely song, which to me were so beautiful, and a real tribute to the soul of the black people, their courage, their strength, their faith. If any one can find the full set of original lyrics for "Massa Dear", I would so appreciate it! Thank you. |
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