Lyr Req: Parting Friends - any more verses?

Subject: Lyr Req: Parting FriendsAre there any more verses?
From: GUEST,Jenny
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 09:22 AM

Parting Friends

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there any more verses?
From: GUEST,Jenny
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 09:25 AM

Parting Friends.
Sorry, hit the wrong key before I'd finished entering my question. My friends and I have just started learning this North American traditional song but I can only find one verse. Does anyone know if there are any more?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there any more verses?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 11:10 AM

Lomax gives only one verse in 'American Ballads and Folksongs', but gives as a reference George Pullen Jackson's , 'White Spirituals of the Southern Uplands' which doesn't have a proper song index - and I can't find it.
Jim Carroll

Subject: ADD Version: Parting Friends
From: GUEST,999
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 12:25 PM

"White Spirituals IN the Southern Uplands", Jim.

######################################################

Parting Friends

(additional lyrics by Keith Murphy)

Farewell my friends I'm bound for Canaan
I'm travelling through the wilderness
Your company has been delightful
You who doth leave my mind distressed

I go away behind to leave you
Perhaps never to meet again
But if we never have the pleasure
I hope we'll meet on Canaan's land

I know dark clouds are hovering o'er me
I know my way is rough and steep
But beauteous fields lie just before me
Where the redeemed their vigil keep

And when my journey's finally over
When rest and peace upon me lie
High o'er the roads where once we travelled
Silently there my mind will fly

Found the above at

http://www.blackislemusic.com/cds/boundlyrics.htm

A notation to the left of song nine ("Parting Friends")
says

"All songs traditional except where noted.
* additional lyrics by Keith Murphy.
^ original tune by Keith Murphy.
Black Isle Music, BMI"

Note that "PF" is asterixed.

Subject: ADD Version: Parting Friends
From: GUEST,999
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 12:33 PM

"Another tradition that borrows some tunes from English and American folk and dance music is "shape note" singing. The best known collection of shape note hymns is The Sacred Harp. We've heard a song sometimes used to close Renaissance fairs that turns out to be a shape note hymn, "Parting Friends" (Sacred Harp #267). You may recognize its first line, "Farewell, my friends, I'm bound for Canaan;" the Fasola Home Page's Sacred Harp Index credits John G. McCurry for the tune and dates it at 1842."

from

this site.
*******************************

267 Parting Friends (First)
Tune: John G. McCurry, 1842

Words:

Meter: 9s,8s Double (9,8,9,8,9,8,9,8)

Farewell, my friends, I'm bound for Canaan,
I'm trav'ling through the wilderness;
Your company has been delightful,
You, who doth leave my mind distressed.
I go away, behind to leave you,
Perhaps never to meet again,
But if we never have the pleasure,
I hope we'll meet on Canaan's land.

from

http://fasola.org/indexes/1991/?p=267

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there any more verses?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 12:36 PM

Please note that I have located "eight line lyric" of "Parting Friends" variously entitled

"I hope we'll meet on Canaan's land."

and

"Farewell my friends, I'm bound for Canaan"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there any more verses?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 12:45 PM

Found the same lyrics written by keith Murphy (the last two stanzas are his) on the following site (words written out with no attribution)

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:Y2EqRGofpI4J:www.pylgeralmanak.nl/%3Fpagina_id%3D151+%22I+hope+we%E2%80%99ll+meet+on+Canaan


(go down the page a ways).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there any more verses?
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 05:35 PM

There's a recording of this song on the Fagans' album, Common Treasury, recorded in 1991 on their own label, FMCD002. They call the song Farewell My Friends and they say they learned it from Frankie Armstrong.

Subject: ADD Version: Parting Friends (Lomax)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 05:57 PM

For the record, here is the version from American Ballads & Folk Songs by John & Alan Lomax (1934), page 564:

PARTING FRIENDS

Farewell, my friends, I'm bound for Canaan,
I'm trav'ling through the wilderness,
Your company has been delightful,
You, who doth leave my mind distressed.
I go away, behind to leave you,
Perhaps never to meet again;
But if we never have this pleasure,
I hope we'll meet on Canaan's land.

Notes from Lomax: From Professor George Pullen Jackson's White Spirituals of the Southern Uplands: "Under the title 'Parting Friends,' McCurry (editor of the Social Harp) gives the following song with the note: 'The Author, when eight years old, learned the air of this tune from Mrs. Catharine Penn.' That was, therefore, in the year 1829.'"

To confuse things a bit, Lomax has two slightly different versions of the lyrics. The music notation from Lomax has the lyrics above. The separate lyrics that follow have "But if we ever have the pleasure," which makes less sense to me; and the meeting is on Canaan's shore. Also, as 999 pointed out, Lomax misidentifies the source, which should be White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands.

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Click to play

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Click here for a very nice YouTube recording by the "Word of Mouth Chorus."

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Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:

Farewell My Friends (Parting Friends; I'm Bound for Canaan)

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, my friends, I'm bound for Canaan, I'm trav'ling through the wilderness. Your company has been delightful... I go away behind to leave you, Perhaps never to meet again, But if we (n)ever have the pleasure, I hope we'll meet on Canaan's (shore)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Jackson)
KEYWORDS: religious separation nonballad friend
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 564-565, "Parting Friends" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-Makin', p. 170, "Farewell to Carter County" (1 short text, possibly this piece though with only three stanzas it is hard to tell)
Roud #15559
NOTES: The Sacred Harp contains a piece called "Parting Friend," and two entitled "Parting Friends." None is the same as this piece. One of them is the same as the piece indexed as "Our Cheerful Voices (Separation).". - RBW
File: LxA564

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Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography

The Ballad Index Copyright 2014 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

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Roud has only one entry - the version in Lomax.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req:Parting Friends-Are there any more verses?
From: Reinhard
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 06:26 PM

Frankie Armstrong recorded this shape-note song as Farewell My Friends for her 1997 Harbourtown CD The Fair Moon Rejoices. Seems the Fagans got the title from her. According to the sleeve notes, Frankie learned the song from Joan Mills with whom she sang it too.

Subject: ADD: Farewell to Carter County
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 06:59 PM

The Traditional Ballad Index refers to one other version, found in Ballad Makin' in the Mountains of Kentucky, by Jean Thomas (1939). It's on page 175 of the 1964 Oak Publications edition. The singer is named Hezeziah, but his last name is unclear to me.

FAREWELL TO CARTER COUNTY

Come all my friends and dear relation
The truth to you I am going to tell;
How my heart beats with contemplation
To think to bid you all farewell.

It grieves my heart, it grieves me sorely
To think to leave you all behind;
But when I am in some distant climate
I hope to you they will be kind.

I never give up to no such passion,
I justly will lament my woe;
If on earth our paths cross no more,
Oh may we meet on Canaan's shore.

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And back to Jenny's original question, I think we extrapolate to the conclusion that there is only one known traditional verse to this song, and our sources go back a long way - to the Social Harp (1855). But does anybody know of an online copy of Social Harp, so we can see for ourselves?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req:Parting Friends-Are there any more verses?
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 07:12 PM

Joe, Google

"the social harp"

Google books or whatever it is has the text on-line in pdf format. Note to keep the quotation marks there. Presently it's the second site on the page that comes up.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req:Parting Friends-Are there any more verses?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 07:24 PM

Or DOH, I could post the link.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=CtQGwNJx88QC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22the+social+harp%22&source=bl&ots=JXY_UhzZjm&sig=kzQm2ddia

Subject: RE: Lyr Req:Parting Friends-Are there any more verses?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 07:25 PM

Yeah, I know about Social Harp at Google Books, but they offer only a partial preview. The song is on page 101, and the preview doesn't offer page 101.
Dang. I'm tho fwustwated....

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req:Parting Friends-Are there any more verses?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 07:26 PM

I'll look again. Sorry, Joe. We'll find it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req:Parting Friends-Are there any more verses?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 07:41 PM

from

http://www.abbiebetinis.com/works/long_time_travling.html


"This arrangement, which combines two popular songs from the early American shape-note singing tradition, is meant to incorporate two of the tradition's most important aspects: community singing and religious expression. All three texts, about traveling to a better land and leaving friends behind, are from 19th century shape-note hymnals. The first tune was published in 1855 in the Social Harp with the title Parting Friends, but the melody is much older: a variant of the Irish Wayfaring Stranger. The second tune is entitled White, after B.F. White, compiler of the Sacred Harp. Some additional verses of text come from the 1835 song, Parting Hand. Because it was the intent of the early shape-note composers to write vocal lines that could "charm even when sung by itself," the counterpoint in this piece serves to depict the individual travelers as they go their own way, with their own tunes, and then come back together on the grander journey toward the promised land.

This piece is dedicated to the memory of Peter Maller, who believed in people, in community, and was a long time traveler himself.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Texts: Long Time Trav'ling

Farewell, my friends, I'm bound for Canaan,
I'm trav'ling through the wilderness;
Your company has been delightful,
You, who doth leave my mind distressed.

I go away, behind to leave you,
Perhaps never to meet again,
But if we never have the pleasure,
I hope we'll meet on Canaan's land.
- Parting Friends (traditional tune and lyrics)

Farewell, my friends, both old and young,
I hope in peace you'll still go on;
How oft I've seen your flowing tears,
And heard you tell your hopes and fears!

Your hearts with love were seen to flame,
Which makes me hope we'll meet again.
Ye mourning souls, lift up your eyes
And live in love, for love's alive.
   - Parting Hand (lyrics by John Blain 1818, edited and revised by A. Betinis)

I'm a long time trav'ling here below,
I'm a long time trav'ling away from home,
I'm a long time trav'ling here below,
To lay this body down.

Farewell, my friends, whose tender care
Has long engaged my love;
Your fond embrace I now exchange
For land I know not of...
   - White (tune by Edgar Dumas 1856; lyrics from Dobell's New Selection 1810; revised A. Betinis)"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req:Parting Friends-Are there any more verses?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 08:27 PM

Social Harp (1855) ought to be available at Google Books, but the edition they scanned came from 1973, so Google is playing it safe and honoring the copyright the printer may or may not have. White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands (1933) is also available at Google Books, but in "snippet view." Jim Dixon can work wonders with Snippet View, but Jim has infinitely more patience than I have....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req:Parting Friends-Are there any more verses?
From: Jim McLean
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 04:44 AM

I have the following books:

Spiritual Folk-Songs of early America, Pullen Jackson, 1964
White Spirituals in the Soutern Uplands, Pullen Jackson,1965
A Companion to the New Harp of Columbia, Marion J hatchett2003
The Sacred Harp, Buell E. Cobb Jr, 1989
Another Shead of White Spirituals, Pullen Jackson,1952
Down-east Spirituals and Others, Pullen Jackson,1953
The B. F. White Sacred Harp, W. M. Cooper and others,1960 (?)

I can look up and/or scan any pages required.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req:Parting Friends
From: Artful Codger
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 06:08 AM

"Parting Friends" has also been collected in the 1991 edition of The Sacred Harp (#267); the text at fasola.org consists of only the one verse. The source was probably the 1855 Social Harp. There are two other songs there also called "Parting Friends" and one called "Parting Friend". I believe I have a full copy somewhere of "Parting Friends" from the Social Harp.

I have at least two recordings: by Boston Camerata on Liberty Tree, and by Hesperus on Colonial America (instrumental arrangement). The liner notes for the former state that "Parting Friends" is related to two other folk spirituals, "Wayfaring Stranger" and "Fulfillment". Sadly, it was not selected for the recording The Social Harp.

Jeremiah Ingalls wrote a song called "Judgement Hymn" whose tune is a variant of that used for "Fulfillment" and "Parting Friends". It was published in his Christian Harmony (1805)--much earlier than either the Sacred Harp (1844) or the Social Harp (1855). The text follows:

Judgement Hymn

That great, tremendous day's approaching,
That awful scene is drawing nigh,
Which was foretold by ancient prophets,
Decreed from all eternity.
Prepare my soul, reflect and wonder,
That awful scene in drawing near,
When you shall see the great transaction,
When Christ in judgment shall appear.

Go forth you heralds with speed like lightning,
Call in your saints from distant lands,
Those that my blood from hell have ransomed,
Whose names in life's fair book do stand.
For your dear souls, that have continued,
With me and my temptations bore.
I have provided for you, a kingdom,
To reign with me forevermore.

And drifting a bit off-topic, I have a note here that Ingalls' song "Wisdom" was set to the tune of "The Parting Glass", while his "Endless Day" was set to "Nae luck about the hoose".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req:Parting Friends-Are there any more verses?
From: Jim McLean
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 01:40 PM

Some time ago when I was doing some research I ordered and bought the DVD Awake, My Soul The Story of the Sacred Harp.
I received three copies so there are two abegging, free, to anyone who wants them. It is a fascinationg account of the Fa So La musical notation and the groups who took it up. Either PM me or email at [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Parting Friends - any more verses?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 09:51 PM

Joe Offer: I can see page 101 of The Social Harp (please click). I have no idea why you couldn't. I got there by searching for "Farewell, my friends, I'm bound for"—if that makes any difference.

As you explained, Google puts it in their "limited preview" category. I know that means you only get to see a few pages, but do different people see different pages?

Anyway, the page I see has only the one 8-line verse, with words exactly the same as what GUEST,999 posted on 30 Jan 10 at 12:33 PM, right down to the punctuation.

The music is in shape-notes, arranged for 3-part harmony.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Parting Friends - any more verses?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 01:58 AM

Hi, Jim-
If I switch browsers, I can see the page. But on my usual browser, your link leads me to a Google Books page that tells me, "You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing, or reached your viewing limit for this book.
Now we know.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Parting Friends - any more verses?
From: CupOfTea
Date: 23 Feb 12 - 04:41 PM

I learned this as "Farewell My Friends" from the singing of Sally Rogers. I found it as "Parting Friends" with the exact words/tune in the Lomax's book American Ballads and Folk Songs, of 1934 with a note:

From Professor George Pullen Jackson's White Spirituals of the Southern Uplands...McCurry (editor of the Social Harp gives the song with the note "the author, when eight years old learned the air of this tune from Mrs cCatherine Penn. That was, therefore in the year 1829"

In researching spirituals & gospel songs, this is one of the very few pre-1900 songs I found with lyrics that exactly match what I've heard sung.

Joanne in Cleveland.