Lyr Req: Beautiful Hills of Galilee

Subject: Beautiful Hills of Galilee
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 03:54 AM

Transferred from another thread.
-Joe Offer-

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Subject: RE: Songs you've posted.
From: Seth
Date: 14-Oct-00 - 10:29 PM

I'm looking for lyrics to a hymn that Hazel Dickens sung on one of her albums - Beautiful Hills of Gallilee. She does it with only her voice. Also where does this song come from?

Subject: Lyr Add: BEAUTIFUL HILLS OF GALILEE! ^^
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 04:20 AM

Found it here (click) - it's on a Rounder CD called Hard-Hitting songs for Hard-Hit People, and also on a great Rounder gospel sampler CD called Stained Glass Hour.
-Joe Offer-

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BEAUTIFUL HILLS OF GALILEE!

(traditional)
8s, 9s

T. B. Ausmus

O Beautiful hills of Galilee!
Amid whose scenes the Saviour dwells,
Your flow'rs that bloom so beautifully,
Of heaven's lasting beauties tell.

Refrain

We're travelling home; one by one,
Across death's river our friends are gone,
And we are following, one by one.

"Then, O poor soul, if you would be
Thus clothed in robes as pure as they,
Lay all else down, come follow me;
My love shall last through endless day."

My soul replies, "'Tis not for me,"
With tears fast streaming from mine eyes;
That voice still calls, "Come, follow me,
We're going home beyond the skies.

"I come your maladies to heal,
I left my Father's home on high;
His wondrous love I thus reveal
And thus are trembling souls brought nigh.

"I go away--I'll come again,
My Holy Spirit hov'ring round,
To show that for you I was slain,
And guard you till the trump shall sound.


Hazel Dickens sings the chorus this way:

We are traveling home, we are traveling home
One by one, we're traveling home.
Across death's river our friends have gone,
And we are following, one by one.

^^

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Hey, what do these lines mean?

8s, 9s

T. B. Ausmus

Subject: Lyr Add: BEAUTIFUL HILLS OF GALILEE!^^
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 04:37 AM

Well, let me transcribe it from the Hazel dickens recording. Apparently, it's from an "Old Baptist" hymnal. The only recording listed is the one by Dickens. It's a good one.
-Joe Offer-

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Beautiful Hills of Galilee!

(traditional)
8s, 9s

T. B. Ausmus

O Beautiful hills of Galilee!
Amid whose scenes the Savior dwells,
Your flow'rs that bloom so beautifully,
And heaven's lasting beauties tell.

Refrain
We are traveling home, we are traveling home
One by one, we're traveling home.
Across death's river our friends have gone,
And we are following, one by one.

"Then, O poor soul, if you would be
Thus clothed in robes as pure as they,
Lay all else down, come follow me;
My love will last eternally."

"I go away--I'll come again,
My Holy Spirit hov'ring round,
To show that for you I was slain,
And guard you till the trump shall sound.


JRO^^

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by the way, I was in Galilee in November of 1999, and the hills were indeed beautiful. I don't think I'll ever forget watching the sun rise over the Golan Heights and sparkle on the Sea of Galilee.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beautiful Hills of Galilee
From: Burke
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 06:05 PM

Hazel Dicken's father was a Primitive Baptist preacher. In addition to having hymn books with only words, they did not use instruments. Apparently, in Hazel's church they did not sing harmonies either. Her souce for the hymn would have been her childhood church experience. The tune may originally have been in a note book, but she learned it from oral tradition.

T. B. Asmuth should be the author of the words. 8's, 9's is the meter of the hymn. It should mean the hymn has lines of alternating 8 syllables and 9 syllables. Originally the "Old School" churches (see Joe's link) did not use hymnals with music. Many still do not. There was not a fixed tune for certain words. Notation of the meter indicates that tunes that work for other 8,9 hymns should work for this one. Unfortunately the first verse posted is really 9,8,9,8 & the later verses are 4 lines of 8. Choruses don't have to fit the meter of the rest of the hymn. The same tune can be used for many hymns, one hymn can be used with many tune. Different congregations may very well have used different tunes for the same words.

A better example of this is that Amazing Grace, All Hail the Power of Jesus Name, and Gilligan's Island all have the same meter & can be interchanged. Their meter is 8,6,8,6 but it's the most used meter for English Hymns so it's usually just noted as Common Meter or C.M.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beautiful Hills of Galilee
From: GUEST,shirley mccosh
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 08:18 PM

I heard this pretty song on a documentary about Virginia coal miners. Thank you for the lyrics.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beautiful Hills of Galilee
From: GUEST,steve s
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 09:40 PM

hazel sings it over the credits in "Matewan". truly shattering...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beautiful Hills of Galilee
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 14 - 03:21 PM

I believe she also sings it at the graveside of one of the dead strikers, the teenage boy that's killed. I saw that movie when I was about 15 and it effected me...since that time, I have been looking for this song and now almost thirty years later I can read the words here and sing along with Hazel on Youtube...it was worth the wait.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beautiful Hills of Galilee
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Mar 14 - 03:50 PM

Hazel Dickens, "Hills of Galilee," on youtube.

Several other songs by her also on youtube. Her voice cuts like a knife.

Died April 22, 2011. A great loss.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beautiful Hills of Galilee
From: GUEST,Bart Brush
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 06:24 PM

Listen on youtube (click)--what a great resource!--but remember to buy CDs and other products in order to support the singers, their heirs, and recording companies like Rounder, Folkways and many others which preserve and the spread the music.