Lyr Add: O Mary, Where Is Your Baby?

Subject: Lyr Add: O MARY, WHERE IS YOUR BABY?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 20 Sep 01 - 10:16 PM

O MARY, WHERE IS YOUR BABY?
Traditional Negro Spiritual


O Mary, sister Mary
Where is your baby?
They done took Him from a manger,
And they carried Him to the throne.

Read in the Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Luke and John,
Read in the Gospel and learn the news
How the li'l boy child was born.
Read about Mary and Joseph come
A-riding on a donkey from far,
Slept in a stable of Bethlehem
While the shepherds all seen the star.

Read about the elders and the Hebrew priest
A-preaching in the tabernacle hall,
Standing in a wonder at the words they heard
From a li'l boy child so small.
O li'l boy, how old you is?
Tell me if you let it be told
O li'l boy, how old you is?
I ain't but twelve years old


SOURCE:
Park New Choir, http://parknewchoir.free.fr/

@spirituals

SH

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: O MARY, WHERE IS YOUR BABY?
From: Janie
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 07:07 PM

We sang this in choir in High School (back in the days when schools still celebrated religious holidays and we did Christmas and Easter concerts.) However, this was an Easter song. The second line of the chorus was They done took him from the cross, instead of the manger. I think I remember the above verses, but there were additional verses with more of an Easter theme. I can't find that version on-line.

Related and totally unimportant comment, but thread drift none-the-less. I sang in school, all-county and concert choirs for 6 years back in the days when public schools still sang religious songs and celebrated Christian holidays and fesstivals. While I learned enough to read intervals, recognize time signatures, and to know the difference between an 8th and a half note, I never really learned to read music. For some reason, I have a startling clear image in my mind of the first page of the sheet music for this song and know we sang it at the Easter concert in 1968. I have memories of many of the songs we sang and performed in choir, but this is the only song that I know when we sang it, and can picture the sheet music. Pity I can't remember the tune (other than the chorus) or the verses we sang :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: O Mary, Where Is Your Baby?
From: GUEST,J. Wilmore
Date: 23 Nov 16 - 04:06 AM

I sang this song when I was 13 years old. I attended the middle school that was assigned for my area and we had predominantly all black teachers. My music teacher was black but she was in charge of music for the state of the Delaware. As I had sung with the school chorus since 3rd grade she was grooming me to one day sing opera. This particular song was one of her favorites and she gave me the honor of singing it for local churches (black and white). In two months time I will turn 69 years old and I can still remember the words. What a beautiful tribute to the black race.