Tune/Lyric info req Do Lord/Räck mig din

Subject: Tune/Lyric info Spirituals
From: Haruo
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 04:31 PM

I just posted another nine items in my online hymnal, and several of them are set to American Spiritual tunes that I have some questions about.

First of all, this one is a translation of a Swedish text "Räck mig din hand" but the tune appears to me to be nearly identical to what I think of as "Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh do remember me" (not in Digitrad that I can see), and I'm wondering if there's another text whose tune it's even closer to, or if it has secular folk antecedents someone can identify.

A second is this one, a translation from the German set to an African-American spiritual tune identified as "Singin' wid a sword in ma han'" - anybody got more lyrics?

Then there's this to Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore. And finally, anybody have a tune name or original lyric for the tune this Our Father is to, a calypso Caribbean melody?

Liland

Subject: RE: Tune/Lyric info req Do Lord/Räck mig din
From: raredance
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 11:09 PM

"A Folksinger's Guide to Grass Roots Harmony" by Ethel Raim and Josh Dunson (Oak Publications 1968) contains the following information about the tune/song:

"Here's a tune that has appeared as a dozen different songs in the string band repertoire. J E Mainer's Mountaineers, one of the great old time commercially recorded bands, sings a religious version of the tune with harmonies that make full use of its depth, Lights in the Valley...Crockett Ward and his Boys use pretty much the same tune for their memorable Deadheads and Suckers."

I will put both sets of lyrics below. "Lights in the Valley" has elements in common with the lyrics of the camp song "Do Lord".

LIGHTS IN THE VALLEY

I'm waitin'for my Jesus, He's comin' after me.
I'm waitin'for my Jesus, He's comin' after me.
I'm waitin'for my Jesus, He's comin' after me.
Look away behind the moon.

Chorus:
Lights in the valley outshine the sun
Lights in the valley outshine the sun
Lights in the valley outshine the sun
Look away behind the moon.

Get ready mother, He's comin' after you. (3X)
Look away behind the moon.

CH

Get ready father, He's comin' after you. (3X)
Look away behind the moon.

CH

Get ready sinner, He's comin' after you (3X)
Look away behind the moon.

CH

DEADHEADS AND SUCKERS

Deadheads and suckers, how can you live?
How can you live, darlin', how can you live?
Oh it's deadheads and suckers, how can you live
When good men are dyin' every day?

I'm goin' around the moutain, bound to leave you now.
Bound to leave you now, darlin', bound to leave you now.
Goin' around the mountain, bound to leave you now,
And darlin' I don't know what to do.

Light in the graveyard, it outshines the sun.
Outshines the sun, darlin', outshines the sun.
Light in the graveyard, it outshines the sun.
And darlin' I don't know what to do.

High sheriff and police am runnin' after me.
Runnin' after me, darlin' runnin' after me.
High sheriff and police am runnin' after me.
And Lordy I don't know what to do.

Mighty happy meeting, don't you want to go?
Don't you want to go, darlin' don't you want to go?
Mighty happy meeting, don't you want to go?
Yes, we'll all go.

Another song that uses the tune is "Lost all my money but a two dollar bill" which has been recorded by Doc Watson.

rich r

Subject: RE: Tune/Lyric info req Do Lord/Räck mig din
From: Haruo
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 11:32 PM

That's weird. This afternoon when I posted this thread the computer told me it was unable to make a connection and the thread had failed to post. So later when I got back to a computer I tried again, this time under a preexisting "Spirituals" thread, a somewhat fuller set of queries. But now here's the one they said had aborted come back to haunt me.

Anyhow, thanks for the info, Rich

Subject: Here's my post from the BS Fav Spirituals thread
From: Haruo
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 02:18 AM

Joe, and everybody, the Cyber Hymnal (which recently changed its URL twice; hopefully they've settled down permanently now at tch.wordnic.com — I don't know what went wrong at Simplenet) actually has quite a few of the old standard Negro Spirituals, though usually with MIDIs better suited to white-style churches (heavy pianoforte where you want mainly voice). I notice they just added Steal Away in the last week or two.

But I resurrected this thread mainly to ask about a few Spirituals in connection with my hymnal. I just added nine more songs to my collection today, which brings it to a total of 200 (if I'm not forgetting any) hymns (including carols, spiritual songs, metrical psalms, etc. under the rubric "hymns"). Five of the nine are set to American Spiritual tunes (though only two are versions of the usual American texts), plus one is a setting of the Lord's Prayer to a calypso tune whose secular text(s) I'm interested in descrying. (I'd like to know what isle or archipelago it hails from, too.)

• Donu la manon is a translation of the Swedish "Räck mig din hand", set to a tune that sounds to me like Do Lord more than anything; I can't find "Do Lord" in the Digitrad, to see what you call the tune, nor is it in The Cyber Hymnal. Anybody know what the secular antecedent of the tune was?
• La lumo venis al la mond' is a translation of the Swedish "Det ljus som liv åt världen gav" set to "Michael row the boat ashore"
• Kune manghu ni nun is a translation of "Let us break bread together" to its proper tune
• Tero kaj chielo kantu is a translation of the German text "Erd und Himmel sollen singen" set to an African-American Spiritual tune the source calls "Singin' wid a sword in ma' han'". Anybody know the full text of the original Spiritual?
• Venkos ni en gloro, finally, is a Christian modification of the standard Esperanto version of "We Shall Overcome"

The other new songs in my hymnal are a version of Quelle est cette odeur? (What or Whence is this fragrance?), just in time to be too late for Christmas ;-(, and two original-in-Esperanto hymns to Maccabæus (this one and this one).

Liland