The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #23495   Message #2357874
Posted By: T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird)
05-Jun-08 - 12:04 AM
Thread Name: Origins: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
Subject: RE: Req/ADD: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
Yet another correction: the second note in Judgement should be c, not B.

George Pullen Jackson, in Another Sheaf of White Spirituals, page 147, seems to be the one who first identified the melody Judgement (transcribed above) as being related to "Poor Wayfaring Stranger."   But after listening to Judgement several times, I have concluded that this was mere wishful thinking on Jackson's part.    The resemblance is remote at best.

Another melody in ASoWS, #300, Fulfillment, from the 1844 edition of the Sacred Harp, is also identified by Jackson as being related to "Poor Wayfaring Stranger." In this case the resemblance is much stronger. This conclusion is complicated, however, by the way Jackson has manipulated the rhythm of his transcription of Fulfillment precisely in order to bring out its resemblance to PWS.