Origins: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger

Subject: RE: Origins: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Mar 20 - 03:53 PM

See 03 Jun 08 above.

If "Judgment" is really the same tune, then it could have been attached to the words as soon as they appeared.

Have they ever been sung to a different tune, BTW?

Subject: RE: Origins: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
From: GUEST,john braden
Date: 29 Mar 20 - 05:20 AM

Thank you, Lighter.

The Kentucky Harmony has been posted online by the University of Kentucky. A link to it can be found at the Wikipedia article "Kentucky Harmony." At page 32 is the tune "Judment" (sic) for a hymn whose first line is "My God what inward grief I feel." My sight-reading is rudimentary, but none of the parts for this four-part harmony tune seem to match the tune currently used for "I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger." The tune would fit the words, but that is true of numerous tunes and hymns, and does not establish that they were ever sung together.

So my original question remains: When was the tune we currently use first published to the words of "I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger"?

Addressing your BTW question, I'm not aware of other tunes being used for "I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger," but nevertheless avoid calling any tune "the" tune used for a hymn, given that hymns were often sung to whatever tune fit (a necessity at a time when most hymnals lacked music).

Subject: RE: Origins: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 30 Mar 20 - 03:20 AM

I have posted to another thread about the use of this song/hymn in the film '1917', where it is performed by a British soldier during an impromptu service held before going into action.

I do not believe that it would have reached the UK by this date, especially as the film is set on the very day that the USA joined the Great War.

Subject: RE: Origins: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Mar 20 - 03:41 AM

John Braden, I'm wondering if you're referring to the song "I Am a Pilgrim," that was recorded by Merle Travis and Doc Watson. There's definitely a tie between that song and "Wayfaring Stranger." I wonder if these songs are based on a passage from scripture.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Origins: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
From: GUEST,john braden
Date: 11 Apr 20 - 09:15 PM

Thank you for the link to the "I am a Pilgrim" thread, Joe Offer. Despite a few similarities, they are different hymns.
1. "I am a poor wayfaring stranger"
a. Second line: "I'm traveling through this world of woe."
b. Refrain "I'm just going over Jordan."
c. Appearance: Words only at p. 34 of Joseph Bever, "Christian Songster" (Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren in Christ 1858)
2. "I am a pilgrim and I'm a stranger."
a. Second line: "I can tarry but a night."
b. Refrain: same as first and second lines.
c. Appearance: Mary S.B. Dana (author of the lyrics), "The Northern Harp" (NY: Dayton & Saxon 1841), set at p. 54 to an "Italian Melody" which is different than the tune used for "I am a poor wayfaring stranger."
As the other thread notes, Mrs. Dana's hymn was quite popular, being reprinted in 1848, 1854, 1855, in three Civil War soldier hymnals and in numerous postwar hymnals. It has also appeared to additional tunes, but of the four tunes I looked at, none match the one for "I am a poor Wayfaring Stranger."
So, I'm still in the dark about the earliest publication of "I am a poor wayfaring stranger" with the tune we use.

Subject: RE: Origins: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 12 Apr 20 - 10:44 AM

John, check out this recent (Jan., 2020) article, by Eric Sinclair:

https://sixstrstories.com/2020/01/19/the-ballad-of-wayfaring-stranger/

According to the research of John Garst, the first joint appearance of the familiar words and (essentially) music was in the early 1890s.

A really "transitional" version is the one recorded by Vaughn's Texas Quartet in 1929. It's at the linked site.

So far, it looks like the now standard version was introduced by Burl Ives.

Subject: RE: Origins: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 12 Apr 20 - 10:46 AM

Note the Quartet's old-time Southern pronunciation "Jerdan" (rhymes with "burden.")

I've heard this many times.

Subject: RE: Origins: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
From: voyager
Date: 12 Apr 20 - 11:51 AM

Very timely post Mudcatters....I have been playing a flatpick version of IAAPWS two of three times a day during Pandemic-2020/

Be safe out there.
voyager

Subject: RE: Origins: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
From: GUEST,John Braden
Date: 13 May 20 - 04:40 AM

Thank you, Lighter.
Question answered.

Subject: RE: Origins: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jan 24 - 11:40 PM

I believe the original melody was composed by Johann Georg Ebeling and lyrics written by Paul Gerhardt in 1666 in Germany as "Ich bin ja nur ein Gast auf Erden". The song is based on Psalm 39:12 and Psalm 119:19 It possibly shows the German escape to the fledgling America's in that period as there are well documented colonies by the 1670's

here is some evidence https://ccel.org/ccel/hewitt/gerhardt/gerhardt.p2_2.h_284.html

The words have a similar feel to the evolved song It would be interesting in documenting the transition from the 1670's to the published version in the 1840's