Origins: Will the Circle Be Unbroken

Subject: RE: History of 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken'
From: GUEST,Denise
Date: 29 Jan 08 - 06:05 PM

Sorry tell tell all, but the song was orginally written as a poem. It was written by my mother when her mother passed away at an early age.My mother's sister, my aunt sent the poem in to the carter family and made a big hit out of my mother's words. It did not come out as a song until my mother was married and had kids of her own.

Subject: RE: History of 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken'
From: PoppaGator
Date: 29 Jan 08 - 06:29 PM

As noted in other threads, the usual melody used for this song is the same as that of the spiritual "Glory Glory Halleluliah, When I Lay My Burden Down."

I would feel pretty sure that this melody should be considered public domain, whatever the origin of the words might be.

Denise, your story is very interesting and also plausible. If three's any way you could prove it, your family could well be in line for considerable back royalty payments! (I realize that this might not be your motive at all, but it is an interesting consideration...)

Subject: RE: History of 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken'
From: Big Mick
Date: 29 Jan 08 - 07:26 PM

Easy to make such a claim, Denise, but could you please provide enough data that we could verify that story? I, for one, would love for this to be true, but I have never heard of it before.

Mick

Subject: RE: History of 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken'
From: GUEST,James J. James
Date: 08 Jun 08 - 11:36 PM

I heard this song was first publiched by James D. Vaughn in Lawrencburg, TN where I'm from. Is there any truth to this? Please let me know at the e-mail address below.

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: History of 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken'
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Jun 08 - 12:54 AM

Have you a date for that publication? Any more information?

According to Cyberhymnal, It was written by Ada Habershon and Charles H. Gabriel composed the music.

(Not many of us will give our email addresses in public threads)

Subject: RE: Origin: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 04:44 PM

Not the source of the song, evidently, but sharing the same phrase and metaphor:

From Family Memorials in Prose and Verse by Theodore James Elmore (Savannah, GA: Morning News Steam Printing House, 1880):

Excerpt from

TIN WEDDING
[by Theodore J. Elmore?]

To Brother Jerome and Sister Emeline, on the Occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of their Wedding, Tuesday Evening, November 5, 1878.

...Then again, as in the goodly
  Olden time of long ago,
Shall the circle be unbroken—
  Foiled, the last and conquering foe—
Then again shall we be truly
  One, though some passed on before,
Waiting there to sweetly welcome
  Us, who now approach the shore....

Subject: RE: Origin: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 04:59 PM

From Catalog of Copyright Entries by Copyright Office, Library of Congress, New Series, Vol. 29, No. 7, Part 3: Musical Compositions, 1934.

Under "Renewals", page 741:

Will the circle be unbroken; w Ada R. Habershon, m Chas. H. Gabriel. © Charles H. Gabriel, Jr., Hollywood, Calif., as child of the deceased author. R 32560. 430

Subject: RE: Origin: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 09:36 PM

William MacEwan, Glasgow street singing evangelist, sang "Will The Circle Be Unbroken." It's on Scotland's Stars On 78: William MacEwan.

Subject: RE: Origins: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Mar 09 - 01:19 AM

There's some confusing information toward the top of the thread. As far as I can tell the definitive versions (actually two different but related songs) are the 1907 song by Ada R. Habershon & Charles H. Gabriel; and the 1935 (?) song by A.P. Carter. I see no reason to believe that the "undertaker" lyrics come from anybody but Carter.

Is there any connection at all between Fanny Crosby and this song? Was there a "Fanny Crosby version"? What version was sung at the Grand Ole Opry.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Origins: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Mar 09 - 03:55 PM

Odd how Fanny Crosby gets cited as composer by so many people. She wrote 'thousands' (first book published when she was 24) and used many 'aliases" but "Will the Circle be Unbroken" was by Ada Habershon.
A list of Crosby's most well-known hymns at cyberhymnal:
Crosby bio

I used to listen to the Grand Old Opry many years ago, but I don't remember the words used with the hymn, which I believe was sung at the conclusion of the show.

Subject: RE: Origins: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: GUEST,Anthony Platt
Date: 14 May 10 - 01:07 PM

Does anybody have this original song in full? In full... I want to hear this bad boy... Not the Nitty Gritty version... the real version... with substance, and not just intended to be sentimental.

Subject: RE: Origins: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: C Stuart Cook
Date: 14 May 10 - 01:41 PM

Has anyone ever heard of a Betsy Rutherford? I used to have a compilation cassette with this song on it by her.

Never managed to find out anything about despite a number of enquiries. Raw, rip the air singing that was just electrifying.

Subject: RE: Origins: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 May 10 - 03:37 PM

My dear Mr. Platt, the original was a hymn by Ada Habershon.

Chorus:
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
In a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky?

The hymn, with midi of original tune by Charles Gabriel, at Cyberhymnal.
http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/w/i/willthec.htm

Subject: RE: Origins: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: GUEST,Norm Walker
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 10:01 PM

I have been enchanted by this song since before my January 2004 posting above. I recently recorded "Will the Circle Be Unbroken (the original hymn by Ada Habershon)" with all five verses. It should be released late in 2010 or early in 2011. The cd title will be "Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts". Check my website in early 2011 if you are interested: http://www.normwalker.com/

Subject: RE: Origins: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Aug 13 - 10:58 PM

My friend Mrs. Lev has been enchanted with folk music since she took guitar lessons in Chicago from Frank Hamilton as a young housewife in the 1960s. She was one of the founding members of the Sacramento Folk Music Club after she moved to California, and she still comes to singarounds in the Sacramento area. At our song circle last night, we sang "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," and Marge had us sing a couple verses that she found in the Studs Terkel book titled Will the Circle Be Unbroken which deals with the subject of death. I'd like to post a segment from that book, an interview with Doc Watson:

POSTSCRIPT (page 240)
STUDS: When I think of you and Merle, I think of the old hymn, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"

DOC: I've always loved that song. It's an old hymn, long before A.P. Carter did his arrangement of it. Let me give you the lyrics that was probably in an old hymn book:
We have loved ones gone to glory
Whose dear forms we often miss
When we close our earthly story
Shall we join them in our bliss

Will the circle be unbroken, by and by, by and by,
There's a better home awaiting far beyond the starry sky.
In this other version, the last verse says:[sings]
We can picture happy gatherings around the fireside long ago
And recall the tearful partings when they left us here below.
It's just as real as life for those who believe. Whoever wrote it was inspired to write it because of the way they felt about life and death and the hereafter.[sings]
Oft they told us in our childhood of that happy land above
Pointing to the dying savior as they told us of his love
Will the circle be unbroken by and by, by and by...
I may do another gospel album sometime before I lose the old voice and age takes the vocals down to where I can't sing. I have some allergies, but I told the boys on the festival, I said, "I can still croak 'em out pretty good, boys." [Laughs] I love to sing gospel and hymns I heard when I was in church. I get a lot of enjoyment out of that.

---

From Wikipedia:

Eddy Merle Watson (February 8, 1949 - October 10, 1985) was an American guitarist and folk singer. He was best known for the performances he did with his father, Doc Watson. They played and recorded albums together for 15 years until Merle's death in a tractor accident.

Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. Watson won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for "The Good War", and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.

Subject: RE: Origins: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 11 Aug 13 - 02:03 PM

GUEST Kees asks: "Could anyone please explain to me what the phrase "Can the circle be unbroken" followed by "By and by Lord, by and by" exactly means? I like the song very much, but I am really puzzled by the chorus. Is it based on some verse in the Bible?"

Kees, "By and by" is shorthand for "in the afterlife", or rather "in heaven" - for instance, used in the popular 19th-century hymn "In the Sweet By and By", satirised by the socialist Joe Hill in his equally popular 20th-century song "The Preacher and the Slave", with its chorus "There'll be pie in the sky by and by, by and by in the sweet by and by", which was a big hit in the hungry 1930s.

So the chorus of "Circle Be Unbroken" is asking the Lord: "Can the circle of love and friendship remain unbroken, O Lord, even after death?".

Subject: RE: Origins: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: Gutcher
Date: 11 Aug 13 - 05:48 PM

Recorded on Beltona in 1931 by Dugald McNeill--restricted length due to time limit of 78rpm record.

Subject: RE: Origins: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Mar 14 - 04:38 PM

Does anyone have the chords for the 1907 version

Subject: ADD: You Are Not Alone (Mindy Dillard)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Mar 21 - 08:13 PM

Here's an interesting set of verses from Beth Wood to the melody:



YOU ARE NOT ALONE
© Mindy Dillard 2012

Chorus:
You are welcome at my table
You are welcome in my home
You are free to share your story
You are not alone

Rest your body on my pillow
You can stay here as long you need
Come on and walk me through your garden
Show me your flowers and your weeds

Chorus:
You are welcome at my table
You are welcome in my home
You are free to share your story
You are not alone

It’s okay if you break some china
Or spill red wine on the white rug
If you cry it doesn’t mean you’re weak
We all are seeking love

Chorus:
You are welcome at my table
You are welcome in my home
You are free to share your story
You are not alone

Subject: RE: Origins: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 28 Mar 21 - 06:40 AM

Joe

in you post above from way back you quote Wikipedia where it claims that
Merle Watson was an American guitarist and folk singer ??

Merle was an excellent guitarist who also played banjo but NEVER was he a singer of any description, not in public anyway.

Some years after Merle's tragic death his own son Richard Watson became Doc's partner having inherited the excellent abilities on the guitar from his father and grandfather.

Subject: RE: Origins: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Mar 21 - 06:44 AM

Hi, Hootenanny - looks like Wikipedia changed their article on Merle Watson. I never heard him sing, and I think I've heard interviews of Doc talking about Merle's not singing. The Wikipedia article now says: "Eddy Merle Watson (February 8, 1949 – October 23, 1985) was an American folk and bluegrass guitarist."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merle_Watson