Lyr Add: Let Us Break Bread Together

Subject: Lyr Add: LET US BREAK BREAD TOGETHER
From: wysiwyg
Date: 20 Sep 01 - 10:08 PM

See also:

Let Us Break Bread Together, Faith, Folk, And Clarity

Let Us Break Bread Together, Hymn Classics (Low)

Let Us Break Bread Together, Songs Of Zion (Nix)

Let Us Break Bread Together (High Voice), Hymn Classics (High)

Let Us Break Bread Together, Lift Every Voice And Sing

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LET US BREAK BREAD TOGETHER
Traditional Negro Spiritual

Let us break bread together
On our knees
Let us break bread together
On our knees
When I fall on my knees
With my face to the rising sun
O Lord, have mercy, if You please

Let us drink wine together
On our knees
Let us drink wine together
On our knees
When I fall on my knees
With my face to the rising sun
O Lord, have mercy, if You please

Let us all sing together
On our knees
Let us all sing together
On our knees
When I fall on my knees
With my face to the rising sun
O Lord, have mercy, if You please

Let us all work together
On our knees
Let us all work together
On our knees
When I fall on my knees
With my face to the rising sun
O Lord, have mercy, if You please


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

@spirituals

SH

This is in a number of US hymnals as well.

I always wish we could use it for our Saturday Night Service-- but unlike Sunday mornings, on Saturday nights we do our communion standing up because we do the service less formally!

~S~

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: LET US BREAK BREAD TOGETHER
From: Haruo
Date: 20 Sep 01 - 10:14 PM

Here's the best-known Esperanto version, from my web hymnal, with a link to The Cyber Hymnal's version and a clickable MIDI link.

Liland

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: LET US BREAK BREAD TOGETHER
From: Genie
Date: 01 Oct 01 - 12:38 AM

And another one I meant to mention in the recent "Gospel" thread.
Genie

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: LET US BREAK BREAD TOGETHER
From: masato sakurai
Date: 01 Oct 01 - 02:07 AM

This is adopted as "Mimaeni Warera Tsudoi" in Sanbika 21, no. 79 (1997), official hymnal of the United Church of Christ, Japan. According to its Commentary (Sanbika 21 Ryakkai, 1998), this spiritual was recorded in Old Plantation Songs (Boston and New York, 1899). The same song as "When I Fall On My Knees (Wid My Face to de Risin' Sun)" in Johnson, Second Book of Negro Spirituals (p. 63).

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: LET US PRAISE HIM
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Oct 01 - 03:00 AM

LET US PRAISE HIM
Traditional Negro Spiritual


Let us praise Him, let us praise Him
Glory, Hallelujah!
Let us praise Him, O praise, O praise,
Glory, Hallelujah!

I once was lost but now I'm foun'
Glory, Hallelujah!
I once was lost but now I'm foun'
Glory, Hallelujah!

I shall never forget that day
Glory, Hallelujah!
When Jesus washed my sins away
Glory, Hallelujah!

'Twas little I thought He was so nigh
Glory, Hallelujah!
He spoke and He made me laugh and cry
Glory, Hallelujah!


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

@spirituals

SH

Subject: Origins: LET US BREAK BREAD TOGETHER
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Oct 01 - 03:17 AM

This song is not in the Digital Tradition, and there is no entry in the Traditional Ballad Index. However, there is an entry on the song at Hymnary.org:

Some of the stanzas of this African American spiritual may date back to the eighteenth century. Other stanzas have been added by oral tradition. A look through modern hymnals will reveal an array of variations on the text. The most notable alteration in the Psalter Hymnal is the phrase "to the Lord of life" in place of the original "to the rising sun," in which "sun" was an ambiguous metaphor referring to God. The song's use at communion services probably dates from after the American Civil War. Miles Mark Fisher notes in Negro Slave Songs in the United States (1953),

[Originally the hymn] relates hardly at all to holy communion, which does not necessarily require early morning administration or a devotee who faces east. [This] it seems was a signal song of Virginia slaves during the eighteenth century who used it and similar ones to convene their secret meetings.

The text discerns participation in the Lord's Supper as a humble act in which we not only eat the bread (st. 1) and drink the wine (st. 2) but also praise our God (st. 3) "on our knees." The refrain ends with a prayer for mercy, an African American kyrie (see PHH 258) that reminds us of the tax collector's prayer in Luke 18:13.

Liturgical Use:
Lord's Supper–during preparation for the sacrament or during distribution of the bread and wine.
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1988

The tune BREAK BREAD TOGETHER, like the text, has been subject to variation. It became widely known after publication in The Second Book of Negro Spirituals (1926), compiled by the brothers James Weldon Johnson and Rosamond Johnson. The tune gained further popularity through a variety of choral arrangements; it can be found in many hymnals dating after 1955, when it was published in the American Presbyterian/Reformed Hymnbook. Dale Grotenhuis (PHH 4) harmonized the tune in 1984 for the Psalter Hymnal.

Arranged without the call-and-response pattern that often characterizes African American spirituals, BREAK BREAD TOGETHER in the Psalter Hymnal takes the shape of a regular hymn, with part singing on the stanzas and refrain. If you like, however, sing stanzas 1 and 2 in unison and the refrain and stanza 3 in parts–a higher melody line for stanza 3 is published in The Hymnal 1982 (1985), a revision of the American Protestant Episcopal Hymnal 1940. In addition, try singing the entire song without accompaniment.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1987

Full text:

1 Let us break bread together on our knees;
let us break bread together on our knees;

Refrain:
When I fall on my knees,
with my face to the Lord of life (rising sun),
O Lord, have mercy on me.

2 Let us drink wine together on our knees;
let us drink wine together on our knees. [Refrain]

3 Let us praise God together on our knees;
let us praise God together on our knees. [Refrain]

Source: Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #837