REQ: source for spirituals

Subject: REQ: source for spirituals
From: Chet W.
Date: 13 Feb 98 - 07:58 PM

I've been searching for a while for a good source for lyrics to spirituals. I like all kinds, including the shape-note/sacred harp stuff, but there's a few songs I can never seem to find. I'd like to find some of the things like the Red Clay Ramblers did, like "Ezekial in the Valley" and "Ready When the Great Day Comes". I'd love to find a song I heard by a group in Durham, NC a few years ago (the Gospel Jubilators) called "Noah Had a Hammer". To be technical I guess I'm mainly looking for jubilee style spirituals. You get the idea. Sure would appreciate it.

Thanks, Chet W.

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: Ralph Butts
Date: 14 Feb 98 - 07:45 AM

Chet....

Don't think the following have as much of the style you mention, but you could start with:

Gospel Music Archive http://subnet.virtual-pc.com/da567664/

A few others:

Cyber Hymnal http://www.accessone.com/~rwadams/h/

Online Baptist Hymnal http://computerstore.utsa.edu/bsm/hymnal/101i.html

And on a different note:

Marian Hymns http://www.truecatholic.org/marian.htm

I'll be on the lookout for something more suitable.....Tiger

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: Dani
Date: 14 Dec 98 - 10:03 PM

Bringing this back up again, since I'm doing a (thus far) fruitless search for several of these type tunes. Haven't found anything online (!) that helps much. Anyone around with knowledge of the style and sources? Seems like if you weren't raised in the tradition, it's tough to get connected.

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Jan 02 - 11:28 PM

The Library of Congress has sheet music for I'll Be Ready When the Great Day Comes by Jas. S. Putnam, 1882.

Would anyone like to transcribe it?

(This is probably the oldest "unanswered request" I have found so far!)

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 12:11 AM

Go to the African-American Spirituals Permathread on this website and find lyrics to dozens of true spirituals as well as some gospel and other derivations. Here

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 12:33 AM

More spirituals Here

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: masato sakurai
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 12:35 AM

Two books from Greenwood:

Erskine Peters, Lyrics of the Afro-American Spiritual: A Documentary Collection (1993) (words only; "contains lyrics of 978 spirituals, including some variants, culled from numerous anthologies and collections")

Kathleen A. Abromeit comp., An Index to African-American Spirituals for the Solo Voice (1999) ("The main body is an alphabetical list of spirituals, and there are indexes of first lines, alternate (variant) titles, and topics.")

~Masato

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 12:41 AM

I will transcribe the lyrics of "I'll be ready..." tonight.

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 12:58 AM

The Putnam song "I'll be ready when the great day comes" is not a spiritual but a blackface minstrel tune parodying spiritual content. I may post it later in another thread about this type of material but not here. Sorry.

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 08:34 AM

Dicho, let me know if you don't get it transcribed. I just noticed that the LOC site lets you print the music (Levy doesn't). At least I think that's true. My printer here at the office is out of ink, but it looks like it's trying to print! Anybody else know of a big site that lets you print the sheet music?

Subject: Lyr Add: I'LL BE READY WHEN THE GREAT DAY COMES
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 05:41 PM

The request for "I'll be Ready When The Great Day Comes" came from Chet W., above, and also Jim Dixon, is typical of a whole range of minstrel "jubilee" songs of the 19th C. Chet W. requested it again in another thread, Here
The threadid cited, 4905, has a good version of "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" and might be used for similar songs by Zeke Manners and others. I don't know the version of "I'll Be Ready..." sung by Manners. The Putnam version from the Library of Congress is reproduced here for historical interest. It certainly is not a spiritual.

Lyr. Add: I'LL BE READY WHEN THE GREAT DAY COMES

Now you may talk about Jerusalem morn
Oh, good Lord, you may talk about Jerusalem morn;
Go tell old Hannah, Joe and Jasper
That I live down in the gospel pasture
Where all the coons must rise and shine
To be ready when the great day comes.

Den you may talk about Jerusalem morn I feel so good I'd like to shout
Religion's turned me inside out,
In my long white robe and golden shoes
I'll be ready when the great day comes.

Yes, you may talk about Jerusalem morn,
Oh, good Lord, you may talk about Jerusalem morn;
For Daniel in the lions' den
Did say unto de colored men
Dat soon they'd have to rise and shine
To be ready when the great day comes.

Chorus:
I'll be ready, I'll be ready,
Yes, good Lord, I'll be ready
When the great day comes!
I'll be ready, I'll be ready,
Yes, good Lord, I'll be ready
When the great day comes.

Jas. A. Putnam, 1882, reproduced from the Library of Congress website.
@minstrel

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 05:46 PM

Oops, numbers transposed. Here

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: masato sakurai
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:48 PM

There's another sheet music for the Putnam "I'll Be Ready" in the Library of Congress. CLICK HERE.
~Masato

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: masato sakurai
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:00 PM

Sorry. It's the same edition.

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:34 PM

No luck so far in finding the lyrics of the gospel song of the same title. Several people/groups have recorded it. I don't know whether it is based on Putnam or not. Has the music for Putnam's song been used for other lyrics or is his music derivative? In other words, I am ignorant with regard to the song(s). Red Clay Ramblers anyone?

Subject: RE: REQ: source for spirituals
From: GUEST,Varlaam
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 12:58 PM

Thanks for the words to "I'll Be Ready".
I just saw this minstrel number, chorus only, being performed by a quartet of negro skeletons, in the 1932 Van Beuren cartoon "Plane Dumb".

FYI

Toronto, Ontario