Tune Req: Kingdom Coming (in the Year of Jubilo)

Subject: Lyr Add: KINGDOM COMING
From: Rank
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 07:06 PM

I found this song in a little booklet called "Holiday Song", published by The Holiday Fellowship, 2nd edition 1937. The book had been stamped - the Workers' Educational Association, Yorkshire District (South), Campo Lane, Sheffield.

The book is very similar in many respects to the old YHA songbooks, with many similar well known songs, but I haven't heard this one before and would be interested to know if it was well known in America, plus does anyone have the tune?

Sorry about the spelling mistake, but it doesn't seem to want to be corrected.

KINGDOM COMING.

Say, darkies, hab you seen de massa,
Wid de muff-stash on his face,
Go 'long de road some time dis mornin'
Like he gwine to leab de place?
He seen a smoke 'way up de ribber,
Whar de Linkum gunboats lay;
He took his hat an' lef' berry sudden,
An' I 'spec he's run away!
De massa run ? ha, ha,
De darkeys stay? ho, ho.
It mus' be now de kingdom comin'
An' de year ob Jubilo.

He six foot one way, two foot tudder,
An' he weigh tree hundred pound;
His coat so big, he couldn't pay de tailor
An' it won't go half way round.
He drill so much dey call him Cap'en.
An' he get so drefful tanned,
I 'spec he try and fool dem Yankees
For to tink he's contraband
De massa run ? etc.

De darkeys feel so lonesome, libing
In de log-house on de lawn,
Dey move dar tings to massa's parlour
For to keep it while he's gone.
Dar's wine an' cider in de kitchen
An' de darkeys dey'll hab some;
I s'pose dey'll all be confiscated
When de Linkum sojers come.
De massa run ? etc.

De oberseer he make us trouble
An' he dribe us round a spell,
We lock him up in de smokehouse cellar,
Wld de key t'rown down de well.
De whip is lost, de handcuffs broken
But de massa 'll hab his pay
He's ole enough, big enough, ought to known better
Dan to went and run away.
De massa run ? etc.

--- Line breaks <br> added ---
---Jeff (PA)---

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kingdom comung
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 08:15 PM

This is from an old song by Henry Clay Work. It appeared in "The Shilling Song Book No. 2, Boston, copyrighted 1862, p. 14. In original sheet music form, it appears in "Songs of Henry Clay Work (1832-1884)." "Kingdom Coming" was copyright 1861 and published. It had a chorus:

De massa run, ha! ha!
De darky stay, ho! ho!
It must be now de kingdom's comin',
In the year ob Jubilo.

I am sure that there is other information and lyrics in the DT and Forum, which I will check for.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kingdom comung
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 08:25 PM

Henry C. Work's song. Here's sheet music from the Levy Collection.

Title: Kingdom Coming! Song and Chorus. 11th Thousand.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: by Henry C. Work.
Publication: Chicago: Root & Cady, 95 Clark St., 1862.
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
Instrumentation: piano and voice
First Line: Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa, wid de muffstash on his face
First Line of Chorus: De massa run? ha, ha! Do darkey stay? ho, ho!
Advertisement: ads on back cover for Root & Cady stock
Plate Number: 192 4
Subject: Civil War--Union
Subject: Afro-Americans
Subject: Caricatures
Subject: Slavery
Subject: Freedmen
Call No.: Box: 088 Item: 120

Sheet music for guitar arrangement (c1861[?]; lyrics transcribed) is at "We'll Sing to Abe Our Song!": Sheet Music about Lincoln, Emancipation, and the Civil War from the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana (Library of Congress).

~Masato

Subject: Lyr Add: YEAR OF JUBILEE
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 08:38 PM

Kingdom Coming is in the DT. Also see thread 6770: Doodle

The song is discussed in Newman L. White, American Negro Folk Songs, 1928, pp. 170-171. The song probably arose from the singing of Negro Union soldiers. See T. W. Higginson, 1870, "Army Life in a Black Regiment."

YEAR OF JUBILEE

Niggers, has you seed ole Mosser;
Red mustache on his face,
A-gwine 'roun' sometime dis mawnin',
'Spectin' to leave de place?

Nigger hands all runnin' 'way;
Looks lak we mought git free!
It mus' be now de Kingdom Come
Sometime to-morrer night.

Yanks locked him in de smokehouse cellar,
De key's throwed in de well:
It sho' mus' be de Kingdom Come.
Go ring dat Nigger field-bell!

@Negro @slavery @freedom
From Thomas W Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes, new ed. 1990, pp. 50-51, Univ. Tennessee Press.
There are many other versions from the 1860s and later, some by white musicians as well as black. For some very recent similar songs, enter jubilee in the DT and Forum Search.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kingdom comung
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 08:45 PM

Lyrics & MIDI for "Kingdom Coming" is HERE. BABYLON IS FALLEN (1863; sequel to "Kingdom Coming") is in the DT; sheet music is at Levy (Click here).

~Masato

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kingdom comung
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 09:09 PM

Notes on Kingdom Coming

"George F. Root, ..., 'discovered' the composer of 'Kingdom Coming' and other nineteenth-century popular classics. In his autobiography Root tells of his first meeting with Henry Clay Work (1832-1884):

One day early in the war a quiet and rather solemn-looking young man, poorly clad, was sent up to my room from the store [Root & Cady] with a song for me to examine. I looked at it and then at him in astonishment. It was 'Kingdom Coming,'--elegant in manuscript, full of bright, good sense and comical situations in its 'darkey' dialect--the words fitting the melody almost as aptly and neatly as Gilbert fits Sullivan--the melody decidedly good and taking, and the whole exactly suited to the times.... He needed some musical help that I could give him, and we needed just such songs as he could write. The connection, which continued some years, proved very profitable both to him and to us....

"'Kingdom Coming' was introduced by Christy's Minstrels in Chicago with much promotional fanfare in April 1862; it was published the next month and quickly spread far beyond Chicago. The events pictured in the song, casually referred to by Root as 'comical situations,' are grim and bitterly satiric. Work was not unacquainted with the realities of slave life: his abolitionist father was an active participant in helping runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad and their home in Illinois was a 'station'; the father served a jail sentence for his activities. The great tune itself, perfectly fit for a jubilee and one of the most memorable of the era, creates a double edge to the satire. How far removed it all is from the gentle dreamworld of Stephen Foster's plantations with their slaves mourning the good master in the cold, cold ground." (Richard Jackson, Popular Songs of Nineteenth-Century America, Dover, 1976, p. 273)

~Masato

Subject: Lyr Add: KINGDOM COMING
From: masato sakurai
Date: 18 Jun 02 - 02:02 AM

The lyrics in the first edition ("gumboats", "cornfiscated" etc. are in the original):

KINGDOM COMING
Words and Music: Henry C. Work
Root & Cady, Chicago, 1862

Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa,
Wid de muffstash on his face,
Go long de road some time dis mornin',
Like he gwine to leab de place?
He seen a smoke, way up de ribber,
Whar de Linkum gumboats lay;
He took his hat, an' lef berry sudden,
An' I spec he's run away!

CHORUS:
De massa run? ha, ha! De darkey stay? ho, ho!
It mus' be now de kindom comin',
An' de year ob Jubilo!

He six foot one way, two foot tudder,
An' he weigh tree hundred pound,
His coat so big, he couldn't pay de tailor,
An' it won't go halfway round.
He drill so much dey call him Cap'an,
An' he get so drefful tann'd,
I spec he try an' fool dem Yankees
For to tink he's contraband.

CHORUS

De darkeys feel so lonesome libing
In de loghouse on de lawn,
Dey move dar tings to massa's parlor
For to keep it while he's gone.
Dar's wine an' cider in de kitchen,
An' de darkeys dey'll have some;
I spose dey'll all be cornfiscated
When de Linkum sojers come.

CHORUS

De oberseer he make us trouble,
An' he dribe us round a spell;
We lock him up in de smokehouse cellar,
Wid de key trown in de well.
De whip is lost, de han'cuff broken,
But de massa'll hab his pay;
He's ole enough, big enough, ought to known better
Dan to went an' run away.

CHORUS

~Masato

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kingdom comung
From: Rank
Date: 18 Jun 02 - 02:29 PM

Thanks for the information everybody. If I could get my Cakewalk midi thingy to actually play something I could listen to it, but the links to sheet music are very helpful.

Should of course have checked the DT first, but I just assumed it wouldn't be there and we all know what assuming does to you don't we?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kingdom comung
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 19 Jun 02 - 12:13 PM

J.E. Mainer recorded this on one of his Rural Rhythm lps with a rewrite of the words making it more politically correct for his era. Can't remember what volume and am not where I can check at the moment.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kingdom comung
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 Jun 02 - 08:37 AM

Old time music version (MIDI) (Click on "Year of Jubilo")

Morris tune version (ABC & score)

~Masato

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kingdom Coming
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 13 - 11:25 PM

Another song my daddy sang to me in the '40s--tho he didn't sing it in this heavy dialect! It has a joyful melody and we both enjoyed the notion of freedom replacing "old massa." Don't know where he learned it, but Arizona and Kansas were the places he grew up.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kingdom Coming
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 12 Sep 13 - 08:05 AM

Here is the ABC
X=1
M:2/4
L;1/4
K:D
C:Henry Clay Work 1862
"D"z2 z A| "D"DF FA| "D"Af f/e/ d/B/| "D"Ad dF| "A"E3 A| "D"DF FA| "D"Af f/e/ d
/B/|\
"A"Ad e3/2 e/| "D"d3 A| "Bm"B3/2 B/ Bd| "D"A3/2 B/A/ G/F/ G/| "D"Ad dF| "A"E3 A
|\
"D"DF FA| "D"Af/-f/ f/e/ d/B/| "A"Ad e3/2 e/| "D"d3 A| "Bm"B3/2 c/ d3/2 B/|\
"Bm"d3 B| "D"A3/2 B/ A3/2 F/| "D"A3 A| "D"DF FA| "D"Af f/e/ d/B/| "A"Ad e3/2 e/
|\
"D"d3 z|

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kingdom Coming
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 12 Sep 13 - 08:15 PM

A youtube search for either Kingdom Coming or Year of the Jubilo will give you dozens of renditions. Great tune.