Two Sacred Harp-style pieces

Introduction

We’ve spent the past few weeks looking at Sacred Harp music, understanding some of the back-story, and watching the Awake My Soul PBS special on the subject. Today, I want to close out that session by taking a look at two pieces that have origins in the Sacred Harp. As with many such pieces, there are a lot of different ways to present them, and the message we get can depend on that presentation.

Saints Bound for Heaven

Saints Bound for Heaven is a piece that the choir will be doing in November, and we’ll take a look at the particular arrangement we’re using. First, let’s take a look at the lyrics:

Our bondage it shall end by and by, by and by.
Our bondage it shall end by and by.
From Egypt’s yoke set free,
Hail the glorious jubilee,
And to Canaan we’ll return by and by, by and by.
And to Canaan we’ll return by and by.

Our Deliv’rer He shall come by and by, by and by.
Our Deliv’rer He shall come by and by.
And our sorrows have and end,
With our three score years and ten,
And vast glory crowns the day by and by, by and by.
And vast glory crowns the day by and by.

And when to Jordan’s floods we are come, we are come.
And when to Jordan’s floods we are come.
Jehovah rules the tide,
And the waters He’ll divide.
And the ransom’d host shall shout we are come, we are come.
And the ransom’d host shall shout we are come

Then with all the happy throng we’ll rejoice, we’ll rejoice
And with all the happy throng we’ll rejoice.
Shouting Glory to our King,
Till the vaults of heaven ring.
And thro’ all eternity we’ll rejoice, we’ll rejoice.
And thro’ all eternity we’ll rejoice.

Shouting Glory to our King,
Till the vaults of heaven ring.
And thro’ all eternity we’ll rejoice, we’ll rejoice.
And thro’ all eternity we’ll rejoice.

This is #258 in William Walkers The Southern Harmony. A 4-line shape note version can be found on sacredharpbremen.org. I hadn’t noticed before, but part of the compactness of this style is printing the verses under each part. The basses are reading words under the soprano part for the first verse, as kind of the hardest reach. I’m guessing that this is part of why the first pass through each piece is done by singing the note names, rather than the hymn words.

Hymnary.org lists this piece as being original to William Walker and E.J. King in The Southern Harmony and that is the only hymnal listed where this is published.

The particular choral arrangement the choir is doing is by Alice Parker and Robert Shaw, two pretty big names in the whole choral anthem business. Some different presentations of the anthem (including a sample file on the JW Pepper site):

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxT6hbh0vZQ
• http://www.jwpepper.com/4806121.item#.UlrkFmRgaas
• http://www.jwpepper.com/audio/4806121.mp3
• https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/saints-bound-for-heaven/id6693234
• Saints Bound for Heaven, from In Sweetest Union John (United Sacred Harp Singers) https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/in-sweetest-union-join/id30648771

I Will Arise (Come, Ye Sinners)

I Will Arise and Go to Jesus is also known as Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Wretched. The lyrics are from Joseph Hart (1712–1768), written in 1759 (per hymnary.org). There are at least two tunes, one called Restoration and one called Come, Ye Sinners. Restoration is attributed to Southern Harmony, by William Walker. Come, Ye Sinners is by Jeremiah Ingalls (1764–1838). However, when I look at the index to The Sacred Harp, this is song 312b, and includes verses 5, 2, and 6 below. These verses are all 8.7.8.7 meter, and there are lots of melodies with that meter. Nettleton is the tune we’re most familiar with for Come, Thou Fount. And the lyrics for Come, Thou Fount are by Robert Robinson, written in England in 1758. Verses 5 and 6 below are actually verse 1 to the hymn as written by Robinson.

1. Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
   weak and wounded, sick and sore;
   Jesus ready stands to save you,
   full of pity, love and pow’r.

2. I will arise and go to Jesus;
   He will embrace me in his arms.
   In the arms of my dear Savior,
   Oh, there are ten thousand charms.

3. Come, ye thirsty, come and welcome,
   God’s free bounty glorify;
   True belief and true repentance,
   ev’ry grace that brings you nigh.

4. Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
   lost and ruined by the fall;
   If you tarry till you’re better,
   you will never come at all.

5. Come, Thou Fount of ev’ry blessing,
   Tune my heart to sing Thy grace.
   Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
   Call for songs of loudest praise.

6. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
   Sung by flaming tongues above;
   Praise the mount — I’m fixed upon it —
   Mount of Thy redeeming love!

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUutI0rgHr4
• http://www.hymnary.org/text/come_ye_sinners_poor_and_needy_weak_and
• Restoration, from Awake My Soul soundtrack

Looking forward

We won’t meet next week, given the altered schedule for Consecration Sunday. For the November 3rd session, I’d like to go through an interview with the Indigo Girls from On Being. Following that, my current thought is to spend some time with the book A Song to Sing, A Life to Live: Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice by Don and Emily Saliers (Emily being one of the two Indigo Girls and Don being a long-time church musician).