[Music]
I am a poor wayfaring stranger
While trav'ling through this world of woe,
Yet there's no sickness, toil nor danger
In that bright world to which I go.
I'm going there to see my father,
I'm going there no more to roam;
I'm only going over Jordan,
I'm only going over home.
I know dark clouds will gather round me,
I know my way is rough and steep;
Yet beauteous fields lie just before me
Where God's redeem'd their vigils keep.
I'm going there to see my mother,
She said she'd meet me when I come;
I'm only going over Jordan,
I'm only going over home.
I'll soon be freed from every trial,
My body sleep in the church-yard;
I'll drop the cross of self-denial
And enter on my great reward.
I'm going there to see my class-mates,
Who've gone before me one by one;
I'm only going over Jordan,
I'm only going over home.
I want to wear a crown of glory,
When I get home on that good land;
I want to shout salvation's story,
In concert with the blood-wash'd band;
I'm going there to see my Savior,
To sing his praise forever more;
I'm only going over Jordan,
I'm only going over home.
This is a comparatively recent recording (around the beginning of the
present century) of an extremely widely sung folk-tune. It appears in
_Good Old Songs_ as a bare melody, no harmonic parts. I suggest, as an
explanation of the d-flat in the fifth measure from the end, the
intrusion of dorian influence. The earliest known recording among the
fasola folk was in the first edition of the _Sacred Harp_, 1844. The
negro adoptions and adaptations are reviewed WS 251ff.
The tune is quite evidently borrowed from secular environment. I list
here a number of secular songs whose tunes are variously related:
'Barbara Allen', Sharp, i., 194 and 195; 'In Old Virginny', Sharp,
ii., 232-234; 'Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies', Sharp, ii.,
128-136; 'Katie Morey', Sharp, ii., 120; 'Dear Companion', Sharp, ii.,
109; 'George Reilly', Sharp, ii., 26; 'Awake, Awake', Sharp, i.,
358-364, and Petrie, Nos. 1222 and 265.
A note on this song in the _Social Harp_ says that the compiler, John
G. McCurry, Hartwell, Georgia, "when eight years old, learned the air
of this tune from Mrs. Catherine Penn." That was therefore in the year
1829.
Text passages in the secular ballads which remind of those in the
fasola song are seen in 'In Old Virginny', where we read:
I am a man of constant sorrow,
I have seen troubles all my days.
I'll bid farewell to old Virginia,
The place where I was partly raised.
We see also in 'Awake, Awake', how the poor wayfaring stranger appears
as "your true love" who "is going away."
No. 41
ZION'S SOLDIER, SWP 118
Heptatonic aeolian, mode 4 a + b (I II 3 IV V 6 7).
[Music]
Christ is set on Zion's hill; He receiveth sinners still:
Who will serve this blessed King? Come, enlist, and help me sing.
This soldier sure will be Happy in eternity,
This soldier sure will be Happy in eternity.
I by faith enlisted am in the service of the Lamb;
Present pay I now receive, future happiness he'll give.
This soldier _etc._
Zion's King my Captain is, conquest I shall never miss;
Let the fiends of hell engage, fret and fume and roar in rage.
Let the world their forces join, with the fiends of hell combine;
Greater is my King than they, through him I shall win the day.
Wicked men I scorn to fear, though they persecute me here;
True, they may my body kill, but my King's on Zion's hill.
What a Captain I have got! Is not mine a happy lot?
Hear, ye worldlings, hear my song, this the language of my tongue.
When this life's short space is o'er, I shall live to die no more;
Therefore will I take the sword, fight for Jesus Christ, my Lord.
Come, ye worldlings, come enlist; 'tis the voice of Jesus Christ:
Whosoever will may come; Jesus Christ refuseth none.
Jesus is my Captain's name, now, as yesterday, the same;
In his name I notice give, all who come he will receive.
Be persuaded, take his pay, all your sins he'll wash away;
Now in Jesus' name believe; future happiness he'll give.
(_last chorus_)
Yes! in heaven you sure will be praising God eternally. (_repeat_)
For a related chorus text see 'O Ye Young and Gay and Proud' in this
collection. The tune, claimed by William Walker, is keyed in the
natural minor (aeolian) of _a_. I suggest the signature of one sharp,
bringing the tune into the dorian mode, as more natural.
No. 42
FEMALE CONVICT, SOH (1835) 160