[Music]
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
The poem is by Newton. The tune's source is unknown to the southern
compilers. It goes also under the names 'Symphony', 'Solon', and
'Redemption'. Found also, WP 27, GCM 105, OSH 45, HH 104, SOC 190, TZ
90, VH 19, _Church Harmony_ 91. A close relative of the tune is
'Primrose' in this collection. Further stanzas of the text are given
under 'Melody'.
I recorded this tune also as it was sung by F. Fagan Thompson of
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, February, 1936. I
reproduce here his version, one in which the tune is slowed and many
graces are introduced, as an excellent illustration of the widespread
southern folk-manner in the singing of hymns of this sort.
_very slow_
[Music]
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found,
Was blind but now I see.
No. 136
SPIRITUAL SAILOR, SOH 41