![]() Of course, it must be added that to these early singers – slaves as they were – practically the river may have been for many the last and most formidable barrier to freedom. In a bold stroke it thinks of life in terms of a river. is perhaps the most universal in insight, and certainly the most intellectual of all the spirituals. More recently, however, African American theologian and civil rights activist Howard Thurman (1899-1981) found the imagery of this spiritual particularly powerful: Du Bois (1868-1963) and James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) in the book The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and in the poem “O Black and Unknown Bards” (1908), respectively. Given the popularity of the “Deep River” as cited in musical and literary works later in the twentieth century, it is an enigma that two of the most prominent African American authors of the early twentieth century, both of whom allude to several spirituals in their literary works, do not include it-W.E.B. While the Fisk version ambiguously moves between the major and relative minor keys, later arrangements are decidedly in a major tonality. Rather that the slower melancholy arrangements of the earlier twentieth century, the Fisk version is composed in a steady militant style. Another difference from other spirituals was the presence of dynamic markings indicating an alternation between forte and pianissimo on the repeated phrase, “Lord, I want to cross over in to campground.” As Shirley notes, “the obsessive repetition of a single short text to varying music within a narrow range, is extremely unusual. Rather than a four-part arrangement as in Songs of Zion, also as performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the version, as published by Marsh, is as an unaccompanied melody. Musically, there are many differences in this early version from the way we know the spiritual now. The stanzas suggest an eschatological hope for “peace,” a relationship with Jesus, and the freedom to “walk all about.” Congregational versions found in hymnals usually include only the shortened refrain and the first stanza. ![]() Oh, when I get to heav’n, I walk all about, ![]() I’ll go into heaven, and take my seat, Cast my crown at Jesus’ feet. Lord, I want to cross over in to campground. Oh, don’t you want to go to that Gospel-feast, Marsh’s version not only records an extended refrain that repeats the final phrase three times, “I want to cross over in to campground,” but also provides three stanzas: Only the refrain appears in Songs of Zion in a straightforward four-part arrangement by the collection’s co-editor J. 196-197.įisk Jubilee Singers (1876), frontispiece from J.B.T. The revised edition available to this author published in 1881 listed the spiritual as No. Through their efforts, funds were raised that saved Fisk University from closing and brought spirituals into the mainstream of white culture, “codifying a performance style and canon whose influence is still evident in the 21 st century” (Graham, n.p.).The first print version of “Deep River” and, for that matter, the first mention of this spiritual is found in The Story of the Jubilee Singers: With Their Songs by J. The singers were the celebrated group of students that toured northern United States, England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Switzerland, and Germany beginning in 1872, singing songs of the day, most notably spirituals. The Fisk Jubilee Singers included this song in their repertoire. By early in the twentieth century, however, publications of this spiritual significantly changed from its earlier form (Shirley, 1997, p. Though it may seem as if we have always known this spiritual, it was not until the second decade of the twentieth century that it came into American consciousness more broadly. Spirituals scholar Eileen Guenther provides a list of fourteen spirituals that mention the Jordan River (Guenther, 2016, p. For example, “Role, Jordan, Roll” was the initial entry in the first major collection of spirituals published after the Civil War, Slave Songs of the United States (1867). The reference to “Jordan” is long associated with numerous spirituals. For enslaved Africans, deliverance could be freedom from bondage in both this life and the next. ![]() The River Jordan is a persistent theme in Genesis and Numbers, both as a geographic location and as a boundary beyond which deliverance was possible. Several biblical passages may undergird this spiritual Joshua 3:17 is a good example: “And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan” (KJV). This spiritual is one of the most beloved. Deep river, I want to cross over into campground. “Deep River” African American Spiritual Songs of Zion, 115ĭeep river, my home is over Jordan.
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