John Browns Baby
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With each passing verse, you add another word being replaced so that by the end, you have nothing but actions for those underlined words.
Here's how we suggest doing it, though you may feel free to adapt it for your use any way you see fit:. For most verses, we had a soloist, different with each verse, deliver the word, "Pyoo!
The tune and variants of the "Say, brothers" hymn text were popular in southern camp meetings, with both African-American and white worshipers, throughout the early s, spread predominantly through Methodist and Baptist camp meeting circuits. In , George Kimball wrote his account of how the 2nd Infantry Battalion of the Massachusetts militia, known as the "Tiger" Battalion, collectively worked out the lyrics to "John Brown's Body". The most famous of these is Julia Ward Howe 's " The Battle Hymn of the Republic ," which was written when a friend suggested, "Why do you not write some good words for that stirring tune? Retrieved from " https: By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
For our recording, we chose a mix of styles. The introduction is "Rockabye Baby" played cartoon-style by trombone and bass, with a simple celeste accompaniment.
Once we get into the tune proper, it is a mock military setting with muted brass and march-style percussion. Also on the recording, at the end of the song, we let one of our "babies" have a good cry. Add your own, if you like. And have fun with it - we did! Back to Volume 11, Number 5. The "flavor of coarseness, possibly of irreverence" [2] led many of the era to feel uncomfortable with the earliest "John Brown" lyrics. This in turn led to the creation of many variant versions of the text that aspired to a higher literary quality.
The most famous of these is Julia Ward Howe 's " The Battle Hymn of the Republic ," which was written when a friend suggested, "Why do you not write some good words for that stirring tune? Numerous informal versions and adaptations of the lyrics and music have been created from the mids down to the present, making "John Brown's Body" an example of a living folk music tradition. Specialists in nineteenth-century American religious history describe camp meeting music as the creative product of participants who, when seized by the spirit of a particular sermon or prayer, would take lines from a preacher's text as a point of departure for a short, simple melody.
The melody was either borrowed from a preexisting tune or made up on the spot.
John Brown's Body - Wikipedia
The line would be sung repeatedly, changing slightly each time, and shaped gradually into a stanza that could be learned easily by others and memorized quickly. Early versions of "Say, Brothers" included variants, developed as part of this call-and-response hymn singing tradition such as:.
Brothers will you meet me Oh! Sisters will you meet me Oh! Mourners will you meet me Oh! Sinners will you meet me Oh! Christians will you meet me. This initial line was repeated three times and finished with the tag "On Canaan's happy shore.
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The familiar "Glory, glory, hallelujah" chorus—a notable feature of both the "John Brown Song", the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", and many other texts that used this tune—developed out of the oral camp meeting tradition some time between and the s. Folk hymns like "Say, Brothers" "circulated and evolved chiefly through oral tradition rather than through print.
The tune and variants of the "Say, brothers" hymn text were popular in southern camp meetings, with both African-American and white worshipers, throughout the early s, spread predominantly through Methodist and Baptist camp meeting circuits. For example, in words and the tune were published in The Union Harp and Revival Chorister , selected and arranged by Charles Dunbar, and published in Cincinnati.
SCOUT SONGS lyrics : "John Brown's Baby"
The book contains the words and music of a song "My Brother Will You Meet Me", with the music but not the words of the " Glory Hallelujah " chorus; and the opening line "Say my brother will you meet me". In December a Brooklyn Sunday school published a hymn called "Brothers, Will You Meet Us" with the words and music of the "Glory Hallelujah" chorus, and the opening line "Say, brothers will you meet us".
John Brown's baby had a cold upon his chest. John Brown's baby had a cold Verse 2: Omit word "baby" throughout and do motion. Verse 3: Omit "baby" and. John Brown's baby had a cold upon his chest. John Brown's baby had a cold upon his chest. John Brown's baby had a cold upon his chest. And they rubbed it .
Some researchers have maintained that the tune's roots go back to a "Negro folk song", [14] an African-American wedding song from Georgia, [15] or to a British sea shanty that originated as a Swedish drinking song. Given that the tune was developed in an oral tradition, it is impossible to say for certain which of these influences may have played a specific role in the creation of this tune, but it is certain that numerous folk influences from different cultures such as these were prominent in the musical culture of the camp meeting, and that such influences were freely combined in the music-making that took place in the revival movement.
It has been suggested that "Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us", popular among Southern blacks, already had an anti-slavery sub-text, with its reference to "Canaan's happy shore" alluding to the idea of crossing the river to a happier place. At a flag-raising ceremony at Fort Warren , near Boston, on Sunday May 12, , the "John Brown" song was publicly played "perhaps for the first time". Newspapers reported troops singing the song as they marched in the streets of Boston on July 18, , and there were a "rash" of broadside printings of the song with substantially the same words as the undated "John Brown Song!
Marsh copyrighted on July 16, , also published by C. Hall see images displayed on this page. Other publishers also came out with versions of the "John Brown Song" and claimed copyright.
John Brown's Baby
In , George Kimball wrote his account of how the 2nd Infantry Battalion of the Massachusetts militia, known as the "Tiger" Battalion, collectively worked out the lyrics to "John Brown's Body". We had a jovial Scotchman in the battalion, named John Brown … and as he happened to bear the identical name of the old hero of Harper's Ferry, he became at once the butt of his comrades. If he made his appearance a few minutes late among the working squad, or was a little tardy in falling into the company line, he was sure to be greeted with such expressions as "Come, old fellow, you ought to be at it if you are going to help us free the slaves"; or, "This can't be John Brown—why, John Brown is dead.
The pictured page, , of the hymnal is the bottom half of the page. Dana is the author of Hymn No. According to Kimball, these sayings became by-words among the soldiers and, in a communal effort—similar in many ways to the spontaneous composition of camp meeting songs described above—were gradually put to the tune of "Say, Brothers":. Finally ditties composed of the most nonsensical, doggerel rhymes, setting for the fact that John Brown was dead and that his body was undergoing the process of dissolution, began to be sung to the music of the hymn above given.
These ditties underwent various ramifications, until eventually the lines were reached,—. These lines seemed to give general satisfaction, the idea that Brown's soul was "marching on" receiving recognition at once as having a germ of inspiration in it. They were sung over and over again with a great deal of gusto, the "Glory hallelujah" chorus being always added. Some leaders of the battalion, feeling the words were coarse and irreverent, tried to urge the adoption of more fitting lyrics, but to no avail. The lyrics were soon prepared for publication by members of the battalion, together with publisher C.
They selected and polished verses they felt appropriate, and may even have enlisted the services of a local poet to help polish and create verses. The official histories of the old First Artillery and of the 55th Artillery also record the Tiger Battalion's role in creating the John Brown Song, confirming the general thrust of Kimball's version with a few additional details.
In hymnals and folks song collections, the hymn tune for "Say, Brothers" is often attributed to William Steffe. Allen summarizes Steffe's own story of composing the tune:. Steffe finally told the whole story of the writing of the song.
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They used it as a song of welcome for the visiting Liberty Fire Company of Baltimore. Though Steffe may have played a role in creating the "Say, Bummers" version of the song, which seems to be a variant of and owe a debt to both "Say, Brothers" and "John Brown", Steffe couldn't have written the "Glory Hallelujah" tune or the "Say, Brothers" text, both of which had been circulating for decades before his birth.
John Brown's Baby
Maine songwriter, musician, band leader, and Union soldier Thomas Brigham Bishop — has also been credited as the originator of the John Brown Song, notably by promoter James MacIntyre in a book and interview. In the late s, during the song's height of popularity, a number of other authors claimed to have played a part in the origin of the song. Jerome, and others as the tune's composer. Randall wrote, "Multiple authors, most of them anonymous, borrowed the tune from "Say, Brothers", gave it new texts, and used it to hail Brown's terrorist war to abolish the centuries-old practice of slavery in America.
Some of those who claimed to have composed the tune may have had a hand in creating and publishing some of the perfectly legitimate variants or alternate texts that used the tune—but all certainly wanted a share of the fame that came with being known as the author of this very well known tune.