- Date: before 1900
- Composer:
Christmas Traditional
Review
The original author(s) of this inspiring spiritual about the birth of Jesus, popularized through the arrangements of African-American composer John W. Work III, remains in the shadows of history.The chorus opens with an arching line that descends "Go, tell it on the mountain," and then ascends "Over the hills and ev'rywhere." This is sung to a skipping and syncopated melody that has many different endings on the word "ev'rywhere" according to individual taste: rolling downward with two sighs towards the tonic, climbing in even quarters (III, V, VI, V), etc.. The second line has the same shape: "Go, tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ was born."
The verses are sung on mostly even beats with no syncopation. The notes arpeggiate a sixth chord "While shepherds kept their watching...," and then dip low with a stepwise little arch "O'er silent flocks by night...." Then the first sixth chord arch is repeated "Behold throughout the heavens..., and then a descent to a dominant seventh turn-around harmony "There shone a holy light...."
Other traditional verse are:
2. The shepherds feared and trembled
When lo! above the earth
Rang out the angel chorus
That hailed our Savior's birth.
3. Down in a lonely manager
The humble Christ was born,
And God sent us salvation
That blessed Christmas morn.
4. When I was a seeker,
I sought both night and day.
I asked the Lord to help me
And he showed me the way.
5. He made me a watchman,
Upon a city wall.
And if I am a Christian,
I am the least of all.
There are relatively few spirituals devoted to Christmas -- some others are "There's a Star in the East," "See the Little Baby, Born in the Manger," "Mary Had A Baby," "Rise Up Shepherd and Follow," and "Glory, Hallelujah to the New Born King." James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamund Johnson, who, in the 1920s, published two collections of spirituals, noted that spirituals more often speak of a powerful "Massa Jesus" and "King Jesus" rather than a humble child. They also reported that even up to the 1920s that Christmas was a secular holiday in the South with lots of drinking, dancing, visiting, and even gun shooting and fireworks. Back in plantation days, slaves were allowed more freedom of mobility on that day. After the Civil War, with Emancipation declared, the holiday took on a more religious tone, and Jesus was considered in a more subtle light, such as one finds in James Baldwin's first novel titled after the spiritual, his semi-autobiographical work based on his experiences as a child preacher in a Harlem Pentecostal storefront church. ~ "Blue" Gene Tyranny, All Music Guide
Albums with Complete Performances of the Work
Albums with Excerpt Performances of the Work
| Title | Date |
| Jessye Norman at Notre Dame | 1991 |
