Going Home -- Antonin Dvorak, William Arms Fisher and Ken Bible

 

Homesick. That is a one-word description that best sums up how the music-writer and the original lyricist felt about “Going Home”. Antonin Dvorak was from Bohemia (See here the flag of Bohemia, Dvorak’s native land, known in the present-day as the Czech Republic) and had some feelings of melancholy, something that one of his students, William Arms Fisher, heard not only in the music, but also from the great composer some 30 years after its inception. Later, a lyricist named Ken Bible modified some of Fisher’s words to give a hopeful Christian edge to the song’s message. Dvorak was missing his birthplace, and evidently found some scenery while on his journey through America in the late 19^th Century that accentuated an expression of his feelings of displacement, and his longing to reunite with family. It’s a longing that most people feel at least once, or most likely many times, while on Earth.

 

Dvorak had come to the ‘New World’ in America from the ‘Old World’ of Europe in 1892 to become director of a music conservatory in New York, where he would stay until 1895, a time that left him feeling vacant at times, but also energized with what he discovered. In that light, his music for the 9^th (New World) Symphony would emerge in 1893 as one of his most famous and well-received works. Part of the music was something called ‘Largo’, upon which his student William Fisher would later base the words for ‘Going Home’, nearly 30 years later (in 1922). Fisher shared that Dvorak missed Bohemia, and that this bit of gloom mingled with his experience in seeing the American continent’s prairie land horizons. The recent experience of native Americans in this area, as well as of negros and the slavery through which they had come – both heartrending in their history – spoke to Dvorak as he pondered his own mood. This deep wistfulness was evidently something that the great composer did not keep to himself, and Fisher likewise expressed it in his poetry, including the title words of the song that he said materialized easily from the first few notes of the Largo that his mentor had composed. That Dvorak died in 1904, some two decades before Fisher’s words for this classic hymn would arise, speaks of how enduring and affecting was the music that the composer created. It must have had somewhat of the same effect on Ken Bible, who added words many decades later (by the year 2000) to emphasize the Christian’s hope of seeing that ‘Jesus is the door’, that ‘He is waiting…’ along with friends to greet us in the afterwhile (v.1). He’s the ‘Morning Star’, the ‘Light’(v.2), and the ‘Smile’ (v.1) at the end of this life’s journey, according to Ken. It is comforting for grieving people, in the moments when they most likely hear this tune and its words sung.

 

The New World Symphony arrived on the Moon in 1969, via the astronaut Neil Armstrong (see Wikipedia article link below). What Armstrong wanted to emphasize was the novelty of the experience, as he planted the first human footsteps on the Earth’s planetary satellite. But what he found was a dust-like surface, barren of any life – like friends or family -- and therefore quite different from what he or any other human would consider a place like home. It certainly wasn’t the American prairie, or a Bohemian scene that would have resonated with Dvorak. What Dvorak, Fisher, and Bible have given us, instead, are music and words that evoke images of a place filled with good, with peace, and with people with whom to share it. He knows what we need in that moment of mortal transition, and He provides a serenity that comes from His nature exclusively. Find rest and reassurance in a reality that goes on forever – that’s what the tune and its words communicate. It really defies written description. Let’s just go with the auditory sensation, and that pinprick in the soul’s deepest part that Dvorak, Fisher, and Bible have made.            

 

See here for the song story: Story of Going Home

 

See here for background of the music and its composer: Wikipedia_Dvorak_9thSymphony

 

See site here for one author who wrote some alternate words for the song: KenBible.com | Nurturing Your Creativity & Your Life in Christ, and  LNWHymns.com (see About the Author on site)

 

See here for information on the song: San Francisco Symphony - DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Opus 95, From the New World Antonín Leopold Dvořák was born at

 

Check out this video for a very beautiful rendition of the song: Bing Videos

 

See here for information on the flag of Bohemia: File:Flag of Bohemia.svg - Wikimedia Commons. The following statement is associated with the image: I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so:
I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Go Tell It On the Mountain -- John Wesley Work, Jr.

This song’s familiar refrain must have been in his ears for a number of years, before he decided to add some verses to complete the Christmas-time theme. John Wesley Work, Jr. was probably in or near his Nashville, Tennessee home, perhaps with his wife Agnes and his brother Frederick in close proximity, when he penned the words with the refrain’s title theme “Go Tell It On the Mountain” as a song that would be published by 1907. He also must have had in mind a group with whom worked at the university  where he taught when the words came to John, because they could help spread the sound of this song, an objective that seemed to fit perfectly with the song’s message. Who had invented the original words of this old spiritual ‘Go Tell It…’ is a mystery that will await us in another time.

Work may also have been near or at Fisk University in Nashville when he contemplated penning the words to ‘Go Tell It…’ in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Fisk was where he spent a great deal of time, after all, as a student of Latin and history and subsequently as a professor of  the same subjects (other sources alternately indicate he taught Greek). He also directed the Fisk Jubilee Singers and toured with them annually, a forum that gave his musical creations voice. In a similar vein, John also apparently directed a church chorus. John and Frederick and Agnes, as well as others the Works encountered, made it their mission to collect and keep alive the negro spiritual music that they’d heard for decades in the Appalachian region, such that the Work brothers eventually published two collections in 1901 and 1907, the second of which included ‘Go Tell It…’. The verses that John added to the well-known chorus expanded on the thoughts that the anonymous originator had crafted, relating the Christmas story’s scenes from the perspective of the shepherds. These shepherds saw, heard, and then visited the God-inspired events in the fields and at His birthplace, Work reminds us. John and Agnes may have had at least some of their six children by the time, perhaps during one of their family’s Christmas celebrations, that John decided to complement the negro spiritual he’d heard for so long with his three verses. Were his wife and children some of the first to hear this Christmas poetry? It’s likely that the church chorus, which included some of the Fisk singers, also had ears for John’s invention. The song quite plausibly made its way into the hills and valleys of the region as the group conducted one of its annual singing trips before it was actually in print.  

‘Go Tell It On the Mountain’ was something that John must have heard or said himself thousands of times, perhaps on occasion pondering its creator and his or her story. John and his family were at least one generation removed from the one who actually first sang the original words, someone who might have been enslaved, yet found a reason to shout joyfully. Like many of the spirituals of the period, which emerged from people whom logic might say should be complaining, ‘Go Tell It…’ refocuses one’s life upon the miraculous instead. Is life unfair, even miserable? That’s what a slave might have more logically vocalized. Perhaps John had re-discovered that logic has nothing to do with Him and His appearance.    

   

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; and Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990.

See brief biography on the composer here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Work_Jr.

And here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/o/r/work_jwj.htm

Also see this link, showing all three original verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/g/o/t/gotitotm.htm

A brief history of the song is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Tell_It_on_the_Mountain_(song)

I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger – Anonymous

Does death frighten the mortal? Whoever wrote the American folk hymn “I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger” might have answered ‘no’, but not without some hesitation. A plaintive tone in the music this anonymous songwriter paired with the words he wrote suggest he did not look ahead to his reward without some sense of discomfort. Like the vagabond tramp (see the Russel-Morgan 1899 picture here), I can acknowledge that my terrestrial existence has valleys, but that’s not where I’ll abide. My ultimate home is not in a pit. Can you cry out, yet rejoice at the same time? An impossibility, you might say skeptically, but this wayfarer discovered and hoped that this apparent contradiction was in fact true. Did he maybe have a near-death experience that permitted a glimpse of the other side, or had he heard the deathbed words of others (like Stephen, Acts 7:55-56) who confidently drew near their crossover? Whatever the case, this traveler says my expiration’s certainty will have a poignant, yet not a morbid, quality.     

Life here is often distressing, but folk music like what the poor wayfaring stranger sings tell me that it won’t always be that way. It’s written in a minor key, but its impact has been anything but minor. Originating in perhaps the early 19^th Century, “…Poor Wayfaring Stranger” has been one of the more popular folk songs ever written (it was voted into the top 100 western songs by the Western Writers of America in 2010), and has been recorded by numerous artists. What makes it so well-liked? The author included such downbeat phrases as ‘world of woe’ (v.1), ‘dark clouds’ and ‘rough and steep’ paths (v.2), and ‘trial’ (v.3), yet he did not end his verses with those words. Instead, he concludes each of his three verses on upbeat notes – a ‘bright world’ (v.1) that is his destination. Nevertheless, who’s ever lived that hasn’t had at least a few low spots? The words of this traveler resonate an authentic message, not rose-colored images that fade with time. We earth-dwellers have seen too many folks pass on to accept that death will be something less than intimidating, were it not for what we can look beyond to give us energy for the finish-line push. This traveler had evidently already lived a number of years, perhaps most of his life in what some might describe as a ‘downward slide’. But, that trend did not discourage him; was that because he was closer to the end by the time he wrote this, and could see the mountaintop view approaching? He doesn’t yearn for better days before his demise. Instead, the lift he expects will come emerges only after hurdling the biggest hump of all – death. This prospect does not overwhelm him, we can surmise by noticing one word he repeats in the refrain. ‘Only’, he says twice -- ‘Only going over Jordan, only going over [toward] home’. Don’t be overpowered by death’s clench. Look not in its face, but into the face of your ‘Father’ (v.1), your ‘mother’ (v.2), and a Savior (v.3) who are standing on the other side, waving at and urging you forward.

Does the wayfarer’s approach to death help? Is it really an ‘only’ affair for you or me? Like that Byrds’ song, there is a time for everything, ‘to be born’ and ‘to die’ (Ecclesiastes 3:2). The wayfarer is trying to let me, one who is dying, down easy. Other authors describe it as sleep (Paul, 1 Cor. 15:6; 1 Thess. 4:13), or say we’re destined for this ‘appointment’ (Hebrews 9:27). You probably wear a watch routinely, if you care about being on time for that dentist or doctor’s appointment. No big deal, right? But, unlike my scheduled appointments here, I don’t think I’ll be able to skip my appointment up above (Psalm 75:2).               

See this link for all the verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/a/m/a/iamapoor.htm

See this link for information on the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wayfaring_Stranger_(song)

See this link for discussion of this genre of music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_folk_music