Music of the 1800’s Music

Battle Hymn of the Republic During the Civil War, Mrs. Julia Howe watched troops marching off to war singing "John Brown's Body," a song about a man who had been hanged in his efforts to free the slaves. Julia felt that the catchy camp meeting tune should have better words. In a desire to phrase her own feelings about the dreadful events of the time, she "scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper." The national hymn first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine in 1862, as a battle song for the republic In the years since the Civil War, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" has been used frequently as an American patriotic song. This song is usually heard at the national conventions of both the Republican Party and Democratic Party, and is often sung at Presidential inaugurations.

Battle Hymn of the Republic Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,  He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;  He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword His truth is marching on. I have seen Him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps;  they have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;  I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps His day is marching on. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;  He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;  O be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant my feet  Our God is marching on. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,  with a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;  as He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,  while God is marching on. Chorus: Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

Slave Spirituals A spiritual is a type of religious folksong that is most closely associated with the enslavement of African people in the American South. The songs proliferated in the last few decades of the eighteenth century leading up to the abolishment of legalized slavery in the 1860s. The African American spiritual (also called the Negro Spiritual) constitutes one of the largest and most significant forms of American folksong.

Slave Spirituals Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child Sometimes I feel like a motherless child Sometimes I feel like a motherless child Sometimes I feel like a motherless child Long way from my home Sometimes I wish I could fly Like a bird up in the sky Oh, sometimes I wish I could fly Fly like a bird up in the sky Sometimes I wish I could fly Like a bird up in the sky Closer to my home Motherless children have a hard time Motherless children have-a such a hard time Motherless children have such a really hard time A long way from home Sometimes I feel like freedom is near Sometimes I feel like freedom is here Sometimes I feel like freedom is so near But we're so far from home

Dixie- the music of the south Civil War Music: Dixie Dixie, or Dixie's Land as it was also known, was originally written for a minstrel show. Performers in minstrel shows often blacked their faces and pretended to be slaves. They would speak or sing in accents so thick they could hardly be understood. The lyrics here are not written in dialect (the way it would be spoken) but the grammar is true to the original. The catchy tune soon turned the song into one of the most popular patriotic songs in the Confederacy.

“DIXIE” The lyrics are: I wish I was in the land of cotton, Old times there are not forgotten; Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie land. In Dixie land where I was born in Early on one frosty mornin’ Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie land. Then I wish I was in Dixie, Horray! Horray! In Dixie land I’ll take my stand. To live and die in Dixie, Away, Away, Away down south in Dixie, Away, Away, Away down south in Dixie,