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? 1896© Music by James M. Black Lyrics by
Catherine E. Purvis
Catherine E. Purvisi1 * ?? † ??
James Milton Blacki1 * Scotland (in the latter part of the
1800s) † ??
? Edward Hammond Boatner i2
* New Orleans, La November 13 1898
† New York City, NY June 16 1981
The Saints was original a funeral hymn in New Orleans, based on a spiritual song from
the 1800s. In 1896 the lyrics were added by poet Catherine E. Purvis.
(unknown source)
Some of the best-known songs emerge from a complicated cocoon. While their words
and melodies are so well known that the public feels as if they own them, their
actual creators remain a matter of conjecture.
Take that indelible piece, "When the Saints Go Marching In." Around the turn of
the last century, the tune began to be played by many New Orleans jazz bands. It
occupied a privileged place in the ritualized repertoire with which they
accompanied funerals. The melody arose when the mourners left the sorrow of the
ceremony and returned to the comforts to be found in the life at hand. It
soothed their loss and celebrated the continuity of the generations.
Where might they have learned it? Or who might have created it? Researchers
believe it has its origins in the Bahamas, but somehow migrated to the mainland.
Whatever the case, a song published in 1896 bears an uncanny similarity: "When
the Saints Are Marching In," music by James M. Black and words by Katherine E.
Purvis, published Curtis & Jennings in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its chorus spoke of
"Joyful songs of salvation thro' the sky shall ring." Another piece by Black,
"When the Roll is Called Up Yonder," published in 1893, bears some relationship
to the song we all know.
In the cauldron of creativity we simplify by the name of culture, the piece
appeared in other published permutations: "When the Saints March In for
Crowning" (1908), "When All The Saints Come Marching In" (1923), "When the
Saints Go Marching Home" (1927), and, finally, "When the Saints Go Marching In"
as part of Edward Boatner's hymn book Spirituals Triumphant - Old and New, in
1927. A female gospel quartet recorded a version in 1925, and several bluesmen,
including "Barbecue Bob" Hicks, gave their stamp to the tune during the late 1
920s.
Perhaps, however, the true trigger in the promotion of the song's longevity may
well have came from Louis Armstrong. He recorded it for Decca in 1938, and the
impact of his gravely voice and ebullient trumpet solo clinched the public's
conviction that here was a song meant for the ages. "When the Saints Go Marching
In" appears on something close to a 1,000 recordings, and has been played by
such music masters as the Beatles, Fats Domino, Lightnin' Hopkins, the Kingston
Trio, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and the Weavers. This year, it receives the
lasting accolade of Towering Song from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.i1
The melody probably comes from Edward Boatner, which the Song 1927 in Nashville
in its singing book of spiritual Triumphant - old and new one published. Falsely
it is gladly confounded James Milton Black attributed, which composed however
rather 1896 When the Saints are marching in. The confusion is increased still by
numerous similar titles as "When the Saints march in for crowning '" (1898),
"When all the Saints come marching in" (1923) or "When the Saints go marching
home" (1927).
The text of "When the Saints go marching in" ties in the long run at verbally
traditional spiritual the black population of the USA. It exists a multiplicity
of different versions, whose author cannot be usually determined reliably.
Against common acceptance anyhow none of comes of Catherine Purvis which wrote
rather the text to the When the Saints are marching in of acres already
mentioned. Independently of the version the text of the hope of the faithful
lends expression to belong on the day of the recent court to the chosen ones
which may draw into heaven. The lyrics of the verses refers usually to the
Apokalypse and reports for instance of the darkening of the sun or the trumpets
of the earth angel Gabriel. The Refrain reads against it "Oh, when the saints go
marching in, lord, how I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching
in". Every now and then here an influence ambrosian width unit of Te Deums
becomes from that 4. Century assumes, which contains a verse line Aeterna fac
cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari.
Until today develop always new text versions in all world languages, which is
facilitated in particular by the relatively simple metric of the melody and the
large portion of the Refrains of the complete text. Some versions, as for
instance of Haley, erase any religious purchase ("When that rhythm start to
go..."). In addition countless variations come in the instrumentation, so that
it is difficult to constitute a "canonical" version of the piece.i2
(Translated)
The song When the Saints Are Marching In…is NOT the traditional
When the Saints Go Marching In. Even though the titles differ by a
word, several authoritative music reference books list Purvis and Black as the
1896 authors of When the Saints Go Marching In. As a consequence, many
song collections in a variety of formats—book, record, tape and CD—wrongly
assign Katharine E. Purvis and James M. Black the credit for this American folk
favorite. In truth, the precise origins of When the Saints Go Marching In
is not known. At this point it is probably not possible to trace the original
source of this error, or to correct it from spreading. Longtime music professor
at Lycoming College, Mary Landon Russell confuses the two songs in her 1957
masters thesis at Penn State University. The earliest authoritative reference
book with the error appears to be The Great Song Thesaurus by Roger Lax
and Frederick Smith, published by Oxford University Press. On page 380 of the
1984 first edition, the authors wrongly attribute When the Saints Go
Marching In to Katharine E. Purvis and James M. Black in 1896.i3
The earliest incarnation of the hymn was as When the Saints are Marching
In (See i3), published in 1896 in
Cincinnati, Ohio, with music by James Milton Black and lyrics by Katharine
Purvis. Already very similar to the contemporary song, the latter is obviously a
derivative of it. Over the years, the song morphed to When the Saints March
In for Crowning (1908), When All the Saints Come Marching In (1923),
When the Saints Go Marching Home (1927), and finally When the
Saints Go Marching In published in Nashville, Tennessee in 1927 for
Edward Boatner´s hymn book Spirituals Triumphant - Old and New.
So many arrangements of the music and variations of the lyrics (see below)
have been produced over the years that it can not said that there is one
canonical version. In this it is become more like a folk song than a formally
composed work.i4
Legend
has it that "Saints" was a regular feature at prayer meetings and Sunday
services; one day, some of the churchfolk heard a jazz band playing it returning
from a funeral, and it was never sung again as a part of their church services.i5
Lyrics:
.
If you have supplementary information about
this song, please let us know.
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