John Brown's Body

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For the reggae musical group, see John Brown's Body (band).
For the epic poem, see John Brown's Body (poem)
Cover of an 1861 sheet music score for "John Brown's Song"
Cover of an 1861 sheet music score for "John Brown's Song"
Sheet music, including "the famous John Brown's song", 1862
Sheet music, including "the famous John Brown's song", 1862
"Say, Brothers" from Hymn and Tune Book of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Round Note Edition, Nashville, TN (1889, reprinted 1903).
"Say, Brothers" from Hymn and Tune Book of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Round Note Edition, Nashville, TN (1889, reprinted 1903).
Original publication of the text of the John Brown Song, according to George Kimball, "Origin of the John Brown Song", New England Magazine, new series 1 (1890):371-76
Original publication of the text of the John Brown Song, according to George Kimball, "Origin of the John Brown Song", New England Magazine, new series 1 (1890):371-76

"John Brown's Body" (originally known as "John Brown's Song") is a famous Union marching song of the American Civil War. The tune arose out of the folk hymn tradition of the American camp meeting movement of the 1800s. Numerous versions and variants of the words to "John Brown's Body" were created as marching songs by units of the Union Army soon after the abolitionist John Brown's famous raid and execution made him a martyr in their eyes.[citation needed]

Many verses to the John Brown Song were created and disseminated via informal oral transmission. These verses include expressions of veneration for the martyred John Brown, threats of retribution, and a hint of humor that came about because one of the first regiments to sing the words coincidentally had a soldier who shared the name of John Brown.[citation needed]

The "flavor of coarseness, possibly of irreverence"[1] led many of the era to feel uncomfortable with these first 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 "Battle Hymn of the Republic", which was written when a friend suggested, "Why do you not write some good words for that stirring tune?"[2]

Contents

[edit] History of the Tune

According to writer Irwin Silber (who has written a book about Civil War folksongs), the original lyrics were not about John Brown, the famed abolitionist, but a Scotsman of the same name who was a member of the 12th Massachusetts Regiment. An article by writer Mark Steyn maintains that the men of John Brown's unit had made up a song poking fun at him, and sang it widely.[citation needed]

The tune that eventually became associated with John Brown's Body and the Battle Hymn of the Republic was formed in the American camp meeting circuit of the early to mid 1800s. In that atmosphere, where hymns where taught and learned by rote and a spontaneous and improvisatory element was prized, both tunes and words changed and adapted in true folk music fashion.

Created in this atmosphere, the words and tune "Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us" was apparently well known by the mid 1850s.[3] Some researchers have claimed the tune's roots go back to a "Negro folk song"[4], an African-American wedding song from Georgia[5], or to a British sea chantey that originated as a Swedish drinking song.[6] Given the oral tradition in which the tune was created, 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.[7]

The hymn is often attributed to William Steffe, though Steffe's role was almost certainly transcriber of a commonly sung tune and text that had arisen through a folk tradition, rather than as composer.[8]

[edit] History of the Text of "John Brown's Body"

After "John Brown's Body" and its variants, including the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", became famous, numerous authors claimed to have taken part in the origin of the song. Because the text was created and spread in the fashion of folk-music, many different people undoubtedly did have a hand in creating or modifying different versions of the text.

George Kimball gives perhaps the most well-known account of the creation of "John Brown's Body", recounting in 1890 how he became a member of the 2nd Infantry Battalion of the Massachusetts militia:

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." And then some wag would add, in a solemn, drawling tone, as if it were his purpose to give particular emphasis to the fact that John Brown was really, actually dead: "Yes, yes, poor old John Brown is dead; his body lies mouldering in the grave."[9]

According to Kimball, these sayings became by-words among the soldiers and were eventually put to the tune of "Say, Brothers". These ideas went through various versions, finally becoming the well-known verses:

John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
His soul's marching on.

and

He's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord,
His soul's marching on.

Maine songwriter and Union soldier Thomas Brigham Bishop (?1835-1905) is credited by some to be the originator of the John Brown Song.[10] Bishop's version was first published by John Church of Cincinnati in 1861. Bishop, who commanded a company of black troops in the American Civil War, wrote the song about the abolitionist when he was hanged at Charles Town in 1859 and it caught on as a Union marching song. According to his friend and biographer John James MacIntyre, Bishop's account was that he based the song on an earlier hymn he had written for, or in mockery of, a pious brother-in-law, taking from this earlier song the "glory hallelujah" chorus, the phrase " to be a soldier in the army of the Lord", and the tune. This hymn then became popular at religious meetings in Maine.[11]

Once John Brown's Body became popular as a marching song, many versions of the John Brown lyrics were created [12]. For example, William Weston Patton wrote his influential version in October 1861 which was published in the Chicago Tribune, 16th December of that year. The "Song of the First of Arkansas" was written by Capt. Lindley Miller in 1864.[13] "The President’s Proclamation" was written by Edna Dean Proctor in 1863 on the occasion of the Emancipation Proclamation. Other versions include the "Marching song of the 4th Battalion of Rifles, 13th Reg., Massachusetts Volunteers" and the "Kriegslied der Division Blenker", written for the Blenker Division, a group of German soldiers who had participated in the European revolutions of 1848/49 and fought for the Union in the American Civil War. [14]

[edit] Other Related Texts

The tune was later also used for "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (written February 1862; this song was directly inspired by "John Brown's Body"), "Marching Song of the First Arkansas," "Solidarity Forever," and "The Battle Hymn of Cooperation."

Sailors are known to have adapted "John Brown's Body" into a sea shanty - specifically, into a "Capstan Shanty", used during anchor-raising.

The "John Brown" tune has proven popular for folk-created texts, with hundreds of knock-offs, parodies, and school-yard versions[15] created over the years. A version about a baby with a cold is often sung by school-age children. The "Baby" version includes sound effects and pantomime.[16]

[edit] Lyrics

The lyrics generally show an increase in complexity and syllable count as they move from simple, orally-transmitted camp meeting song, to an orally composed marching song, to more consciously literary versions.

The increasing syllable count led to an ever-increasing number of dotted rhythms in the melody to accommodate the increased number of syllables. The result is that the verse and chorus, which were musically identical in the "Say, Brothers", became quite distinct rhythmically in "John Brown's Body", and even more so in the more elaborate versions of the "John Brown Song" and in the "Battle Hymn of the Republic".

Say, Brothers

(1st verse)
Say, brothers, will you meet us (3x)
On Canaan's happy shore.
(Refrain)
Glory, glory, hallelujah (3x)
For ever, evermore!
(2nd verse)
By the grace of God we'll meet you (3x)
Where parting is no more.
(3rd verse)
Jesus lives and reigns forever (3x)
On Canaan's happy shore.

John Brown's Body

John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave; (3X)
His soul's marching on!
(Chorus)
Glory, halle—hallelujah! Glory, halle—hallelujah!
Glory, halle—hallelujah! his soul's marching on!
He's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord! (3X)
His soul's marching on!
(Chorus)
John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back! (3X)
His soul's marching on!
(Chorus)
His pet lambs will meet him on the way; (3X)
They go marching on!
(Chorus)
They will hang Jeff. Davis to a sour apple tree! (3X)
As they march along!
(Chorus)
Now, three rousing cheers for the Union; (3X)
As we are marching on!

(From the Library of Congress:[17])

The version by William Weston Patton:[18]:

Old John Brown’s body lies moldering in the grave,
While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save;
But tho he lost his life while struggling for the slave,
His soul is marching on.
John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true and brave,
And Kansas knows his valor when he fought her rights to save;
Now, tho the grass grows green above his grave,
His soul is marching on.
He captured Harper’s Ferry, with his nineteen men so few,
And frightened "Old Virginny" till she trembled thru and thru;
They hung him for a traitor, themselves the traitor crew,
But his soul is marching on.
John Brown was John the Baptist of the Christ we are to see,
Christ who of the bondmen shall the Liberator be,
And soon thruout the Sunny South the slaves shall all be free,
For his soul is marching on.
The conflict that he heralded he looks from heaven to view,
On the army of the Union with its flag red, white and blue.
And heaven shall ring with anthems o’er the deed they mean to do,
For his soul is marching on.
Ye soldiers of Freedom, then strike, while strike ye may,
The death blow of oppression in a better time and way,
For the dawn of old John Brown has brightened into day,
And his soul is marching on

[edit] Further reading

  • Scholes, Percy A. (1955). "John Brown's Body", The Oxford Companion of Music. Ninth edition. London: Oxford University Press.
  • Stutler, Boyd B. (1960). Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! The Story of "John Brown's Body" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Cincinnati: The C. J. Krehbiel Co.
  • Vowell, Sarah. (2005). "John Brown's Body," in The Rose and the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad. Ed. by Sean Wilentz and Greil Marcus. New York: W. W. Norton.

[edit] References

  1. ^ George Kimball, "Origin of the John Brown Song", New England Magazine, new series 1 (1890):374. (online via Cornell University)
  2. ^ George Kimball, "Origin of the John Brown Song", New England Magazine, new series 1 (1890):376. Kimball suggests that President Lincoln made this suggestion to Howe, though other sources do not agree on this point.
  3. ^ George Kimball, "Origin of the John Brown Song", New England Magazine, new series 1 (1890):371-76
  4. ^ C. A. Browne, The Story of Our National Ballads (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1960), p. 174
  5. ^ Music of the Civil War Era 2004, by Steven Cornelius, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0313320810 ,page 26
  6. ^ Boyd Stutler, "John Brown's Body", Civil War History 4 (1958): 260.
  7. ^ Annie J. Randall, "A Censorship of Forgetting: Origins and Origin Myths of 'Battle Hymn of the Republic'", in Music, Power, and Politics, edited by Annie J. Randall (Routledge, 2004) 16. (Google books)
  8. ^ Annie J. Randall, "A Censorship of Forgetting: Origins and Origin Myths of 'Battle Hymn of the Republic'", in Music, Power, and Politics, edited by Annie J. Randall, Routledge, 2004, p. 12, 15, 16.
  9. ^ George Kimball, "Origin of the John Brown Song", New England Magazine, new series 1 (1890):372
  10. ^ Music of the Civil War Era 2004, by Steven Cornelius, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0313320810, page 26
  11. ^ Time Magazine 1 July 1935 as archived at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770050,00.html?iid=chix-sphere, accessed 14, 17 March 2008
  12. ^ John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave
  13. ^ David Walls, "Marching Song of the First Arkansas Colored Regiment: A Contested Attribution," The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Winter 2007, 401-421.
  14. ^ Texts Sung to the Tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "John Brown's Body", arranged in approximate chronological order
  15. ^ Teacher Taunts
  16. ^ http://www.worldkids.net/entertainment/music/lyrics/kidsongs/jonbrown.htm
  17. ^ "We'll Sing to Abe Our Song": Sheet Music about Lincoln, Emancipation, and the Civil War, from the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana
  18. ^ John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave

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