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This powerful Sacred Harp hymn always sends a chill up my spine. I learned it from a 1956 record by Jean Ritchie and Paul Clayton, American Folk Tales and Songs. Amazingly, after posting a video of my performance of the song (at the Old Brewery in Cromarty, Scotland, in February 2008) on YouTube, I received a comment from Jean Ritchie herself, congratulating me on my “lovely communication of the song” and asking me where I’d got the lyrics, as they were unfamiliar to her.

Having been listening to her albums since my earliest childhood, I felt rather as I imagine a painter might feel who’d received out of the blue a message from Leonardo da Vinci. Once I’d got over the initial shock, I wrote back and told Jean that I thought I’d got the lyrics from her recording of the song. I received an email back from her in which she wrote:

Sarah, don’t worry about your words being a bit different than mine – I believe that almost all singers do this unconsciously – substitute words over the years – sometimes forgetting a word or a phrase and filling in on the spot ... or just choosing a special word for a special occasion ... in short – making their own versions of the old song. That’s one of the ways in which “variants” happen. Here’s what I usually sing:

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul
What wondrous love is this, O my soul?
What wondrous love is this, that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul?

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down (2)
When I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul, for my soul (2)

Ye wing-ed seraphs fly – bear the news, bear the news (2)
Ye wing-ed seraphs like comets in the sky
Fill vast eternity with the news, with the news (2)

To God and to the Lamb I will sing, I will sing (2)
To God and to the Lamb who is the great I AM
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing (2)

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on (2)
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be
Throughout eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on (2)

All the best, Jean Ritchie

I remained thoroughly puzzled, wondering where I’d got “my” lyrics, for the next three months ... at which point I finally managed to unearth the record from which I’d learned the song. Having verified that Jean did indeed sing the lyrics I’d learned, I wrote back to her with that information and received this reply:

Sarah – Just ran across your letter again, and in re-reading it, remembered that Dick Chase was also on the album – is that right? If so, he more than likely had me sing the words HE preferred, as he was like that!!! Many, many folks would rather sing the “peace” words instead of the “curse” words, in the first verse, but I learnt the “curse” words originally....

Bless you, and may your life be a long and happy one,

Jean

I’ve since found the “perfect peace” verse given in a transcription of the song as sung by one Horton Barker (1889-1973). It’s also interesting that where Jean Ritchie sings “beneath God’s righteous frown”, Mr. Barker sings “beneath God’s righteous ground”.

On the superb Mudcat traditional music website (www.mudcat.org), contributor Masato Sakurai writes that “according to The Hymnal 1982 Companion, vol. IIIB (1994, no. 439), ‘This anonymous text appeared in print at least as early as the second enlarged edition of A General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs Now in Use. By the Rev. Stith Mead, preacher of the Gospel, M.E.C. [Methodist Episcopal Church] ... Published by permission of the Virginia Conference ... (Lynchburg, VA, 1811).’”

In Mead’s book, according to the anonymous Mudcat contributor who goes by the pseudonym Burke, the lyrics begin:

What wond’rous love is this,
O, my soul!
That caus’d the Lord of Bliss
To send this precious peace,
To my soul!

It’s when performing ‘Wondrous Love’ in Scotland that I’ve found audiences most ready to join in, and this is no coincidence. There’s a strong connection between the Gaelic psalm singing tradition, as practised by members of the Free Church of Scotland, and the American Sacred Harp tradition.

As Alan Lomax writes in his liner notes to White Spirituals From The Sacred Harp:

This hymn is a member of the “Captain Kidd” family, so called because the ballad of “Captain Kidd” is set to one form of the tune. The “Captain Kidd” type has for several centuries been responsible for a very large number of beautiful songs, including “The Wars of Germany,” “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye,” “Sam Hall,” and “Sugar Babe.”

Lomax gives a version of ‘Captain Kidd’ in Folk Songs Of North America, and in Washington Irving’s Tales Of A Traveller (1824), an “iron-faced Cape Cod whaler” makes reference to Captain Kidd and adds “There’s a fine old song about him, all to the tune of: ‘My name is Robert Kidd, / As I sailed, as I sailed.’”

However, as Malcolm Douglas and the late Bruce Olson point out in the wonderfully extensive discussion about ‘Captain Kidd’ and its origins, again on the Mudcat site, there’s a whole family of even older songs that share this structure. Douglas cites Bertrand Bronson’s essay ‘Samuel Hall’s Family Tree’ (California Folklore Quarterly I, 1, 1942), reprinted in The Ballad As Song (University of California, 1969) as quoting a reference in The Complaynt of Scotland (c.1549) to a song beginning “My lufe is lyand seik, send hym ioy, send him ioy”.

The findings of Douglas and others are nicely summarised, with accompanying MP3 files, in a fascinating site compiled by Oregon-based graphic designer David Kidd (www.davidkidd.net). Among the related songs assembled there is a Christmas carol given in Thomas Ravencroft’s Melismata (1611), which includes these verses among others:

Remember Adams fall
O thou man, O thou man,
Remember Adams fall
from heaven to hell:
Remember Adams fall
How we were condemned all
In hell perpetuall
therefor to dwell.

Remember Gods goodnesse
O thou man, O thou man,
Remember Gods goodnesse
And his promise made.
Remember Gods goodnesse
How he sent his sonne doubtless
Our sinnes for to redresse,
be not afraid.

Give thanks to God alway,
O thou man, O thou man,
Give thanks to God alway
With heart most joyfully
Give thanks to God alway,
For this our happy day,
Let all men sing and say
holy, holy.

When I wrote to Jean Ritchie to relate all of the above, she reminded me that the penultimate song on her CD Kentucky Christmas Old and New is ‘Remember, O Thou Man’. And thus we come full circle!

lyrics

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul
What wondrous love is this, O my soul
What wondrous love is this, that caused the Lord of bliss
To send such perfect peace to my soul, to my soul
To send such perfect peace to my soul

To God and to the Lamb I will sing (repeat as before)
To God and to the Lamb who is the great I am
And Christ the son of man, I will sing (repeat as before)

When we’re from sorrow free, we’ll sing on (repeat as before)
When we’re from sorrow free, we’ll rise and joyous be
And through eternity we’ll sing on (repeat as before)

credits

from I Won​’​t Go Home ’Til Morning, released October 28, 2008
Trad arr. Jean Ritchie
Sarah – vocals
Liam Bradley – vocals

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Sarah McQuaid Penzance, UK

“One of the most instantly recognisable voices in current music … Shades of Joni Mitchell in a jam with Karen Carpenter and Lana Del Rey.” —Neil March, Trust The Doc

“Captivating, unorthodox songwriting … layered satin vocals ... enthralling, harrowing arrangements … a gateway into a true innovator’s soul.” —PopMatters

See sarahmcquaid.com/about for more info.
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