On 19 Jun 2003 at 11:12, Andrew Stiller wrote: > >I'm having some difficulty with determining what the generally > >expected melody of the verse is for the spiritual, Deep River. I've > >been checking out MIDI and MP3 files using Google, and it seems there > >are 2 main variants plus a bunch of versions with only a bridge and > >no real verse. > >... does anyone have any actual background materials in the history > >of this spiritual? > > > >-- > >David W. Fenton > > I read an article several years ago (I'm afraid I forget in which > journal--Sonneck Society, perhaps?) that demonstrated that the hymn > is an early-20th-c. conscious modification of a 19th c. original that > was quite different in structure. None of the versions you've found, > therefore, can be considered to be particularly authentic or > original, and none has any particular primacy over any other.
I suspected that, from the source point of view. I was trying to come up with the version that people in general expect to hear, though. > I think if you do a search for "deep river" in one of the academic > databases, you should be able to come up with the article. When I'm next at NYU, I'll do that, thanks. I've decided I'm going to have my cake and eat it, too. I'm going to arrange both verse versions, as this makes the whole thing longer, giving me more time for variations on the chorus, which for my purposes is a plus. -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
