771. Wayfaring Stranger
'Wayfaring Stranger.' From Dr. W. A. Abrams' recording of the singing of Horton Barker from Chilhowie, Virginia, at Boone, Watauga county, September 14, 1941. Jackson's version of this song (No. 40 in SFSEA), together with some remarks about the latter, presents quite a problem. To begin with, the signature shows one sharp, but there is not even one f to accommodate this demand. The scale is simply the second mode of the pentatonic scale. The d-sharps of both cadences, functioning as leading tones, must be credited to more recent environmental influences to which the singer undoubtedly was exposed. How the d-flat in the score, mentioned by Dr. Jackson, could possibly be "an intrusion of Dorian influence" as he says, is difficult to understand. Aside from this, it would prove highly interesting to observe a singer, trained and experienced in modal music, wrestling with such unholy intervals. Worse than 'diabolus in musica.'
F-670
I'm just a poor way - far - ing stran - ger,
Wan-'dring through this world of woe
There's do sick - ness, pain, or sor - row
In that bright world to which I go.
I'm go - ing back to meet my fa - ther,
I'm go - ing back, no more to roam.
I'm go - mg o - ver — » —
justJor - dan, I'm a - going over home.
For melodic relationship cf: ***OSC 37; FSUSA 346; SOCG 48 (in ^!); **NASb 47; WNS 197-9; SHP 54; SFSEA 71 (note remarks). In
addition to this, there is an unexpected relationship involving a certain melodic idiom to be found in the Easter Sunday Sequence 'Victimae Paschalis Laudes,' a hymn and air by Wipo (1050).! The melodic equivalent of "Agnus redemit oves," as well as "Mors et vita duello," will be found to be identical with the phrase in our chorus: "to meet my father, I'm going." Furthermore, in a hymn 'O Thou Great God' dating from the Minnesingers of the fourteenth century, we find the same melodic progressions as in our chorus to the words
"I'm only going over Jordan," in measures 8-12 of the chorus of this hymn. 2
Scale: Mode II, plagal. Tonal Center: d(m). Structure: aa^ba^ (4,4,4,4) =
Reprisenbar.
1 Liber Usualis, Solesmes Edition, 1934, published by Desclee et Cie, Tournai,
Belgium.
2 Hans Joachim Moser, Geschichte der Deutschen Musik, Cotta, Berlin und Stuttgart, 1921-28, p. 77.