Both text and tune were first published in Folk Songs of the American Negro (1907), compiled by brothers Frederick Work and John W. Work, Jr. (PHH 476). This music is an example of the slow, sustained, long-phrased tune found in a number of African American spirituals. In the manner of many such spirituals, this is a call-and-response song, in which a soloist (or choir in unison) sings the stanzas (first two lines) and everyone responds by singing the chorus (last two lines) in four-part harmony. The soloist's lines could be sung rather freely, and the rest in more regular rhythm, but not fast. This music is intended to be reverent, with little, if any, accompaniment (perhaps piano).
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1988
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