Go Tell It On The Mountain UM 251

Welcome this is Parson Paul on the hymns. I am a retired United Methodist pastor with a great love of church music in general and the hymns in particular. I hope to help busy church professionals, church musicians and just regular people in the pew to have a great appreciation and understanding of the music of the church.

I believe the hymns speak into our lives as well today as in the day when they were first written which may have been hundreds of years ago. Please feel free to share this blog or podcast with others you think might enjoy and drop us a line with suggestions or any comments. Be sure and check out the links and notes I have placed at the end of this blog and in the show notes of the podcast for full videos today’s hymn selection and others I found interesting.

Today’s hymn is the spiritual “Go Tell it on the Mountain”.  The earliest recording, I could find is by the great Mahalia Jackson listen to this great singer in this  week’s selection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq5aEwtvdRI   Mahalia Jackson

Go Tell It On the Mountain is an African-American spiritual compiled by John Wesley Work Jr 1872-1925. Work grew up in Nashville the son of a choir director. His first love was music and studied at Fisk University and later returning to teach Latin and Greek. Work his wife Agnes Haynes Work and brother Frederick were major compliers of African-American folk music preserving hundreds of pieces.  

During slavery it was illegal to teach slaves to read or write in many states. The spiritual become the way their faith and spirituality were share and passed from plantation to plantation through oral tradition. Out of a time when most blacks seldom traveled more than a few miles from their birthplace. Work would take the Fisk Family Jubilee Singers to tour internationally. He took the choir to sing internationally singing for Queen Victoria in England and for President Chester A. Arthur at the White House.

The Spiritual gave voice to the pain and suffering in slavery, but also the hope of joy and happiness that heaven can bring. In the 1880’s Go Tell It On the Mountain became showpiece of the Choir. Work’s family continued the important work he began. His grandson John Wesley Work III would study at the Institute for Musical Arts which would become Julliard School of Music. He also earned degrees from Columbia and Harvard Universities. He would follow his grand-father to teach at Fisk, being awarded a Doctorate at Fisk and became President of the School, retiring in 1966.

No one knows the original author of this hymn, but as firstthings.com in an article by Jane Schroeder writes, “As an unknown, humble slave revealed his own prayers and faith, he had little knowledge that the inspiration he felt – probably the only thing of value he possessed – would touch millions with the news not only on the mountain, but “over the hills and everywhere.””

Many artists and choirs have recorded this hymn such as Mahalia Jackson, Dolly Parton, Aretha Franklin and the Mississippi Mass Choir. I close today with a recording of the Mississippi Mass Choir recorded in Jackson, MS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq5aEwtvdRI   Mahalia Jackson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Km2GHTzmt4 Mississippi Mass Choir in a recording from Jackson, MS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw6M4FoTV5s Simon and Garfunkle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo9UskUAaIk Aretha Franklin, at the National Christmas Tree Lighting in 1994

God bless you in your study and worship as you “Go Tell It On The Mountain” also.