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Collection American Choral Music

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From "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen" to "Now Is Christ Risen from the Dead" (2 works)

"Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen" by Harry Thacker Burleigh
1917
sheet music
Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen, 1917. Harry Thacker Burleigh, 1866-1949. Music Division, Library of Congress. Call number: M1671.N

Following the success of Deep River in 1917, Burleigh arranged and published nearly a dozen more settings of African-American spirituals in the same year, including Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen. Burleigh's simpler arrangement of the spiritual for unison chorus had previously appeared in Afro-American Folksongs (1914), edited by Henry E. Krehbiel. G. Ricordi & Co., New York published versions for solo voice, men's chorus, and women's chorus in 1917. A version for mixed chorus was published in 1924.

The SSA version of the spiritual was arranged by Nathaniel Clifford Page (1866-1956) and published simultaneously with the version for solo voice. Burleigh alternates quietly intense refrains with declamatory forte verses. Page cleverly moves the melody between the top two voices and gives the alto a bit of contrapuntal interest at the beginning each verse. Burleigh's startling augmented harmony on the word "seen" is replaced with a comforting F-major chord when the lyric is repeated in the second and final refrain.

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"Now Is Christ Risen from the Dead" by Harvey Bartlett Gaul
1905
sheet music
Now Is Christ Risen from the Dead, 1905. Harvey Bartlett Gaul, 1881-1945. Music Division, Library of Congress. Call number: M2076.G

Now Is Christ Risen from the Dead is an Easter anthem for soprano solo, SATB mixed chorus, and organ, published in 1905 by William A. Pond & Co., New York. The text is taken from I Corinthians 15:55–57: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

The anthem opens with a recitative-like introduction in C-major, set for soprano solo. The key modulates to A-major and a rousing 3/4 meter, as the full choir enters in declamatory octaves, "O death, where is thy sting." That music returns before a meter change to common time, Maestoso. Gaul sets "Christ being rais'd, die thee no more," to a steadily rising line in the voices and large ff chords in the organ. A con moto "Alleluia" concludes the work with a rousing return to triple meter.

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