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"Weepin' Mary" by Harry Thacker Burleigh

1917

Burleigh's brief setting of Weepin' Mary was published in 1917 in versions for solo voice and women's chorus by G. Ricordi & Co., New York. The women's chorus version was arranged by Nathaniel Clifford Page (1866-1956). Only thirty-one measures in length, the setting is a quiet, introspective piece in AAB form. The text is a commentary on a biblical passage: "But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher" (John 20:11).

Burleigh's setting is austere in its unvaried, quarter-note/half-note rhythm. His harmonic inventiveness is, therefore, all the more telling against such a simple backdrop. After setting the first phrase in diatonic triads in F minor, he repeats that phrase with subtle chromaticisms and one bold progression on "Call upon your Jesus, an' He'll draw near." On the word "Jesus," Burleigh moves from an F-minor chord directly to a G-flat-augmented chord to create a powerful, expressive dissonance.

Related Resources

• Weepin' Mary : chorus women's voices : Negro spiritual

"While Shepherds Watched (1889)" by George Whitefield Chadwick

1889

Chadwick labels While Shepherds Watched (1889) a Christmas carol. It consists of three verses set strophically in a homophonic hymn-like style. The text derives from Nahum Tate's Psalter (1702). The vocal part writing is well-crafted in its simplicity, creating subtle dissonances over a bass pedal tone. Such musical craft pervades Chadwick's output in both lengthy and shorter genres.

Chadwick railed against the unschooled output of popular songwriters flooding the market to the exclusion of what he called "true music." In his 1876 paper on popular music reform, he complained about lack of originality in the popular music of the day. "Those who furnish the popular music have not paid, either in money or in mental discipline, the price of true and first-class musicians. . . . We want to get money. We want to get rich. Perfectly laudable desire, but have we any right to forget in our eagerness that we work for art first--not money."

Related Resources

• While shepherds watched : Christmas carol

"Whoop Her Up!" by Will Marion Cook

1910

Will Cook's reputation as a leading songwriter for black musical theater led to the performance of many of his works by singers such as Irene Bently, Fannie Brice, and Marie Cahill in stage productions by white performers. Whoop 'er Up! (With a Whoop, La! La!) was sung by Cahill in two separate musicals, The Boys and Betty (1908) and Judy Forgot (1910).

With lyrics by Andrew B. Sterling, Whoop 'er Up! is a rousing waltz about a college student and a less-than-innocent young woman he meets on the train to New York. The musical setting incorporates frequent use of the raised fourth at the beginning of each phrase of the verse. The chorus includes both accents and a sforzando for comic effect on "with a whoop."

The piece was published in 1910 by Harry Von Tilzer, New York. The present edition, copyrighted by Cook, alters the original "Whoop 'er up" to "Whoop her up" in both the title and the lyrics. The edition is missing a glissando on the word "whoop" in the vocal and piano parts found in the original publication (m. 42).

Related Resources

• Whoop her up! : (with a whoop, la! la!)

"The Wind and the Day (A Sunset on Yarrow)" by Arthur Foote

1908

This part-song, one of fifty-two composed by Foote, was dedicated to Horatio Parker (1863–1919), a fellow member of the Second New England School of composers. It sets a pastoral poem by Scottish writer Andrew Lang, who edited the poems and songs of Robert Burns in 1896. The text and music paint a picture of a sunset over the heather. Foote injects chromatic harmonies at the mention of "the sultry weather." As the day dies, the dynamic indication is "ppp possible." When one last ray suddenly "flushed a flame in the grey soft air," the soprano rises to a high B. Ever the practical composer, Foote offers an optional one-measure ossia that takes the soprano up to only a G-sharp. In that moment two lovers "seemed to look on the hills of heaven;" to the poet "'twas given to see your face as an angel's there." The opening music returns, and the narrator nostalgically remembers that one moment, "Twain grown one in the solitude, never again." The music ends in A major, "morendo, espress."

Related Resources

• The wind and the day : (a sunset on yarrow ) : op. 68, no. 2
• The wind and the day : (a sunset on yarrow ) : op. 68, no. 2

"The Witch, Op. 5" by Edward MacDowell

1898

From 1896 to 1898, MacDowell published four partsongs for the Mendelssohn Glee Club under the pseudonym of Edgar Thorn, fearing the members would feel obligated to accept the songs if he revealed he had written them. Other works by "Edgar Thorn" are The Rose and the Gardener, Love and Time, and War Song. The narrative text by MacDowell is about a witch living in a hut near the sea. It includes variously assembled and appropriate witch-like phrases, such as "fo, fum, fee" and "hobble-gobble," to great effect. MacDowell stretches meter and duration to grandly depict the groaning sea. The final verse uses the same music as the first, but twice as slow. The sun sets over the hut, and the witch moans over her ginger tea and the passing of youth.

Related Resources

• The witch : op. 5