No. 163 Dulcimer or Beloved, Pb 309
Heptatonic ionian, mode 3 A + b (I II III IV V VI VII)
O thou in whose presence my soul takes delight,
On whom in afflictions I call,
My comfort by day and my song in the night,
My hope, my salvation, my all.
The poem is by Joseph Swain of England (1762-1796). The tune is attributed to Freeman Lewis whom Tillett calls merely “an American musician.” His dates are 1780-1859. Found also GCM 65, Baptist Hymnal (1902), No. 389. Methodist Hymnal (1905), No. 530; GOS 102, SOH 15. Miss Gilchrist (op. cit.) compares this tune with ‘Fair Rosie Ann’ in Greig’s Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads, p. 771. The chorus of ‘The Sinking of the Titanic’ a phonograph-recorded song of wide popularity in America during the 1920’s, is practically the same melodic trend as that of ‘Dulcimer’. Its text is:
It was bad when that great ship went down,
It was bad when that great ship went down,
There was husbands and wives,
Little child’en lost their lives,
It was bad when that great ship went down.
A song curiously similar to the ‘Titanic’ song is in The Carolina Low-Country, page 296, as sung by the negroes on the Santee River in South Carolina. The tune is changed but little. The words are:
It was sad w’en duh grabe sinkin’ down,
It was sad w’en duh grabe sinkin’ down,
Ain’ dat uh awful time,
People keep awake all night,
It was sad w’en duh grabe sinkin’ down.
The tune of ‘Dulcimer’ is of the ‘Lord Lovel’ type mentioned in the Introduction, p. 14. Other songs in this collection belonging to this type are ‘Yongst’, ‘Dunlap’s Creek’, ‘Liverpool’, ‘Ester’, ‘Lonesome Grove’, and ‘Land of Rest’. Other spiritual folk-tunes of the same type are ‘Eden’, GOS 558; ‘Thy Way O God’, PB 29; ‘Charlestown’, GOS 255; ‘Lord of Glory’, PB 374; ‘New Hope’, PB 373; ‘Golden Hill’, HH 211; ‘Webster’, OSH 31; ‘Hollis’, GOS 73; ‘Edneyville’, HH 193; ‘Blissful Hope’, REV 140; and ‘Tedious Hours’, SOC 69. Further secular tunes of the type are ‘Lord Lovel’, Sharp, i., 148; ‘The Two Brothers’, Davis, 563; ‘The Mermaid’, Sharp, i., 293; ‘Every Night When the Sun Goes In’, Sharp, ii., 269; ‘Three Little Babes’, Davis, 576; ‘Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies’, Sharp, ii., 135; ‘Barbara Allen’, Sharp, i., 195; ‘Gypsy Laddie’, Sharp, i., 237; ‘Horn Fair’, JFSS, ii., 204; and ‘The Cuckoo’, Sharp, ii., 177.