No. 240 I Want a Seat in Paradise or North Port, Osh 324
Hexatonic, mode 2 A (I II 3 IV V — 7)
Jesus, my all, to heav’n has gone,
Glory hallelujah,
He whom I fix my hopes upon,
Glory hallelujah.
I want a seat in paradise,
Glory hallelujah,
I love that union never dies,
Glory hallelujah.
The recording of this tune is credited to Dr. R. R. Osborne, a Georgian. The core of the words is by John Cennick, a text which is given more fully under ‘River of Jordan’.
The tune is built up easily on the theme of the first two measures which is similar to the beginning of ‘Henry Martin’, see Rickaby, p. 161, and Sandburg, p. 176. ‘Henry Martin’ is based on an incident in British marine history which took place in the year 1476. See S. Baring-Gould, Songs of the West, song No. 53, and note. Another old relative of the tune seems to be ‘There were Three Ravens’ which was recorded in 1611 as follows:
There were three ra’ens sat on a tree,
Down a down hey down a down.
See Jackson, English Melodies from the 13th to the 18th Century, p. 24. German tunes with practically the same opening phrase and dating from the sixteenth century are in Erk-Böhme, Deutscher Liederhort, vol. iii., p. 718.