No. 24 Tennessee, Hh 140
Hexatonic, mode 3 A (I II III — V VI VII)
Afflictions, though they seem severe,
In mercy oft are sent;
They stopp’d the prodigal’s career
And caus’d him to repent.
Although he no relenting felt,
Till he had spent his store;
His stubborn heart began to melt,
When famine pinched him sore.
“What have I gained by sin?” he said,
“But hunger, shame, and fear?
My father’s house abounds with bread,
While I am starving here.
“I’ll go and tell him all I’ve done
And fall before his face;
Unworthy to be called his son,
I’ll seek a servant’s place.”
His father saw him coming back;
He saw and ran and smiled,
And threw his arms around the neck
Of his repenting child.
“Father, I’ve sinned, but O forgive!”
“Enough,” the father said;
“Rejoice, my house, my son’s alive,
For whom I mourned as dead.
“Now let the fatted calf be slain;
Go spread the news around;
My son was dead, but lives again,
Was lost, but now is found.”
’Tis thus the Lord his love reveals,
To call his children home;
More than a father’s love he feels,
And bids the needy come.
The tune is a member of the ‘Roll Jordan’ family which is described under the song by that name in this collection. The ‘Tennessee’ tune’s resemblance to Foster’s ‘Susanna’ is evident. The melody, or some near relative of it, may well have furnished Foster with his inspiration in composing the latter. It had been sung widely in America for at least fifty years before the Pittsburgh composer published his minstrel song. (See the author’s article ‘Stephen Foster’s Debt to American Folk-Song’, The Musical Quarterly, xxii., No. 2.)
That the ‘Tennessee’ tune was “unwritten music” in the South, and therefore free for all, is indicated by the many claimants to its authorship; Chapin, J. Robertson, L. P. Breedlove, William C. Davis, and William Walker were among them. In various forms and with different texts the tune is found also, CHI 84 (published in 1805), SKH 23, GCM 134, SOH 28, GOS 229, HOC 114, WP 96, TZ 94, SOC 78, SOC 81, SOC 145, SOH 105, OSH 501, SKH 23. The second part of the tune is similar to ‘Jamaica’, Sharp, Country Dances, Set IV, No. 12.