GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

Inspired by the Holy Bible verse:

Isaiah 42:11

King James Version

11 Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.

John W. Work, Jr. born in Nashville, TN, in 1872 and died in Nashville, in 1925. He is well known for his pioneering studies of African American folk music and for his leadership in the performance of spirituals. He studied music at Fisk University in Nashville and classics at Harvard and then taught Latin, Greek, and History at Fisk from 1898 to 1923. While working as a director of the Jubilee Singers at Fisk University, Work also sang tenor in the Fisk Jubilee Quartet, which toured the country after 1909 and made commercial recordings. He was president of Roger Williams University in Nashville during the last two years of his life; and, both he and his brother, Frederick Jerome Work (1879-1942) were devoted to collecting, arranging, and publishing African American slave songs and spirituals. They published two collections: New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers (1901) and Folk Songs of the American Negro (1907).

- An excerpt from Bert Polman, (www.hymnary.org/tune/go_tell_it).

John went on to marrying a woman by the name of Agnes Haynes in 1899. Working with his wife and his brother, Frederick Jerome Work, he began collecting and arranging slave songs and spirituals, publishing them as New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers (1901) and New Jubilee Songs and Folk Songs of the American Negro (1907). The latter album included the first publication of "Go Tell It on the Mountain", which he may have had a hand in composing. His other songs included "Song of the Warrior", "If Only You Were Here", "Negro Lullaby", and "Negro Love Song". He also established the music publishing company, called, Work Brothers and Hart.

As the director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, he was responsible for taking them on tour each year. However, because of negative feelings toward black folk music at Fisk, he was forced to resign his post there in 1923. He then served as president of Roger Williams University in Nashville, until his death in 1925.

John and Agnes Work had six children, of whom John Wesley Work III (1901–67) also worked as the director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers and as a song collector and composer.

- an excerpt from Wikipedia, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Work_Jr.)

Hail Our Savior's Birth

Go Tell It On The Mountain

Jesus Christ Is Born

Here is a recording of his original work titled, "Soliloquy" sung by LW Ashley, Tenor, with Catherine Schaffer on the piano.

Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright to this recording. This video is for historical and educational purposes only.

Copyright 2022, Rev. Nnedi Iwuchukwu, BA, M.MSC, LMT, LMI