The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 86, July 1982 - April, 1983 Page: 38
616 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
war song, lately as a theme for a symphony, and now another as a part
of country music drawn from the oral tradition.
On a few occasions, more often in black churches than white, I found
preachers still using the frontier custom of "lining out" a hymn or a
passage from the Bible. This practice, as old as Protestantism itself,
older than the dissenting hymns, came into use in Britain and then in
America because so many could not read and their memories were
faulty. Only once was I able to record "lining out."
The place was a small Negro church at Franklin, the pastor a man
about sixty with dark brown skin and graying hair, the service a com-
bination Sunday school and morning worship. The pastor was eager
for me to record his choir and congregation but warned me not to ex-
pect too much. He had been to the African Methodist Episcopal
Church in Calvert and urged me to go there.
"Their choir, being able to read music, is more uplifted than we."
His choir sang spirituals and I recorded Mary Riley, his choir leader,
singing "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep." I started playing back the
record and the congregation sat in silent wonderment until she came
to the words
One o' these mornings bright and fair
I'm gonna wing my way through the chilly air.
Pharaoh's army got drownded,
Oh, Mary, don't you weep.
Suddenly a woman burst out, "Mary, he sho' caught you."
They wanted to hear the record again. Then they wanted to hear
themselves. The pastor offered to "line out" "When I Can Read My
Title Clear," an Isaac Watts hymn often sung in white country
churches. Mary Riley would pitch the tune. In a kind of rapid chant-
ing voice he began from memory:
When I can read my title clear ...
Mary pitched the tune but he held up his hand and stopped her.
"H'ist it agin, Mary. You pitched it too shalluh."
The second time he let her go ahead and, though the tune was set in
common meter, the congregation lengthened it by doubling and
tripling notes and by irregular flourishes. Before they had finished
sounding clear the pastor was giving the next line:
To mansions in the skies ...
Mary Riley dragged them through that and the next two lines of the
first stanza:
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 86, July 1982 - April, 1983, periodical, 1982/1983; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101209/m1/58/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.