{"id":268,"date":"2015-02-24T02:03:37","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T08:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=268"},"modified":"2015-03-09T22:15:13","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T03:15:13","slug":"evolution-of-a-battle-cry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2015\/02\/24\/evolution-of-a-battle-cry\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolution of a Battle Cry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In modern society, copyrights prove claims to authorship in music. \u00a0In the past, too, great songwriters are immortalized as the formants of a genre&#8211;Cole Porter and George Gershwin are among the composers who churned out music to popular consumption. \u00a0However, folk songs are traditionally passed along orally, and often authors are lost amidst the many additions and changes. \u00a0Does embellishing and editing a previous author\u2019s work remove the credibility and culture of the original message of a piece?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XUzE1WeMc2g?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Battle Hymn of the Republic\u201d is typically\u00a0a piece played in a militaristic style&#8211;a strong brass section, lots of snare drums, and in this YouTube clip, an obnoxious animated American flag. \u00a0Its patriotism is not a new appropriation, but rather began during the Civil War when marching soldiers of both sides sang what was then \u201cJohn Brown\u2019s Body.\u201d \u00a0Although the John Brown the lyrics were written for was a soldier of the Massachusetts regiment and therefore a Civil War figure (PBS), he was not the one immortalized in the song. \u00a0Rather, the <i>abolitionist<\/i> John Brown became the martyr the lyrics remember.<\/p>\n<p>Both sides of the war sang this song, changing the words to fit their message (Library of Congress). \u00a0But perhaps it is most appropriate that the northerners, with their message of freedom for the slaves, won the war and the song, as it had descended from fragments sung at ring shouts by the very slaves themselves.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_271\" style=\"width: 252px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-23-at-9.18.14-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-271\" class=\"wp-image-271 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-23-at-9.18.14-PM-242x300.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-23 at 9.18.14 PM\" width=\"242\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-23-at-9.18.14-PM-242x300.png 242w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-23-at-9.18.14-PM-121x150.png 121w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-23-at-9.18.14-PM.png 295w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 242px) 100vw, 242px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-271\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">HELEN KENDRICK JOHNSON. The North American Review, 1884.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>According the Helen Kendrick Johnson and The North American Review, the earlier version of this tune was found in a \u201ccolored Presbyterian church in Charleston.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-24-at-1.00.45-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-medium wp-image-273 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-24-at-1.00.45-AM-229x300.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-24 at 1.00.45 AM\" width=\"229\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-24-at-1.00.45-AM-229x300.png 229w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-24-at-1.00.45-AM-114x150.png 114w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-24-at-1.00.45-AM.png 413w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 229px) 100vw, 229px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-24-at-1.01.01-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-medium wp-image-272 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-24-at-1.01.01-AM-237x300.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-24 at 1.01.01 AM\" width=\"237\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-24-at-1.01.01-AM-237x300.png 237w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-24-at-1.01.01-AM-118x150.png 118w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-24-at-1.01.01-AM.png 462w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 237px) 100vw, 237px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><b>Say, Brothers<\/b><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Say, brothers, will you meet us (3x)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">On Canaan&#8217;s happy shore.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">(Refrain)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Glory, glory, hallelujah (3x)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">For ever, evermore!<\/p>\n<p>The score for this hymn is not the complete beginning of\u00a0\u201cGlory Hallelujah,\u201d but rather only the version sung by congregations at revivalist meetings and in stricter church settings. \u00a0Some scholars attribute the\u00a0musical phrases and lyrics to\u00a0ring shouts (Soskis 24-5).\u00a0\u00a0It is easy to imagine the call-and-response singing of the Biblical lyrics, along with interjections of &#8220;Glory, hallelujah!&#8221; \u00a0In addition, the same message of escape, travel, and lands of &#8216;happy shores&#8217; is evident in this piece as in many other slave songs.<\/p>\n<p>Like many folk songs, spirituals, and hymns of early America, authorship is highly disputed. \u00a0Claims of ownership come from many different sources, and usually the privileged, educated members of society have the most lasting paper trails. \u00a0But the strong presence of a black musical tradition is evident in the very roots of music in America. \u00a0White Northerners may have appropriated the traditional tunes and modified the lyrics, but it is a grand image to imagine soldiers singing a song reminiscent of the cause of freedom to its very core.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>SOURCES:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;History of &#8216;John Brown&#8217;s Body,'&#8221;\u00a0<em>PBS.<\/em> 2010. Web. \u00a0http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/amex\/brown\/sfeature\/song.html<\/p>\n<p>Johnson, Helen Kendrick. \u00a0<em>The North American Review. \u00a0<\/em>May 1884. \u00a0Accessed from Proquest.<\/p>\n<p>Library of Congress. \u00a0http:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/ihas.200000841\/<\/p>\n<p>Linder, Douglas O. \u00a0&#8220;Famous Trials,&#8221; <em>University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.<\/em> \u00a02015. \u00a0Web. \u00a0http:\/\/law2.umkc.edu\/faculty\/projects\/ftrials\/johnbrown\/brownbody.html.<\/p>\n<p>Soskis, Benjamin and John Stauffer. \u00a0&#8220;The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song that Marches On.&#8221; \u00a0<em>Oxford University Press,\u00a0<\/em>9 May 2013. \u00a0http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=bIRQpD3HNSAC&amp;dq=%22will+you+meet%22&amp;source=gbs_navlinks_s<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In modern society, copyrights prove claims to authorship in music. \u00a0In the past, too, great songwriters are immortalized as the formants of a genre&#8211;Cole Porter and George Gershwin are among the composers who churned out music to popular consumption. \u00a0However, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2015\/02\/24\/evolution-of-a-battle-cry\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":773,"featured_media":275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[123,125,124,32,126,127],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-battle-hymn-of-the-republic","tag-helen-kendrick-johnson","tag-john-browns-body","tag-library-of-congress","tag-say-brothers","tag-spirituals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2015\/02\/31813r.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-4k","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/773"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}