When the Saints Go Marching In
When the Saints Go Marching In is a sacred song and gospel piece with countless variations that has become an evergreen in popular music and a jazz standard .
melody
Authorship and Variants
The melody is likely from Edward Boatner , who published the song in 1927 in Nashville in his hymn book Spirituals Triumphant - Old and New . It is sometimes wrongly attributed to James Milton Black , who, however, composed the melody for When the Saints are marching in in 1896 , a piece that is often confused with the present one in literature. The confusion is increased by numerous similar titles such as When the Saints March In for Crowning ' (1898), When all the Saints Come Marching In (1923) or When the Saints Go Marching Home (1927).
The text of When the Saints Go Marching In ties in with the orally transmitted spirituals of the black population in the USA . There are a number of different versions, the author of which can usually not be reliably determined. Contrary to popular belief, none of them comes from Catherine Purvis , who wrote the text for the aforementioned When the Saints Are Marching In .
To this day, new text versions have been created in all world languages, which is made easier by the relatively simple metric of the melody and the large proportion of the refrain in the overall text.
Meaning of the text
Regardless of the wording, the text expresses the faithful's hope that on Judgment Day they will be among the elect who will be allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven. The verse texts mostly refer to the Apocalypse and tell about the eclipse of the sun or the trumpets of the Archangel Gabriel . The refrain , on the other hand, is "Oh, when the saints go marching in, Lord, how I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in". Sometimes an influence of the Ambrosian Te Deum from the 4th century is suspected, which contains a line of verse Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari .
Impact history
The piece is sometimes played at funerals, especially at the Jazz Funerals in New Orleans . Through the interpretation of Louis Armstrong (1938) the piece even became the “signature tune of Trad Jazz ” - from Sidney Bechet to Chris Barber . New, profane verses were also added to the song, such as "When the band begins to play" or "Because Jimmy Brown only plays Dixie". Some versions, such as that of Bill Haley , even erase any religious reference (“When that rhythm starts to go ...”). In addition, there are countless variations in the instrumentation, so that it is difficult to make out a “canonical” version of the piece.
The piece was taken up and adapted from a variety of different musical styles. The piece is particularly popular in jazz and gospel music . Charlie Byrd , Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel turned it into modern session material, Ray Brown and Milt Jackson interpreted it in the style of soul jazz , Albert Ayler used the piece as the beginning of a free jazz improvisation, the pianist Monty Alexander transplanted the song into the Caribbean and British singer Beryl Bryden paid homage to Louis Armstrong with new lyrics as Boy From New Orleans .
After The Weavers recorded the song in 1951 , it became an evergreen among the general public. There are also various blues , pop and rock versions. Well-known interpretations come from Mahalia Jackson , Judy Garland , Mitch Miller , Golden Gate Quartet , Harry Belafonte , Fats Domino , the Beatles , Jerry Lee Lewis , Bill Haley , Elvis Presley , Bruce Springsteen , Million Dollar Quartet and Alphaville .
literature
- Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler, Christian Pfarr: Reclam's Jazz Guide . 4th, revised and supplemented edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-15-010355-X .
- Hans-Jürgen Schaal (Ed.): Jazz standards. The encyclopedia. 3rd, revised edition. Bärenreiter, Kassel u. a. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1414-3 .
- Dietrich Schulz-Köhn : The Evergreen Story: 40 x Jazz Quadriga, Weinheim, Berlin 1990. ISBN 3-88679-188-2
Web links
Some text variations: