But if you will not list and fight,
You’ll sink into eternal night.
The tune as it stands is heptatonic dorian. And that is probably a correct notation. The interesting thing is the device employed to legitimize the dorian raised sixth, namely, the device of modulation. The writer of the tune, knowing presumably nothing about the old modes, set his first melodic phrase in g-major with a semi-cadence on two of the scale. All went well because the f-sharp of that key was not represented. But in the second part of the tune the actual f-natural appeared; and the only way he saw of handling it was to change the signature to a “natural key chorus” as he specifically calls it. And the final note in the tune agreed with the key which he took to be a-minor.
No. 213
[O GOD WHAT SHALL I SAY] or ALVERSON, REV 181
Hexatonic, mode 5 A (I — 3 IV V 6 7)
When pity prompts me to look round
Upon my fellow clay,
See men reject the gospel sound,
O God, what shall I say?