Was lost, but now is found.”
’Tis thus the Lord his love reveals,
To call his children home;
More than a father’s love he feels,
And bids the needy come.
The tune is a member of the ‘[Roll Jordan]’ family which is described under the song by that name in this collection. The ‘Tennessee’ tune’s resemblance to Foster’s ‘Susanna’ is evident. The melody, or some near relative of it, may well have furnished Foster with his inspiration in composing the latter. It had been sung widely in America for at least fifty years before the Pittsburgh composer published his minstrel song. (See the author’s article ‘Stephen Foster’s Debt to American Folk-Song’, The Musical Quarterly, xxii., No. 2.)
That the ‘Tennessee’ tune was “unwritten music” in the South, and therefore free for all, is indicated by the many claimants to its authorship; Chapin, J. Robertson, L. P. Breedlove, William C. Davis, and William Walker were among them. In various forms and with different texts the tune is found also, CHI 84 (published in 1805), SKH 23, GCM 134, SOH 28, GOS 229, HOC 114, WP 96, TZ 94, SOC 78, SOC 81, SOC 145, SOH 105, OSH 501, SKH 23. The second part of the tune is similar to ‘Jamaica’, Sharp, Country Dances, Set IV, No. 12.
No. 25
[FAREWELL], HOC 32
Hexatonic, mode 3 b (I II III IV V VI —)
