"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is a historic American Negro spiritual written by Wallis Willis, a Choctaw freedman in the old Indian Territory in what is now Choctaw County, near the County seat of Hugo, Oklahoma sometime before 1862. He was inspired by the Red River, which reminded him of the Jordan River and of the Prophet Elijah's being taken to heaven by a chariot (2 Kings 2:11). Many sources claim that this song and "Steal Away" (also composed by Willis) had lyrics that referred to the Underground Railroad, the resistance movement that helped slaves escape from the South to the North and Canada. Alexander Reid, a minister at the Old Spencer Academy, Choctaw boarding school, heard Willis singing these two songs and transcribed the words and melodies. He sent the music to the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.
It was first printed in Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University (1872)
But other sources claim the spiritual was written by Sarah Hannah Sheppard.
The Jubilee Singers popularized the song during a tour of the United States and Europe 1873-1878
But it was not until 1909 that the Fisk Jubilee Singers made their first recording of the song
(o) Fisk University Jubilee Quartet (1909)
Bass vocal: Noah Walker Ryder , Alfred Garfield King
Tenor vocal: John Wesley Work II , J. A. Myers
Recorded on December 1, 1909 in Camden, New Jersey
Matrix Number/Take Number: B-8420/3
Released on Victor 16453
The Fisk University Jubilee Qt also recorded "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" on December 27, 1911 on Edison Cylinder BA 5216
There may be an older recorded version by the Standard Quartette on cylinder from 1894:
Also see this Columbia 1894 brown-wax cylinder announcement, from Bill Bryant’s papers.
Date mentioned April 11, 1894 in Washington D.C.
This version was found in a trash of cylinders and was released in September 2016.
Listen here:
And here are more versions
(c) Apollo Jubilee Quartette (1912)
Recorded February 26, 1912
Matrix 19773=2 - (IS=8/12)
Released on Columbia A-1169
Listen here:
(c) Tuskegee Institute Singers (1916)
Recorded February 14, 1916
Matrix/Take: B-16512 / 3
Released on Victor 17890
(c) Kitty Cheatham (1916)
Recorded March 09, 1916
Matrix/Take: B-16998/7
Released on Victor 45086
Listen here:
Harry Thacker Burleigh's arrangement of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot was originally published for solo voice in 1917 following the success of Deep River.
Burleigh 's setting was published in 1920 for mixed chorus by G. Ricordi
& Co., New York.
Antonín Dvořák, Burleigh's professor at the
National Conservatory of Music, used the tune of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot in his Symphony No. 9, "From the New World."
Burleigh had learned many of the old plantation songs from the singing of his blind maternal grandfather, Hamilton Waters, who in 1832 bought his freedom from slavery on a Maryland plantation. Waters became the town crier and lamplighter for Erie, Pennsylvania, and as a young boy Burleigh helped guide him along his route. The family was Episcopalian and young Harry sang in the men and boys choir. Burleigh also "remembered his Mother's singing after chores and how he and his [step] father and grandfather all harmonized while helping her." At various times in his long life — he died in 1949 at age 81 — Burleigh described his student days with Dvorak. Taken together, Burleigh's writings provide insight into Dvorak's ongoing Negro music education while he was composing what would become the Symphony "From the New World": "Dvorak used to get tired during the day and I would sing to him after supper ... I gave him what I knew of Negro songs – no one called them spirituals then – and he wrote some of my tunes (my people's music) into the New World Symphony."
Dvorak began working on various "American" themes in mid-December 1892, filling eleven pages of a sketchbook. Burleigh wrote: "Part of this old 'spiritual' ['Swing Low Sweet Chariot'] will be found in the second theme of the first movement ... given out by the flute. Dvorak saturated himself with the spirit of these old tunes and then invented his own themes. There is a subsidiary theme in G minor in the first movement with a flatted seventh [a characteristic passed on to jazz, known as a "blue note"] and I feel sure the composer caught this peculiarity of most of the slave songs from some that I sang to him; for he used to stop me and ask if that was the way the slaves sang."
(c) Mabel Garrison 1921
Recorded April 28, 1921
Mx B24244-1
Released on Victrola 64969
Listen here MabelGarrison-SwingLowSweetChariot.mp3
(c) The Southern Four (1921)
Recorded December 7, 1921
Released on Edison Diamond disc 51364
Listen here: /Southern Four /EDIS-SRP-0196-01.mp3
(c) C. Carroll Clark (1921)
Released on Black Swan 2024
In 1922 Roland Hayes recorded a version in London, England of the Burleigh arrangement.
Release in England in 1923 on Aeolian Vocalion B-3039 and in the US in 1924 on Vocalion B 21003.
Listen here:
Roland Hayes had already recorded a version of "Swing Low" in 1918 for the Columbia-label
Released on Columbia Graphophone Company 62050
Listen here: Swing Low Sweet Chariot - Roland W. Hayes.mp3
(c) Morehouse College Quartet (1923)
Recorded June 15, 1923 in Atlanta GA
Released on Okeh 4887
Listen here:
(c) Associated Glee Clubs of America (1926)
Recorded February 6, 1926 in New York
Released on Victor 35770
(c) Paul Robeson (1926)
Recorded January 07, 1926
Matrix/Take: BVE-33119
Released on Victor 20068B
Listen here:
(c) Dame Nellie Melba (1926)
Recorded in Small Queens Hall, London
December 1926, piano
Harold Craxton.
Released on on HMV DB 989
This was Melba’s very last recording
Listen here:
(c) Kanawha Singers (1928)
Recorded January 1928
Released on Brunswick 3801
Listen here:
(c) Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra (1937)
Recorded July 23, 1937 in Los Angeles
Released on Decca 1396
(c) Bing Crosby (1938)
Recorded May 3, 1938
Released on Decca 1819
Or here:
(c) The Southernaires (1939)
Recorded June 14, 1939
Released on Decca 2855 as part of a 5- disc 78 RPM album # 83
Listen here:
(c) Charioteers (1939)
Recorded August 4, 1939
Released on Brunswick 8468
Listen here:
(c) Tex Beneke with The Glenn Miller Orchestra (1946)
Recorded February 21, 1946 in New York
Released on RCA Victor 20-1834
Listen here:
(c) Christine Clark (1956)
Recorded February 8, 1956 in New York City
Released on Savoy 4075A (78 RPM)
Also released on the next 45 RPM
Listen here:
(c) The Champs (1958) (as "Chariot Rock")
(c) Laurel Aitken (1963)
Released on Blue Beat BB 164
Listen here:
The song enjoyed a resurgence during the 1960s Civil Rights struggle and the folk revival; it was performed by a number of artists. Joan Baez had sung the song in 1968 it at the Newport Folk Festival. But perhaps her most famous performance during this period was at the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival.
Watch Joan here:
Eric Clapton recorded the most well-known version in 1975, possibly influenced by Laurel Aitken's version (SEE ABOVE)
Listen here:
(c) UB40 (2003)
Official England Rugby World Cup 2003 song
"Swing LOW Sweet Chariot" is NOT to be confused with "Swing DOWN Sweet Chariot" as recorded by Elvis Presley in 1960, which has a different melody and different lyrics too.
Elvis recorded "Swing Down Sweet Chariot" on October 31, 1960, at RCA's Nashville studios. Vocal backing was by the Jordanaires.
Listen here:
Elvis recorded another version in 1968 (October 14 or 24) at United Recorders in Hollywood for his film The Trouble With Girls.
Listen here:
Elvis's "Swing Down (Sweet) Chariot" might have been originally recorded by The Golden Gate Quartet, who recorded "Swing Down Chariot" in June 1946, which however starts with the common "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" arrangement, as recorded by the Fisk Jubilee Singers and after about 1 minute turns into a "swing"version with adapted lyrics.
Listen here (the "Swing" version starts at 1 min and 2 sec in the YT below)
The Jordanaires distilled the "swing" part from the version of the Golde Gate Quartet and expanded it into a complete song
(c) The Jordanaires (1950) (as "Swing Down Sweet Chariot")
Recorded July 4, 1950 in Nashville, TN
Released on Decca 14555
Listen here:
(c) Blackwood Brothers Quartet (1950) (as "Swing Down Chariot")
Released on Blackwood Bros # 1162
Listen here
In 1961 The Staple Singers recorded an album for the Vee Jay-label, which contained both Chariot-versions: The uptempo "Swing Down Chariot" and the slow "Swing Slow Sweet Chariot".
Beyonce also sang the Golden Gate Quartet variation in the 2003 movie "Fighting Temptations".
More versions here:
Dag Joop, Volgens mij is de opname van de Golden Gate Quartet een latere heropname, waarin ze meer gebruik van "Swing Low" gemaakt hebben. De opname uit 1946 kan men bij https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpnCJcyfGBE horen (geloof ik!).
BeantwoordenVerwijderenHallo David,
BeantwoordenVerwijderenBedankt voor de tip. Het is idd vreemd, dat de opname die ik geplaat.st heb 3 min en 32 seconden duurt en de opname die jij aangeeft maar 2 min en 55 seconden.
Toch heb ik precies dezelfde opname staan op een CD met alle opnames gemaakt tussen 1945 en 1949 van het Document label. Op die CD duurt "Swing Down Chariot" ook precies 3 min en 32 seconden.
Het zou natuurlijk een andere take kunnen betreffen.
Joop groet
Charioteers - Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Brunswick 8468) 1939
Verwijderenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZeqFffsvBg
Thank you for the addition Krobi.
VerwijderenJoop greets