Yonder Come Day

For our third issue we always try to have a new angle on music for African American History Month, and in virtually every issue we try to do a 3-part arrangement appropriate for your older students. With this great spiritual from the Georgia Sea Islands, we are pleased to give you both of these things!

Paul has made this setting a traditional 3-part mixed arrangement, meaning that you have two treble parts and a part in bass clef that uses the "compromise range" of F to D which works well with boys' voices that have changed, that haven't changed, or those tricky voices that are in transition.

There are many variations on this tune, including a 3-part treble a cappella octavo setting in our catalog by Judith Cook Tucker. Our version is rather different. It combines a traditional concert approach, opening with an evocative orchestral prelude, leading to building voices over hand claps. It continues to build into a joyous gospel shuffle with a powerful instrumental background. Throughout, the eighth notes are "swung" with each set of eighth notes sounding like broken triplets. The key is to keep it relaxed and not have it lean toward a dotted eighth/sixteenth sound.

A cultural lesson - Spirituals are ideal for historical discussions in this special month. Have your students research the Georgia Sea Islands, which are spread down the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. These were some of the first places slaving ships arrived, and many of those slaves ended up in plantations on the islands. These islands were quite isolated from the white dominated cultures on the mainland, so many of the slaves and their free descendants still had the music and other cultural touchpoints that came from Africa, and it is evident in the unique music that came from the islands.

Since the 1920s, The Georgia Sea Island Singers, started by Lydia Parrish, have helped preserve the music in the arrangements of the songs they sing that have come down through the ages. Many recordings of these are available on iTunes and other online services. Sample a few and share them with your students. The energy you hear there will serve your students well when performing "Yonder Come Day."

On our web site, you will find a number of extras for this song including an alternate unison version and its corresponding piano/vocal score; isolated part 1, part 2, and part 3 rehearsal tracks; an a cappella version; and a very special solo version using a mature soloist at the top (Anne Ellsworth) instead of a child. If you have an older singer or group, you might consider doing something similar. The a cappella version is also really nice and may inspire your singers to try it this way as well. (See details on page 70 for downloads.)