(There’s A) Little Wheel A-Turnin’

"Spirituals" are a special type of American folk song that mostly were created in the 19th century and before by African Americans, many of them slaves at the time. These songs were generally religious in nature and they spoke to the conditions at the time with aspirations for freedom and salvation. Some songs were special ways to send messages while others were just tunes that let the singer sing of joy and praise.

This popular song has endured as a simple, catchy spiritual with just one repeated phrase changing per verse. Beyond that, each verse is the same, making it easy to learn and thus ideal for simple dance steps or other movement. With a tune like this, we recommend you and your group design a routine that is best for your situation.

As you will note, there are four verses in this arrangement, set against a rich orchestral background. There is also a simple soprano recorder part that requires the player play between notes D and high D. It is definitely an "optional" part that has an orchestral underscoring to replace it in case you don't use recorders in your performance.