Go Down, Moses
The spiritual as the Fisk Jubilee Singers printed it in 1872, for 2 to 4 singers, in call and answer: the soprano sings each call alone ("When Israel was in Egypt's land", "Go down, Moses") and everyone answers "Let my people go" in harmony. Two verses, each with the refrain. Slow and steady, in a minor key.
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The first verse
Words: traditional spiritual, as sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers (published 1872)Tune: traditional spiritual, as sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers (published 1872)
When Israel was in Egypt's land:Let my people go,Oppressed so hard they could not stand,Let my people go.
About Go Down, Moses
Go Down, Moses is an African-American spiritual that tells the story of the Exodus, in which God sends Moses to tell Pharaoh, "Let my people go". Enslaved African Americans heard in it their own bondage, like the Israelites' in Egypt. The Fisk Jubilee Singers' book of 1872, Theodore F. Seward's Jubilee Songs, gives it twenty-four verses, from Israel in Egypt to the Red Sea and on to freedom, and writes only the answer, "Let my people go", in four-part harmony; the rest is the tune alone, each verse's call for one voice and "Go down, Moses" doubled in octaves. Our arrangement is read from that page, a tone higher, in G minor, with its words as printed, "Tell ole Pharoh". For 2 to 4 singers, it is two verses, each with the refrain, slow and steady, in call and answer: the soprano sings every call alone, and everyone answers "Let my people go" in harmony, the alto and tenor on two notes each and the bass on D and a low G.
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