Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
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"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (or simply "Motherless Child") is a traditional Negro spiritual. The song dates back to the era of slavery in the United States when it was common practice to sell children of slaves away from their parents. An early performance of the song dates back into the 1890s by a jubilee singing group.[1][2] Like many traditional songs, it has many variations and has been recorded widely (see partial lists of choral arrangements and covers below).
Superficially, the song is clearly an expression of pain and despair as it conveys the hopelessness of a child who has lost her mother. A subtlety in the lyrics, however, offers a measure of hope. The repetitive singing of the word "sometimes" in the song's melody line suggests that at least "sometimes" I do not feel like a motherless child.[3]
Although the plaintive words can be interpreted literally, they were much more likely metaphoric. The “motherless child” could be a slave separated from and yearning for his African homeland, a slave suffering “a long ways from home”—home being heaven—or most likely both.
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[edit] Choral arrangements
- A widely acclaimed arrangement was written by Harry T. Burleigh in 1918. [2]
- Dimitri Tiomkin used the tune in a choral arrangement in Home of the Brave
- Pier Paolo Pasolini used it in The Gospel According to St. Matthew (film)
Some of the musical structure of "Motherless Child" was employed by George Gershwin for "Summertime," the opening piece of the musical Porgy and Bess.[4]
[edit] Notable versions
- Ike & Tina Turner covered it on their 1969 album Outta Season
- Richie Havens used lyrical elements of this piece in an improvised song at Woodstock Festival in 1969 when he ran out of songs to play after being called back for multiple encores.
- Boney M. on their second album Love for sale (1977)
- Van Morrison on Poetic Champions Compose (1987), also on The Best of Van Morrison Volume Two (1993)
- Martin L. Gore, on Counterfeit e.p. (1989)
- Hootie & the Blowfish, on Cracked Rear View (1994)
- Kevin Eubanks, on "Live at Bradley’s (1996, Blue Note)" (1994)
- Tom Jones (accompanied by Portishead) on Reload (1999)
- The daughter character, Keesha, sang this piece in the play I Can Do Bad All By Myself, written by Tyler Perry (1999)
- Under the name Lucky Pierre, Aidan Moffat used an operatic sample of the phrase "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child" on the track of the same name from his 2002 solo album Hypnogogia.
- John Legend on Solo Sessions Vol. 1: Live at the Knitting Factory (2005)
- Wishbone Ash on Clan Destiny (2006)
[edit] External links
- Lyrics as by J. W. Johnson & J. R. Johnson (1926) at negrosprituals.com
[edit] References
- ^ Barton, "Hymns of the Slave and the Freedman", page 17: "Not very long ago I attended a concert given by a troupe of jubilee singers, whose leader was a member of the original Fisk company. Toward the end of the programme he announced that a recently arrived singer in his troupe from Mississippi had brought a song that her grandparents sang in slave times, which he counted the saddest and most beautiful of song of slavery. It was a mutilated version of Aunt Dinah's song ["Motherless Child" or "I feel like I'd never been borned."]; ..."
- ^ a b "Blue Gene" Tyranny, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" article, All Music Guide
- ^ *Sweet Chariot: the story of the spirituals by Arthur C. Jones
- ^ Floyd, The Power of Black Music, page 218: "The first extended troping of the tune of 'Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child' was George Gershwin's repetition of it in Porgy and Bess (1935) as 'Summertime'."
[edit] Bibliography
- Barton, William E., D.D. "Hymns of the Slave and the Freedman" from Old Plantation Hymns with Historical and Descriptive Notes. Lamson, Woolffe and Company, 1899.
- Floyd, Samuel A., Jr. The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States. Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-19-508235-4
