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about

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is another Langston Hughes poem, by his
own account written in the fifteen minutes it took him to cross the Mississippi River on a boat. A powerful poem that has been described as “suffused with the image of death and simultaneously the idea of deathlessness,” it is matched by the powerful music of Howard Swanson (1907–1978). The song’s premiere by Marian Anderson on January 15, 1950 in Carnegie Hall, proved to be a career-changer for Swanson. The next two songs by Swanson are set to texts by Hughes, followed by one by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Like Florence Price, Swanson consulted with Hughes while composing both “Pierrot” and “Night Song.” “Pierrot” is a musically witty ride through the unbalanced mind of the clown Pierrot. With “A Death Song” we return to the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, set as a peaceful, slowly-rocking lullaby. The narrator’s wish is to be buried in a place that is familiar and loved.

lyrics

A Death Song
(Paul Laurence Dunbar)

Lay me down beneaf de willers in de grass,
Whah de branch’ll go a-singin’ as it pass.
An’ w’en I’s a-layin’ low,
I kin hyeah it as it go
Singin’, “Sleep, my honey, tek yo’ res’ at las’.”

Lay me nigh to whah hit meks a little pool.
An’ de watah stan’s so quiet lak an’ cool,
Whah de little birds in spring,
Ust to come an’ drink an’ sing,
An’ de chillen waded on dey way to school.

Let me settle w’en my shouldahs draps
dey load
Nigh enough to hyeah de noises in de road;
Fu’ I t’ink de las’ long res’
Gwine to soothe my sperrit bes’
If I’s layin’ ’mong de t’ings I’s allus knowed.

credits

from Wide as Heaven: A Century of Song by Black American Composers, released March 1, 2024

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New World Records Brooklyn, New York

Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc., which records under the label New World Records, was founded in 1975.

We are dedicated to the documentation of American music that is largely ignored by the commercial recording companies.

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