Chords for The Story behind the Folk Carol "I Wonder As I Wander"
Tempo:
114 bpm
Chords used:
G
Dm
F
Gm
Bb
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[Dm]
I'm Bill [G] Hughes, Mayor of Perkins, Oregon.
We're so glad you could be with us today.
[N] You know, in 1933, John Jacob Niles, and he heard a small child singing a beautiful ballad
entitled, I Wonder As I Wonder.
As a matter of fact, the child was singing it in front
of this very fountain, which I'm standing right now.
It was a beautiful fountain, and
he was fascinated by the sound.
He was fascinated [G] by the purity of the Oregon child singing
it, and as a result of that, he recorded it himself.
And of course, while we do not know
the original [N] author, being a ballad, it was handed down from generation to generation.
It's a beautiful melody, a haunting melody.
It so much reflects life and athelasm.
One of the finest American folk carols, discovered in the twentieth century, I Wonder As I Wonder,
grew out of three lines of music sung without accompaniment by a young girl named Annie
Morgan.
She sang the tune in the town square of Murphy, North Carolina, in July of 1933,
during a revivalist meeting.
The reason for singing that day?
Her family, revivalists
all, were about to be ejected by the police for having overstayed their welcome by squatting
in the town square, making matters worse they were cooking, washing, and hanging their wash
from a town square monument and fountain, and generally conducting themselves in such
a way as to be classified as a public nuisance.
Annie's father, Preacher Morgan, and her mother
pled poverty and asked town officials if they could hold one more meeting in order
to buy enough gas to get out of town.
It was then that Annie, unwashed but lovely, sang
the first three lines, I Wonder As I Wonder.
Now in attendance of that meeting was none
other than John Jacob Niles, one of America's great collectors of folk songs, who often
traveled throughout Appalachia in search of new song material.
Fascinated by the young
girl and the tune, he asked her to sing to him, and each time she did he would pay her
twenty-five cents.
After eight tries, all of which were carefully recorded in his own
musical shorthand, he could only jot down three lines of verse.
This original fragment
of melody and verse spawned an idea for a carol.
Niles soon added new lyric verses and
music and in 1934 published I Wonder As I Wonder in his volume Songs of Hill Folk.
Although
it may have originated from an anonymous nineteenth-century composer, I Wonder As I Wonder is the end product
of Niles' unique ability to quickly improvise something he was able to perfect because of
his own musical shorthand system.
Due to his persistence, a most haunting and beautiful
carol was fashioned, especially as it is performed by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson
[Dm] in American Christmas Classics.
Her magnificent voice [F] adds resonance to the carol's simple
poetry [Gm] by harking to one special day, many centuries [Bb] ago, when poor ordinary people beheld
a newborn child in the most humble surroundings.
Niles also published another carol, titled
Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head, which, like I Wonder As I Wonder, is an example of rural
American folk carols, simple, genuine, and humble, essential qualities of carol gems
from the English countryside of the fourteenth and fifteenth century.
What makes these carols
even more endearing is the air of serenity in celebrating a stirring event that took
place in a poor stable a very long time ago.
[G] [Dm]
[E] [G] [C]
I'm Bill [G] Hughes, Mayor of Perkins, Oregon.
We're so glad you could be with us today.
[N] You know, in 1933, John Jacob Niles, and he heard a small child singing a beautiful ballad
entitled, I Wonder As I Wonder.
As a matter of fact, the child was singing it in front
of this very fountain, which I'm standing right now.
It was a beautiful fountain, and
he was fascinated by the sound.
He was fascinated [G] by the purity of the Oregon child singing
it, and as a result of that, he recorded it himself.
And of course, while we do not know
the original [N] author, being a ballad, it was handed down from generation to generation.
It's a beautiful melody, a haunting melody.
It so much reflects life and athelasm.
One of the finest American folk carols, discovered in the twentieth century, I Wonder As I Wonder,
grew out of three lines of music sung without accompaniment by a young girl named Annie
Morgan.
She sang the tune in the town square of Murphy, North Carolina, in July of 1933,
during a revivalist meeting.
The reason for singing that day?
Her family, revivalists
all, were about to be ejected by the police for having overstayed their welcome by squatting
in the town square, making matters worse they were cooking, washing, and hanging their wash
from a town square monument and fountain, and generally conducting themselves in such
a way as to be classified as a public nuisance.
Annie's father, Preacher Morgan, and her mother
pled poverty and asked town officials if they could hold one more meeting in order
to buy enough gas to get out of town.
It was then that Annie, unwashed but lovely, sang
the first three lines, I Wonder As I Wonder.
Now in attendance of that meeting was none
other than John Jacob Niles, one of America's great collectors of folk songs, who often
traveled throughout Appalachia in search of new song material.
Fascinated by the young
girl and the tune, he asked her to sing to him, and each time she did he would pay her
twenty-five cents.
After eight tries, all of which were carefully recorded in his own
musical shorthand, he could only jot down three lines of verse.
This original fragment
of melody and verse spawned an idea for a carol.
Niles soon added new lyric verses and
music and in 1934 published I Wonder As I Wonder in his volume Songs of Hill Folk.
Although
it may have originated from an anonymous nineteenth-century composer, I Wonder As I Wonder is the end product
of Niles' unique ability to quickly improvise something he was able to perfect because of
his own musical shorthand system.
Due to his persistence, a most haunting and beautiful
carol was fashioned, especially as it is performed by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson
[Dm] in American Christmas Classics.
Her magnificent voice [F] adds resonance to the carol's simple
poetry [Gm] by harking to one special day, many centuries [Bb] ago, when poor ordinary people beheld
a newborn child in the most humble surroundings.
Niles also published another carol, titled
Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head, which, like I Wonder As I Wonder, is an example of rural
American folk carols, simple, genuine, and humble, essential qualities of carol gems
from the English countryside of the fourteenth and fifteenth century.
What makes these carols
even more endearing is the air of serenity in celebrating a stirring event that took
place in a poor stable a very long time ago.
[G] [Dm]
[E] [G] [C]
Key:
G
Dm
F
Gm
Bb
G
Dm
F
[Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ I'm _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Bill [G] Hughes, Mayor of Perkins, Oregon.
We're so glad you could be with us today.
[N] You know, in 1933, John Jacob Niles, _ _ and he heard a small child singing a beautiful ballad
entitled, I Wonder As I Wonder.
As a matter of fact, the child was singing it in front
of this very fountain, which I'm standing right now.
It was a beautiful fountain, and
he was fascinated by the sound.
He was fascinated [G] by the purity of the Oregon child singing
it, and as a result of that, he recorded it himself.
And of course, while we do not know
the original [N] author, being a ballad, it was handed down from generation to generation.
It's a beautiful melody, a haunting melody.
It so much reflects life and athelasm.
One of the finest American folk carols, discovered in the twentieth century, I Wonder As I Wonder,
grew out of three lines of music sung without accompaniment by a young girl named Annie
Morgan.
She sang the tune in the town square of Murphy, North Carolina, in July of 1933,
during a revivalist meeting.
_ The reason for singing that day?
Her family, revivalists
all, were about to be ejected by the police for having overstayed their welcome by squatting
in the town square, making matters worse they were cooking, washing, and hanging their wash
from a town square monument and fountain, and generally conducting themselves in such
a way as to be classified as a public nuisance.
_ Annie's father, Preacher Morgan, and her mother
pled poverty and asked town officials if they could hold one more meeting in order
to buy enough gas to get out of town.
It was then that Annie, unwashed but lovely, sang
the first three lines, I Wonder As I Wonder.
Now in attendance of that meeting was none
other than John Jacob Niles, one of America's great collectors of folk songs, who often
traveled throughout Appalachia in search of new song material.
_ Fascinated by the young
girl and the tune, he asked her to sing to him, and each time she did he would pay her
twenty-five cents.
After eight tries, all of which were carefully recorded in his own
musical shorthand, he could only jot down three lines of verse.
_ _ This original fragment
of melody and verse spawned an idea for a carol.
Niles soon added new lyric verses and
music and in 1934 published I Wonder As I Wonder in his volume Songs of Hill Folk.
_ Although
it may have originated from an anonymous nineteenth-century composer, I Wonder As I Wonder is the end product
of Niles' unique ability to quickly improvise something he was able to perfect because of
his own musical shorthand system.
_ Due to his persistence, a most haunting and beautiful
carol was fashioned, especially as it is performed by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson
[Dm] in American Christmas Classics.
_ Her magnificent voice [F] adds resonance to the carol's simple
poetry [Gm] by harking to one special day, many centuries [Bb] ago, when poor ordinary people beheld
a newborn child in the most humble surroundings. _
Niles also published another carol, titled
Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head, which, like I Wonder As I Wonder, is an example of rural
American folk carols, simple, _ genuine, and humble, essential qualities of carol gems
from the English countryside of the fourteenth and fifteenth century.
What makes these carols
even more endearing is the air of serenity in celebrating a stirring event that took
place in a poor stable a very long time ago.
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _
[E] _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ I'm _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Bill [G] Hughes, Mayor of Perkins, Oregon.
We're so glad you could be with us today.
[N] You know, in 1933, John Jacob Niles, _ _ and he heard a small child singing a beautiful ballad
entitled, I Wonder As I Wonder.
As a matter of fact, the child was singing it in front
of this very fountain, which I'm standing right now.
It was a beautiful fountain, and
he was fascinated by the sound.
He was fascinated [G] by the purity of the Oregon child singing
it, and as a result of that, he recorded it himself.
And of course, while we do not know
the original [N] author, being a ballad, it was handed down from generation to generation.
It's a beautiful melody, a haunting melody.
It so much reflects life and athelasm.
One of the finest American folk carols, discovered in the twentieth century, I Wonder As I Wonder,
grew out of three lines of music sung without accompaniment by a young girl named Annie
Morgan.
She sang the tune in the town square of Murphy, North Carolina, in July of 1933,
during a revivalist meeting.
_ The reason for singing that day?
Her family, revivalists
all, were about to be ejected by the police for having overstayed their welcome by squatting
in the town square, making matters worse they were cooking, washing, and hanging their wash
from a town square monument and fountain, and generally conducting themselves in such
a way as to be classified as a public nuisance.
_ Annie's father, Preacher Morgan, and her mother
pled poverty and asked town officials if they could hold one more meeting in order
to buy enough gas to get out of town.
It was then that Annie, unwashed but lovely, sang
the first three lines, I Wonder As I Wonder.
Now in attendance of that meeting was none
other than John Jacob Niles, one of America's great collectors of folk songs, who often
traveled throughout Appalachia in search of new song material.
_ Fascinated by the young
girl and the tune, he asked her to sing to him, and each time she did he would pay her
twenty-five cents.
After eight tries, all of which were carefully recorded in his own
musical shorthand, he could only jot down three lines of verse.
_ _ This original fragment
of melody and verse spawned an idea for a carol.
Niles soon added new lyric verses and
music and in 1934 published I Wonder As I Wonder in his volume Songs of Hill Folk.
_ Although
it may have originated from an anonymous nineteenth-century composer, I Wonder As I Wonder is the end product
of Niles' unique ability to quickly improvise something he was able to perfect because of
his own musical shorthand system.
_ Due to his persistence, a most haunting and beautiful
carol was fashioned, especially as it is performed by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson
[Dm] in American Christmas Classics.
_ Her magnificent voice [F] adds resonance to the carol's simple
poetry [Gm] by harking to one special day, many centuries [Bb] ago, when poor ordinary people beheld
a newborn child in the most humble surroundings. _
Niles also published another carol, titled
Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head, which, like I Wonder As I Wonder, is an example of rural
American folk carols, simple, _ genuine, and humble, essential qualities of carol gems
from the English countryside of the fourteenth and fifteenth century.
What makes these carols
even more endearing is the air of serenity in celebrating a stirring event that took
place in a poor stable a very long time ago.
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _
[E] _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _