I Wonder as I Wander (arr Vosbein)

From Wind Repertory Project
John Jacob Niles

John Jacob Niles (arr. Vosbein)


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General Info

Year: 1933 /
Duration: c. 5:10
Difficulty: III (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Neil A Kjos
Cost: Score and Parts - $40.00   |   Score Only - $5.00


Instrumentation

(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

I Wonder as I Wander is based on a melody John Jacob Niles heard in a small North Caroline town. A young girl was singing the tune, and he asked her to repeat it while he took down the haunting melody.

-Program Note from publisher


I Wonder as I Wander is a Christian folk hymn, typically performed as a Christmas carol, written by American folklorist and singer John Jacob Niles. The hymn has its origins in a song fragment collected by Niles on July 16, 1933.

While in the town of Murphy in Appalachian North Carolina, Niles attended a fundraising meeting held by evangelicals who had been ordered out of town by the police. In his unpublished autobiography, he wrote of hearing the song:

A girl had stepped out to the edge of the little platform attached to the automobile. She began to sing. Her clothes were unbelievable dirty and ragged, and she, too, was unwashed. Her ash-blond hair hung down in long skeins.... But, best of all, she was beautiful, and in her untutored way, she could sing. She smiled as she sang, smiled rather sadly, and sang only a single line of a song.

The girl, named Annie Morgan, repeated the fragment seven times in exchange for a quarter per performance, and Niles left with "three lines of verse, a garbled fragment of melodic material—and a magnificent idea". (In various accounts of this story, Niles hears between one and three lines of the song.) Based on this fragment, Niles composed the version of I Wonder as I Wander that is known today, extending the melody to four lines and the lyrics to three stanzas. His composition was completed on October 4, 1933. Niles first performed the song on December 19, 1933 at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. It was originally published in Songs of the Hill Folk in 1934.

-Program Note from Wikipedia


Media


State Ratings

  • Virginia: VI


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Foothill Symphonic Winds (Palo Alto, Calif.) (David Bruce Adams, conductor) - 7 December 2014


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources