New Vital Sparks: O Come, Come Away” is gone away

Will Fitzgerald

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Sep 6, 2025, 10:23:20 PMSep 6

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Ok, 334 O COME AWAY is not a parody of a German drinking song. Fight me.

See: https://vitalsparks.beehiiv.com/p/vital-sparks-o-come-come-away-is-gone-away

Will

Wade Kotter

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Sep 8, 2025, 3:10:35 AMSep 8

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Will, I think you might find the texts associated with this tune in the following interesting:

https://archive.org/details/wreatho00whit/page/120/mode/2up?view=theater [copyright 1847]

https://archive.org/details/wreatho00whit/page/120/mode/2up?view=theater [copyright 1847, dated 1848]

https://archive.org/details/christian00leon/page/225/mode/1up?view=theater [copyright 1847, dated 1847]

https://archive.org/details/americanchurchha00rhin/page/86/mode/2up?view=theater [dated 1848]

https://archive.org/details/cihm_49075/page/n15/mode/2up?view=theater [dated 1848] [temperance song]

https://archive.org/details/westernrecorder81952zane/page/n257/mode/1up?view=theater [December 23, 1847; temperance song]

https://archive.org/details/sim_scientific-american_1846-11-14_2_8/page/n1/mode/1up?view=theater [January 1846; column 1; note the attribution to D. H. Mansfield]

Just some interesting things to consider. Note that I don't necessarily disagree with your conclusion

Wade

Dr. Wade Kotter

Retired Librarian

Independent Hymnologist and Unrestrained Loud Treble

South Ogden, UT

"Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord"

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Karen Willard

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Sep 8, 2025, 1:29:28 PMSep 8

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Will--

The Millerites and subsequent Seventh-day Adventists sang this tune with a text about the "soon" 2nd Coming of Christ:

Addition to the Supplement to the Millennial Harp, ~1846+, (Boston) this date is speculative as the Supplement was added to the 1846 book but it's not known when

O come come away for time’s career is closing

The Advent Harp: Designed for Believers in the speedy Coming of Christ , 1849 (Boston)

O come come away for time’s career is closing

Hymns for Those who Keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus 1855 (Rochester NY)

O come come away for time’s career is closing

and included in many of the subsequent Adventist tunebooks. . .

Karen

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Fulton, Erin

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Sep 8, 2025, 1:46:33 PMSep 8

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Wade, did you perhaps append your Mansfield comment to the wrong link? I'm seeing no attribution, in any direction, in Scientific American.

Best,

E. Fulton.

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Subject: Re: [fasola-discussions] New Vital Sparks: O Come, Come Away” is gone away

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Wade Kotter

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Sep 8, 2025, 2:24:15 PMSep 8

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Oops. It appeared twice in Scientific American. Here's the one with the attribution to "D. Mansfield"

https://archive.org/details/sim_scientific-american_1846-01-29_1_20/page/n2/mode/1up?view=theater

Also, I sent the following links to Will but not to the Discussions group of what I believe may be the earliest version of the English text upon which the many later versions are based.

W. E. Hickson (William Edward Hickson) was a British author and educator. He was the editor of The Westminster Review, the English source I mentioned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Edward_Hickson

There is no connection between these words and the words of the German song most often referred to as KRAMBAMBULI, but also spelled CRAMBAMBULI. Here are links to two early German printings. I haven't located any earlier printings of the tune with or without the text.

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b98469 1818

https://archive.org/details/allgemeinescomme00meth/page/24/mode/1up 1823

Wade

Dr. Wade Kotter

Retired Librarian

Independent Hymnologist and Unrestrained Loud Treble

South Ogden, UT

"Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord"

Robert Vaughn

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Sep 8, 2025, 3:14:06 PMSep 8

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Interesting piece, Will. Also, thanks to the other contributors for their information as well. It seems, based on the links Wade provided, that at least some editors were aware of the tune’s German origins, whether or not they knew it was a drinking song. Also, a question. Is it well established that the tune known as KRAMBAMBULI originated as a drinking song? Or, was it an existing tune that was commandeered for that purpose?

Will, you wrote, “In the 19th century, you could use this tune to express serious and heart-felt sentiments. In the 21st, this is not so.” If that it so, it perhaps says more about the state of 21st-century Western education than it does about the song itself.

As a person named after a grandparent who had a drinking problem, and which problem led to his early demise before I was born, I lament the loss of 334.

His Glories Sing,

Robert Vaughn

Mount Enterprise, TX

http://baptistsearch.blogspot.com

Ask for the old paths, where is the good way

http://mtcarmelbaptist.blogspot.com

For ask now of the days that are past...

http://oldredland.blogspot.com

Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.

On Monday, September 8, 2025 at 02:12:40 PM CDT, Robert Vaughn <rl_v...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Interesting piece, Will. Also, thanks to the other contributors for their information as well. It seems, based on the links Wade provided, that at least some editors were aware of the tune’s German origins, whether or not they knew it was a drinking song. Also, a question. Is it well established that the tune known as KRAMBAMBULI originated as a drinking song? Or, was it an existing tune that was commandeered for that purpose?

Will, you wrote, “In the 19th century, you could use this tune to express serious and heart-felt sentiments. In the 21st, this is not so.” If that it so, it perhaps says more about the state of 21st-century Western education than it does about the song itself.

As a person named after a grandparent who had a drinking problem, and which problem led to his early demise before I was born, I lament the loss of 334.

His Glories Sing,

Robert Vaughn

Mount Enterprise, TX

http://baptistsearch.blogspot.com

Ask for the old paths, where is the good way

http://mtcarmelbaptist.blogspot.com

For ask now of the days that are past...

http://oldredland.blogspot.com

Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.

https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/fasola-discussions/956383224.1276314.1757355809184%40mail.yahoo.com

.

David Warren Steel

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Sep 8, 2025, 9:31:54 PMSep 8

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Robert Vaughn writes:
>>>Is it well established that the tune known as KRAMBAMBULI originated as a drinking song? Or, was it an existing tune that was commandeered for that purpose?

A partial German text, with an even more partial adapted translation, is at
https://home.olemiss.edu/~mudws/texts/Krambambuli.txt

The author of Krambambuli was the German poet Christoph Friedrich Wedekind (1709-1777). The following paragraph appears in the German-language Wikipedia, here translated by Google. It does not specify the origin of the tune, but the poem quickly became a student favorite, and I think it likely that it was sung to this tune.

" Also in 1745, Wedekind published his 102-stanza eulogy to Krambambuli, the Danzig juniper brandy from the "Der Lachs" distillery. This poem was initially published as a single print in Halle, but Wedekind also included it in his collection of poems "Nebenstundener Zeitvertreib in Teutschen Gedichten," published in Danzig in 1747. His "Krammbambulist" soon found its way into student songbooks and became a popular folk song. "
--
Warren Steel                            mu...@olemiss.edu
Professor of Music Emeritus      University of Mississippi
          http://home.olemiss.edu/~mudws/

Wade Kotter

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Sep 9, 2025, 4:48:02 AMSep 9

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Here's are scans of the full original German text:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Krambambuli_(poem)#/media/File:Krambambuli_01.jpg

Note that the text on Warren's site is clearly an adaptation of only a few stanzas from the original to fit with the tune. There is even some wording in the student song version that is not in the original. This website gives some of the text similar to that on Warren's site along with a translation and, more interesting to me, a recording:

https://www.traditioninaction.org/Cultural/Music_P_files/P037_Kramb.htm

Here's a more modern sounding recording:

https://youtu.be/9Vq_TItXjVM

I rather doubt Wedekind intended this long poem as lyrics for a song and clearly his poem was adapted at some later time for singing, either using a new tune to set the text or, I believe less likely, an existing tune. The earliest printing of the tune with two verses the adapted from of Wedekind's text that I've been able to locate dates to 1818:

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b98469?urlappend=%3Bseq=34%3Bownerid=9007199258960743-48

Wade

Dr. Wade Kotter

Retired Librarian

Independent Hymnologist and Unrestrained Loud Treble

South Ogden, UT

"Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord"

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Wade Kotter

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Sep 9, 2025, 9:13:24 AMSep 9

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In the 1889 Latter-day Saints Psalmody, the first official LDS hymnal with music, a variant of this tune named GLENDALE was printed with the following text in three verses of four lines each with the last line repeated to fit the music:

1. The time is far spent--there is little remaining

To publish glad tidings by sea and by land;
Then hasten, ye heralds! go forward proclaiming--

Repent for the kingdom of heaven's at hand.

2. Shrink not for your duty, however unpleasant,

But follow the Savior, your pattern and friend:
Our little afflictions tho' painful at present.

Ere long, with the righteous in glory will end.

3. What though, if the favor of Ahman possessing,

This world's bitter hate you are call'd to endure,--
The angels are waiting to crown you with blessings;

Go brethren! be faithful, the promise is sure.

https://archive.org/details/latterdaysaintsp00unse/page/n262/mode/1up?view=theater

The text, however, goes back to 1841:

https://archive.org/details/collectionofsacr01smit/page/138/mode/2up

As noted, in this printing, the text is printed in three verses with eight lines each. Because of this, there is some speculation that it may have originally been sung to a different tune. It wasn't until 1851 that the text was printed in six verses of four lines each, which may be when the current tune came into use. The 1889 version left out some of the verses, but some were restored in latter hymnals. In 1871, the text was attributed to Eliza R. Snow, an attribution that continues in all later official LDS hymnals with or without music, including the 1985 hymnal which is currently being revised. It is likely that it will be retained in the new revision, possibly with some text and music revisions. I believe we are currently the only denomination to use this tune in a hymnal. Both the tune and the various texts associated with it have a long and convoluted history.

Wade

Dr. Wade Kotter

Retired Librarian

Independent Hymnologist and Unrestrained Loud Treble

South Ogden, UT

"Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord"

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B.E. Swetman

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Sep 9, 2025, 6:00:16 PMSep 9

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What an explosion in the 1840's with so many different sets of words! I wonder if any are true parodies since they seem more inspired by such a nice catchy phrase "O Come, come away", rather than a satire. Contrafacta might be better.

In almost every version that I checked the 4th measure from the end has 2 long notes. That line has 6 syllables. In The Sacred Harp those notes are quarter notes with 8 syllables in that line. Is Stowe responsible for that?

Barbara

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Wade Kotter

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Sep 9, 2025, 7:26:24 PMSep 9

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In my reading of the hymnological literature, the term "parody" when referring to a hymn text doesn't necessarily have the "satirical" sense associated with it in other contexts. It often refers to creating a "new" text that is is some way dependent on a existing text, with or without changing the music usually associated with that text. It can be satirical but doesn't have to be (anyone is welcome to disagree, of course). On the other hand, the term contrafact is generally used when substituting a sacred text for a secular text without significantly changing the music. None of the sacred (including temperance) texts I've found set to this tune can, in my opinion, be in any away connected to the the original German text, so they are not parodies of that text, but almost all of them do seem to be connected by the Hickson's English text from ca. 1840 by the reuse of the catchy phrase "O[h] come, come away." So I believe one possible view of the Sacred Harp version is that the text is, along with many other texts I documented, both a parody and a contrafact (a sacred parody?) of Hickson's text, and Hickson's version is a contrafact but not a parody of the German version. I suspect it was the combination of Hickson's words with the German tune, which is definitely fun to sing, that led to the explosion you describe, Barbara. I should say that I'm not convinced that the original LDS text was meant to be used with the tune it was set to in 1889 and I suspect it was not "inspired" by Hickson's text

Perhaps Warren can weigh in on my claim that the term "parody" does not always have the "satirical" sense in hymnological circles. I could be overstating my case.

Also, Will hasn't seen Stowe's collection, so unless someone else has (Warren or Dick), whether or not Stowe is responsible for the change you mention is an open question.

Wade

Dr. Wade Kotter

Retired Librarian

Independent Hymnologist and Unrestrained Loud Treble

South Ogden, UT

"Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord"

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Haruo (Leland)

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Sep 11, 2025, 1:35:55 PMSep 11

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Agreed. In classical literary studies, "parodic" verse is not by any means always satirical. In this sense, for example, one of Charles Wesley's best known hymns, "Love Divine", is often described as a parody; according to the Psalter Hymnal Handbook, «A verse from John Dryden's poem beginning with the words "Fairest isle, all isles excelling" used by Henry Purcell in his opera King Arthur were undoubtedly Wesley's inspiration for writing this text. In fact, "Love Divine" was set to a Purcell tune in John and Charles Wesley's Sacred Melody (1761).» The opening verses of the Gospel of John are, in this sense, a parody of a passage in one of the Deuterocanonical Books of the Old Testament ("Apocrypha" in customary Protestant usage).

Micah Walter

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Sep 11, 2025, 1:35:55 PMSep 11

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I can say that in a musicological context (my academic field), the term "parody" is indeed used for non-satirical replacements of one text with another – often either sacred to secular, or vice versa. When talking about this sort of think, I assume a value-neutral use of the word. In fact, it's my understanding that contrafactum and parody can be used as synonyms in some contexts (with contrafactum being generally associated with music of a particular time and place), though to be sure the lyrics of a parody are usually similar in some way to the original [What is a contrafactum? Wessex Parallel Web Texts].

There is also such a concept of non-textual musical parody, which involves reworking musical material into a different form or style [Book review of A Theory of Parody by Linda Hutcheon]. Thus the so-called "parody masses", also called "imitation masses", which rework an existing polyphonic work (sacred or secular) into a longer setting of the ordinary of the mass.

Micah

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Will Fitzgerald

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Sep 25, 2025, 8:47:17 PM (11 days ago) Sep 25

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Hey, I got a copy of the page of Melodies for the Temperance Band containing the version of Come, Come Away that Makers claimed as the source of 334 O COME AWAY (1991 edition). I am placing it belon and I've bolded the lines (other than the Come away lines) that appear in the 1860 Sacred Harp. (Librarians are great, and so is the inter-library loan program).

But but but — O COME AWAY was added to the 1850 Sacred Harp and the Melodies for the Temperance Band wasn't printed until 1856, so the text can't come from Melodies. It seems more likely that Melodies got the last two lines from The Sacred Harp. The first line is from the original poem, first published in 1842 — a social meeting poem, not a temperance poem. I put that poem at the end of this note.

Looks like I am going to have to rewrite my essay! My tentative conclusion is that the 1850 Sacred Harp is a something like a parody of the 1842 poem, which was already showing up in songsters in various formats, as discussed in my essay. Like PLENARY, it was easy to put words to.

Melodies version: Bold means it is a line in the 1850 Sacred Harp, Italic means is a line in the 1842 poem from Part Singing. It's clearly mainly an adaptation of the 1842 poem, with perhaps two lines taken from The Sacred Harp (or an unknown, third source).

Come, Come Away.

Oh, come, come away,

From labor now reposing,
Let busy care awhile forbear,
Oh, come, come away.
Come, come our social joys renew,
And here, where trust and friendship grow,
Let true hearts welcome you,
Oh, come, come away.

From toil and cares

On which the day is closing,
The hour of eve brings sweet repose,
Oh, come come away.
Oh, come where love will smile on thee,
And round the hearth will gladness be,
And time fly merrily,
Oh, come, come away.

The bright day is gone,

The moon and stars appearing,
With silver light, illume the night,
Oh, come, come away.
We’ll join the grateful songs of praise,
To him who crowns our peaceful days,
And health, and hope, and peace convey,
Oh, come, come away.

Come sign the pledge,

The sight is truly cheering,
We’ll raise our song, its notes prolong,
Oh come sign the pledge.
We sing the praise of Temperance,
We’re pledged to Total Abstinence
From all that can intoxicate,
Oh come sign the pledge.

Stowe, Phineas. Melodies for the Temperance Band: A Collection of Hymns and Songs, Designed for Temperance Meetings, Social Gatherings, &c., Nathaniel Noyes, Temperance Depository. 1856

Come, Come Away
A German Air,
Words by W.E. Hickson

Oh, come, come away,

From labor now reposing,
Let busy care a while forbear,
Oh, come, come away.
Come, come our social joys renew,
And there, where Trust and Friendship grew,
Let true hearts welcome you,
Oh, come, come away.

From toil, and the cares
On which the day is closing,
The hour of eve brings sweet reprieve,
Oh, come, come away:
Oh, come where love will smile on thee,
And round its hearth will gladness be,
And time fly merrily;
Oh, come, come away.

While sweet Philomel
The weary traveller cheering
With evening songs her note prolongs,
Oh, come, come away.
In answering songs of sympathy
We'll sing in tuneful harmony
Of Hope, Joy, Liberty.
Oh, come, come away.

The bright day is gone,
The moon and stars appearing,
With silver light illume the night,
Oh, come, come away.
Come, join your prayers with ours, address
Kind heaven our peaceful home to bless
With Health, Hope, Happiness,
Oh, come. come, away.

Westminster Review, Volume XXXVII, January and April 1842, Joseph Mason, New York, 1842, which contains a review of
Hickson, William E. Part Singing, or Vocal Harmony for Choral Societies and Home Circles, adapted to be sung by many voices, or with one voice only to each part. London, 1842. ("by the author of 'The Singing Master'")

The 1842 version, printed with music in the review, is explicitly described as having it's "German Air" based on Krambambuli: Specifically: "In ' Come, come away,' some of our readers will recognize the celebrated air of 'Crambambuli,' sung by all German students; the new words, however, relate not, as in the original, to an intoxicating liquor, but to a social reunion." Although the article is simply signed as "E," Hickson was the owner of the Westminster Review.

Will Fitzgerald

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Sep 25, 2025, 9:28:44 PM (11 days ago) Sep 25

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Jesse asked:

Will, have you looked at Hesperian Harp (1848)? I think I remember that Hauser is responsible for at least the treble in the Sacred Harp arrangement. I assume that HH is the immediate source for the 1850 ed.

Thanks, Jesse! The Hesperian Harp is one of the Sabbath school variants:

O come, come away!

The Sabbath school is passing,

Let's hasten to the Sabbath school,

O come, come away!

The Sabbath bells are ringing clear,

Their joyous peals delight my ear,

I love their voice to hear,

O come, come away!

Will Fitzgerald

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Sep 26, 2025, 10:08:30 PM (10 days ago) Sep 26

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Friends, Thanks for all the comments. Here's a draft of a new version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H1YR4WOTJPCsOL2tPO5WBRa4nKNiO3LYmYXLbhz-WbQ/edit?usp=sharing

I'd appreciate your comments there or in this discussion.

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