Category: folk music
Go Down Moses-There Is a Balm in Gilead-Deep River
This is one of a series of videos posted daily as a lead-up to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Wendeyaho
Sunday Morning music: Greensleeves
Sunday Morning Music: Advent 1
Wexford Carol, ‘s Umbo Aera, and The Holly and the Ivy
Sunday Morning Music: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
Sunday Morning Music: I Will Give My Love an Apple
Sunday Morning Music: a couple Irish tunes to greet the morning
(on a private note: hearty congratulations to the red haired band boy who will be 79 next month!)
Sunday Morning Music: Wendeyaho
This is based on a Native American hymn traditionally sung to the four directions in the morning by the women of the community. The harmonization, arrangement, and orchestrations are my own, as well as the video performance. I’ve done several settings–orchestra, solo piano, and choir–the piano solo (with some soft string pads) is presented here.
“Wendeyaho” is often described as a “Cherokee Morning Song.” However discussion of it on the Internet indicates that the word, “Wendeyaho,” is not contemporary Cherokee, although it may have its origins in an ancient form of the language. The translation I was able to piece together from various internet sources is as follows:
Translation – We n’ de ya ho
Freely translated: “A we n'” (I am),
“de” (of),
“Yauh” –the– (Great Spirit),
“Ho” (it is so).
Feel free to download the 2 page sheet music PDF from THIS LINK so you can play it at home, yourself. You need to do some tricky shifting of hands to cover all the parts in the last two variations, but it’s doable, I promise. If you don’t want to download anything, you can follow along on this graphic below.
The choir at Lakewood UCC, St. Petersburg, FL, where I’m the music director, enjoys singing my choral arrangement of Wendeyaho. It’s very simple and effective. You can see it HERE.
Sunday Morning Music: Down by the Sally Gardens