Pete Seeger once remarked something like: “Plagiarism is the essence of culture.” For all that, he liked to give credit where it was due. And so it was that many of us came to the discovery of an “old Quaker hymn” that he introduced in folk music circles, a piece he had learned from Doris Plenn, a Quaker who taught him an old hymn she had learned in her childhood from her grandmother, who apparently believed it to be a hymn from her Quaker tradition. The song was “My Life Flows on in Endless Song”, often referred to by the final line of each stanza: How Can I Keep from Singing”.
The real story of the song’s origin becomes however more and more mysterious. Especially because there are not THAT many Quaker hymns out there. (OK, huge caveat: an English Quaker, Jessie Adams, wrote the lyrics to I Feel the Winds of God Today, but that is another story.)
Since How Can I Keep from Singing was sung by three friends when Lynn and I got married in 1986, using a beautiful traditional harmony, I have been increasingly curious about its origins. Okay maybe just a little…obsessed. I mean, it’s a beautiful tune and beautiful, even haunting lyrics.
The advent of the internet has made sleuthing more convenient, but the questions on this one seem to grow faster than the answers.
Here’s the (my) latest version.
The earliest published version of anything like the lyrics of the current hymn and song was apparently (according to one Barbara Swetman) in the New York Observer on August 27, 1868. It was ascribed to “Pauline T." (http://home.olemiss.edu/~mudws/texts/singing.txt).
The following year in 1869, a volume of Sunday School Hymns entitled Bright Jewels for the Sunday School was published, edited by Baptist preacher and composer Robert Lowry. Song number 16? The precise words from the New York Observer, no author listed for the lyrics. In the upper right hand corner, where the composer’s name would normally go, these initials: R.L. Nothing surprising in that silence about the author—the introduction to the volume informs us that some authors have preferred to remain anonymous. And many of the hymns in the volume where a composer’s name may be include only the modest intials “R.L..” But the question then arises: why did Lowry, the editor, include his full name on two others of the songs? (Work To Do for Jesus, no.20 lists Rev. R. Lowry, also no. 92, Christian Freedom Song). Did the abbreviated R.L. indicate that he was the collector or the arranger? No hint, except R.L. (https://archive.org/stream/brightjewelsfors00lowr#page/16/mode/2up)
The words and tune have been frequently republished in hymnals and gospel songbooks since, generally citing Lowry as author and composer—although he suggested only the latter, and then only with initials. Over the years they have changed a bit! Even in hymnals. For example in some a single half-verse becomes the chorus. Not so in Lowry's version.
Oh and one more suggestion for the author of the words is Anne Warner, who apparently is known to have authored one of the other sets of anonymous lyrics in Robert Lowry’s 1869 collection. I haven’t had time to research this claim but it seems like a stretch…especially if the claim about Pauline T and the piece in the Observer is correct.
Clearly Pete Seeger wasn’t aware of all this published legacy of the song—but received it from what in the jargon of biblical studies is sometimes referred to as a “separate tradition stream”. The words as Seeger received—or adapted— drop the explicit Jesus references and add a verse, apparently the contribution of Doris Plenn herself, from the early 1950’s—a response to the imprisonment of friends in the McCarthy era, some say (for example Peter Blood and Annie Patterson in Rise Up Singing, 2004 ed.). But it reads like something from the 17th or 18th century!
When tyrants tremble sick with fear
and hear their death knells ringing,
When friends rejoice both far and near
how can I keep from singing?
In prison cell and dungeon vile
our thoughts to them are winging,
When friends by shame are undefiled,
how can I keep from singing?
This confusion actually led to a copyright battle over the use of the words by Enya in a later popular recording! (http://enya.sk/shepherd-moons/how-can-i-keep-from-singing.php)
SO here is the long and the short of it.
As of 1869 the song was circulating in Sunday Schools throughout the US, thanks to the efforts of Robert Lowry with his R.L. in the top righthand corner of the page. No one really knows where he got the words—whether from Pauline T or Anne Warner, or some earlier source. No one can say whether he wrote the melody, adapted a folk tune for the words, or wrote an arrangement for a traditional melody with existing words.
In the first half of the 20th century Quakers in North Carolina were singing more or less the same song, which at least Doris Plenn’s grandmother thought of as a traditional piece from her tradition, much older.
Starting in the 1950’s a variety of folksingers were singing Pete Seeger’s version of the song, with Doris Plenn’s contribution added.
By the 21st century her words and other adaptations, as well as various musical adjustments, have migrated into hymnals, recombining the two musical strands in a variety of increasingly disparate ways.
For the sake of comparison here are just two of the most basic sets of lyrics:
1.The oldest we have, Pauline T’s and (adjusted punctuation) Lowry’s version.
2. The Seeger/Plenn adaptation of the traditional version from her grandmother.
Numerous other versions adapting from one or both are available at Hymnary.org.
ALWAYS REJOICING (HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING)
Words attributed to "Pauline T."
in The New York Observer, 27 August 27, 1868.
[located by Barbara Swetman]
My life flows on in endless song:
Above earth's lamentation,
I catch the sweet, tho' far-off hymn
That hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing;
It finds an echo in my soul--
How can I keep from singing?
What tho' my joys and comfort die?
The Lord my Saviour liveth;
What tho' the darkness gather round?
Songs in the night he giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm,
While to that refuge clinging;
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth,
How can I keep from singing?
I lift my eyes; the cloud grows thin;
I see the blue above it;
And day by day this pathway smooths,
Since first I learned to love it.
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,
A fountain ever springing;
All things are mine since I am his--
How can I keep from singing?
HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING
Pete Seeger/Doris Plenn Version (sometimes adds original final verse slightly adapted)
My life flows on in endless song
above earth's lamentation
I hear the real, tho' far-off hymn
that hails a new creation
Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear that music ringing;
It sounds an echo in my soul,
how can I keep from singing?
What though the tempest round me roars,
I hear the truth, it liveth.
What though the darkness round me close,
songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm
while to that rock I'm clinging.
Since Love is Lord of Heaven and earth,
how can I keep from singing?
When tyrants tremble, sick with fear,
and hear their death-knells ringing,
When friends rejoice both far and near,
how can I keep from singing?
In prison cell and dungeon vile
our thoughts to them are winging.
When friends by shame are undefiled,
how can I keep from singing?
[Not always included in the singing of Seeger but present in some of the written versions]
I lift my eyes, the cloud grows thin,
I see the blue above it
And day by day this pathway clears,
since first I learned to love it
The peace of God restores my soul,
a fountain ever springing
All things are mine, since I am loved,
how can I keep from singing?
The real story of the song’s origin becomes however more and more mysterious. Especially because there are not THAT many Quaker hymns out there. (OK, huge caveat: an English Quaker, Jessie Adams, wrote the lyrics to I Feel the Winds of God Today, but that is another story.)
Since How Can I Keep from Singing was sung by three friends when Lynn and I got married in 1986, using a beautiful traditional harmony, I have been increasingly curious about its origins. Okay maybe just a little…obsessed. I mean, it’s a beautiful tune and beautiful, even haunting lyrics.
The advent of the internet has made sleuthing more convenient, but the questions on this one seem to grow faster than the answers.
Here’s the (my) latest version.
The earliest published version of anything like the lyrics of the current hymn and song was apparently (according to one Barbara Swetman) in the New York Observer on August 27, 1868. It was ascribed to “Pauline T." (http://home.olemiss.edu/~mudws/texts/singing.txt).
The following year in 1869, a volume of Sunday School Hymns entitled Bright Jewels for the Sunday School was published, edited by Baptist preacher and composer Robert Lowry. Song number 16? The precise words from the New York Observer, no author listed for the lyrics. In the upper right hand corner, where the composer’s name would normally go, these initials: R.L. Nothing surprising in that silence about the author—the introduction to the volume informs us that some authors have preferred to remain anonymous. And many of the hymns in the volume where a composer’s name may be include only the modest intials “R.L..” But the question then arises: why did Lowry, the editor, include his full name on two others of the songs? (Work To Do for Jesus, no.20 lists Rev. R. Lowry, also no. 92, Christian Freedom Song). Did the abbreviated R.L. indicate that he was the collector or the arranger? No hint, except R.L. (https://archive.org/stream/brightjewelsfors00lowr#page/16/mode/2up)
The words and tune have been frequently republished in hymnals and gospel songbooks since, generally citing Lowry as author and composer—although he suggested only the latter, and then only with initials. Over the years they have changed a bit! Even in hymnals. For example in some a single half-verse becomes the chorus. Not so in Lowry's version.
Oh and one more suggestion for the author of the words is Anne Warner, who apparently is known to have authored one of the other sets of anonymous lyrics in Robert Lowry’s 1869 collection. I haven’t had time to research this claim but it seems like a stretch…especially if the claim about Pauline T and the piece in the Observer is correct.
Clearly Pete Seeger wasn’t aware of all this published legacy of the song—but received it from what in the jargon of biblical studies is sometimes referred to as a “separate tradition stream”. The words as Seeger received—or adapted— drop the explicit Jesus references and add a verse, apparently the contribution of Doris Plenn herself, from the early 1950’s—a response to the imprisonment of friends in the McCarthy era, some say (for example Peter Blood and Annie Patterson in Rise Up Singing, 2004 ed.). But it reads like something from the 17th or 18th century!
When tyrants tremble sick with fear
and hear their death knells ringing,
When friends rejoice both far and near
how can I keep from singing?
In prison cell and dungeon vile
our thoughts to them are winging,
When friends by shame are undefiled,
how can I keep from singing?
This confusion actually led to a copyright battle over the use of the words by Enya in a later popular recording! (http://enya.sk/shepherd-moons/how-can-i-keep-from-singing.php)
SO here is the long and the short of it.
As of 1869 the song was circulating in Sunday Schools throughout the US, thanks to the efforts of Robert Lowry with his R.L. in the top righthand corner of the page. No one really knows where he got the words—whether from Pauline T or Anne Warner, or some earlier source. No one can say whether he wrote the melody, adapted a folk tune for the words, or wrote an arrangement for a traditional melody with existing words.
In the first half of the 20th century Quakers in North Carolina were singing more or less the same song, which at least Doris Plenn’s grandmother thought of as a traditional piece from her tradition, much older.
Starting in the 1950’s a variety of folksingers were singing Pete Seeger’s version of the song, with Doris Plenn’s contribution added.
By the 21st century her words and other adaptations, as well as various musical adjustments, have migrated into hymnals, recombining the two musical strands in a variety of increasingly disparate ways.
For the sake of comparison here are just two of the most basic sets of lyrics:
1.The oldest we have, Pauline T’s and (adjusted punctuation) Lowry’s version.
2. The Seeger/Plenn adaptation of the traditional version from her grandmother.
Numerous other versions adapting from one or both are available at Hymnary.org.
ALWAYS REJOICING (HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING)
Words attributed to "Pauline T."
in The New York Observer, 27 August 27, 1868.
[located by Barbara Swetman]
My life flows on in endless song:
Above earth's lamentation,
I catch the sweet, tho' far-off hymn
That hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing;
It finds an echo in my soul--
How can I keep from singing?
What tho' my joys and comfort die?
The Lord my Saviour liveth;
What tho' the darkness gather round?
Songs in the night he giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm,
While to that refuge clinging;
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth,
How can I keep from singing?
I lift my eyes; the cloud grows thin;
I see the blue above it;
And day by day this pathway smooths,
Since first I learned to love it.
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,
A fountain ever springing;
All things are mine since I am his--
How can I keep from singing?
HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING
Pete Seeger/Doris Plenn Version (sometimes adds original final verse slightly adapted)
My life flows on in endless song
above earth's lamentation
I hear the real, tho' far-off hymn
that hails a new creation
Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear that music ringing;
It sounds an echo in my soul,
how can I keep from singing?
What though the tempest round me roars,
I hear the truth, it liveth.
What though the darkness round me close,
songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm
while to that rock I'm clinging.
Since Love is Lord of Heaven and earth,
how can I keep from singing?
When tyrants tremble, sick with fear,
and hear their death-knells ringing,
When friends rejoice both far and near,
how can I keep from singing?
In prison cell and dungeon vile
our thoughts to them are winging.
When friends by shame are undefiled,
how can I keep from singing?
[Not always included in the singing of Seeger but present in some of the written versions]
I lift my eyes, the cloud grows thin,
I see the blue above it
And day by day this pathway clears,
since first I learned to love it
The peace of God restores my soul,
a fountain ever springing
All things are mine, since I am loved,
how can I keep from singing?