#3 "I Wonder As I Wander": Folktune, Pseudo-Folktune, or Stolen Creative Property

I Wonder As I Wander: Folktune, Pseudo-Folktune, or Stolen Creative Property

                Many tunes of Americans carols have not survived the journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom, but one that has is “I wonder as I wander” that I would say is recorded more by vocal ensembles in the UK than any other including “Kings of Orient,” “Away in a manger,” “Joy to the world,” “It came upon a Midnight Clear,” and other American carols.

                     However, in the United States, it is not so popular outside of choir circles. In Europe, the number of times it is recorded, probably equals that of “O Little town of Bethlehem,” however across the pond, in regard to “O Little Town,” Ralph Vaughn William’s arrangement is used. In comparison with “I wonder,” I wonder” has kept its "original" settings at least those written by John Jacob Niles.

                   “I wonder as I wander” has not been victim or beneficiary to a new arrangements or put to different tune. Since being published in John Jacob Niles’ Songs of the Hill Folks, the carol has remained a mainstay of the carol tradition. With exception of choir circles, the carol is probably more popular across the pond then in the United States.

                      The issues that I have with Niles is that many of his songs that he “found” were never subsequently found by subsequent folk collectors or ethnomusicologists. But then again, if Vaughn Williams would have not heard the “Sussex Carol” sung by Mrs. Verrall, that carol may have remained buried -- or even subsequently lost. The only difference is that other versions of the “Sussex Carol” can be found, and none can be found of “I wonder as I wander.”

     The editors of the New Oxford Book of Carols state in reference to Niles’ “Lullay, thou tiny little child”:

“Later in his life Niles confessed that his interference with the folk material he had published ranged to alteration to entirely original composition, and it may be that the three excellent carols we have taken from his publication are among his original works rather than genuine survivals from a folk tradition” (the other carols being “I wonder” and “sing we the Virgin Mary”).

Niles claimed he had collected “I wonder” in Murphy, Cherokee County, North Carolina in 1933. Legend goes that in July of that year, he collected it from a ‘fragment’ he heard at evangelical fundraising meeting. In an unpublished autobiography, he describes a young girl named Annie Morgan, in raggedy clothes, singing the song while standing on a platform on her parent’s automobile. 

 

Murphy, North Carolina, U.S.A.

Owner of photo above is unknown. Infringement is not intentional and photo is used for educational purposes only with in the Fair Use clause of Section 107 of the Copyright Act. We will will be obliged ant take down request under the DMCA . 

 

 

She sang only one line and I am unsure if it was Niles or others that gave her a quarter to sing more lines. I'm pretty sure it was Niles. 

Niles came out with one to three lines (75 cents worth; $13.70 today adjusted for inflation), according to which version of events one believes. From there, Niles composed the melody extending it to four lines (that three or one more line depending on which version of the story you take).

Niles first performed the song in December 1933. The trouble is that Niles would later be aggressive in collecting royalties for this song. It’s unknown of Annie Morgan or her family received any compensation for the song above the $13.70 – we think not.

So was a pseudo-folk song? 

I see several possibilities:

• ·              It was a folksong, and Niles took the song from public domain and copyrighted it. This was very popular in the early 20^th Century, done by folk musicians and other musicians. For example, many blues songs taken from the public domain and later copyrighted by more popular and successful musicians;
• Niles got a fragment from Morgan and added on to it, then copyrighted his final product; 
•  The song was a song of the Morgan family and Niles adversely possessed it; and/or 
•  Niles composed the song and made up a “folk” story to disguise its origins.

                              A few weeks a go, I had a conversation with whom I will call Dr. C. a musicologist. He described how recently, he heard of musicians trying to copyright the text of the Psalms. We have had conversation across the years regarding a certain Mexican “sones” that were public domain, but then copyrighted by being the first one to make it to the copyright office.

                    A documentary called “A Lion’s Tale” was released a few years ago. It focused on Soloman Linda, the man who wrote the song “Mbube" which gained worldwide attention as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” and even more with the release of the animated film “The Lion King.” Linda would die in the early 1960s in utter poverty with no income gained from his composition. In the documentary, “A Lion’s Tale,” it describes Linda’s daughters living in poverty while his song made millions of dollars. 

                      My purpose here is not to rain on your carol concert, but these are things that come to my mind. Nevertheless, the carol has become famous worldwide regardless whether it is Niles' or Morgan's song. 

DISCLAIMER: Owner of photo or photos above is unknown. Infringement is not intentional and photo is used for educational purposes only with in the Fair Use clause of Section 107 of the Copyright Act. We will will be obliged any take down request under the DMCA.