Talk:Oh Shenandoah

message: Cantus is an acappella group that sings this song, but their lyrics are very different. Can anybody write them down for me?
67.78.21.14 22:59, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Cantus

message: James Erb has another version of the song that has been widely known among choirs for years. Should I write it down as an alternate version?
loulou 21:42, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That theory is consistent with the "I'm bound to leave" line. A servant could easily have been required to travel down the Shenandoah R. to reach the Missouri R. The Roud collection includes references to this as a cowboy/western song. Unfortunately, such speculation is out of scope for Wikipedia, which only uses published reliable sources.User:LeadSongDog come howl 23:15, 6 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: James Erb

message: I have deleted the paragraph theorizing that Shenandoah, Iowa is the source of this song.  It was not incorporated until 1871 and is not a Missouri river crossing.  Baileypalblue (talk) 07:29, 5 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Shenandoah, Iowa

message: 'Oh Shenandoah' seems to have become a big popular choice for concerts etc in England by 1930, so The Times columns hosted one of those debates about origins.(The Times, Friday, Sep 12, 1930; pg. 8; Issue 45616; col B Letters: "Shenandoah" Origin In A Negro Spiritual? A. A. BROOKINGTON.)  Some of the suggestions were a bit flaky (e.g. it's a misheard version of the Gregorian chant 'Agnus Dei') but the letter by A.A. Brookington of 87 Canning Street Liverpool quoted sources, dates and a variant version of the first two verses, so I have added a reference to it.  Brookington also added that Cecil Sharp collected it from John Short of Watchet, an ex-chanteyman, who was emphatic that it was a "good capstan chantey".  On the other hand he notes his source J.E.Laidlaw of San Francisco, who sailed in British sailing ships with mixed black and white crews in the 1890s, considered it a surprising favourite because of "its lack of the usual rhythm for a capstan song."  Brookington wonders if therefore the version Sharp collected from John Short had been adapted to make its rhythm suitable for use as a capstan shanty.RLamb (talk) 15:15, 11 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Out of general curiosity, I'd love to see the 1930 letter by A.A. Brookington, but I've listened repeatedly to every version of "Shenandoah" that I could find, and read what little I could find about its origins, and haven't heard anything, in the sound or lyrics, suggesting any form of 19th century black music.2603:7000:B23D:C116:D9F7:7D99:97F2:FE70 (talk) 20:29, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
thread_title: Debate about Shenandoah origins in ''The Times'' of 1930 

message: The Wikipedia article "Oh Shenandoah" contains a link for Alfred Mason Williams but actually goes to an article on Alfred Owen Williams. Both men were poets, but Alfred Mason Williams was primarily a newsman, editor, publisher, and literary scholar. He was born October 23, 1840 in Taunton, Massachusetts and died March 9, 1896 in the West Indies. He wrote and published 4 books including the one cited and was the editor of the Providence Journal in R.I.  Horace Greely was his mentor and sent Williams on assignment to Ireland where Williams gathered information for his book on Celtic folk songs in addition to his newspaper work on the trial of the Fenian leaders. Some think that "The Poets and Poetry of Ireland" was Williams' finest bit of literary work.
The link appears in the "Oh Shenandoah" article as printed below:
Alfred Mason Williams' 1895 "Studies in Folk-song and Popular Poetry" called it a "good specimen of a bowline chant".[10] 
Respectfully,
Booker11 (talk) 16:08, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  error in "Oh Snenandoah" article link 

message: You've gone west and miss home?  I think that's the theme.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.41.117.182 (talk) 08:50, 1 November 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Isn't this song about missing Virginia? 

message: The composer for this song is unknown, as with most older and traditional folk songs. The infobox parameter is for the actual composer (many modern folk songs, such as those from the 1950s and 1960s, have known composers), not for arrangers or adapters. Softlavender (talk) 22:46, 10 April 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: *That's not how the infobox works. The composer field is for the composer of the song. The song has a melody that has been carried through time since at least the mid-1800s, and no one knows how it orginated so it is not attributable to a composer. Dozens of 20th-century composers and arrangers have arranged, adapted, or incorporated the work, as with any popular traditional folksong; that in no way makes them the composer or warrants mention in the infobox. Softlavender (talk) 04:22, 11 April 2018 (UTC)
replies: text:  Maybe, so "don't work" other infoboxes, but this one do. For any traditional song, it's important to demonstrate its evolution, its different versions (incl. the "incorporated" ones), its arrangers and performers (not only the first, original ones). So do the folklorists and musicologists, so can do any editor. --Tamtam90 (talk) 07:17, 11 April 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: That is done, as usual, in the body text of the article. The infobox parameter is for the original composer. Softlavender (talk) 09:07, 11 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Composer