December 28 

Go, Tell It on the Mountain 

TEXT: John Wesley Work Jr.

b. August 6, 1872, Nashville, Tennessee

d. September 7, 1925, Nashville, Tennessee

The spirituals from enslaved African Americans are a rich contribution to hymnody. Often these songs were created in the fields as they worked and then passed on from generation to generation. Many were preserved through the effort of John Wesley Work and his two sons, John Jr. and Frederick, together with the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University. After the Civil War, John Sr. was an African American church choir director in Nashville, Tennessee. His sons carried on his passion to preserve this music, finding many original tunes in the Appalachian Mountains and valleys. John Jr. is credited with finding and writing the spiritual “Go, Tell It on the Mountain.”

TUNE: Spiritual

The creators improvised on their tunes (as with the texts). Most are simple and follow the pentatonic (five note) scale. This is what you hear if you play only the five black keys on the piano. The song can be sung as a round without producing dissonance. The rhythm of this tune is strong and energetic, using a jazz shuffle. This pattern uses dotted eighth notes connected to sixteenth notes rather than successive, even eighth notes. The tune is named for its first words, GO TELL IT.

The Jubilee Singers introduced the entire nation and the world to this music. They sang before Queen Victoria and President Chester Arthur. The famous composer Antonín Dvořák said of this music, “In the Negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music.… They are pathetic (moving, heart-rending), tender, passionate, melancholy, solemn, religious, bold, merry, gay. It is music that suits itself to any mood or purpose.”⁴²

As you sing this hymn … you are doing what every family does after a new baby is born: they go tell all their family and friends! Joy that is kept to yourself is incomplete. Sharing it completes the joy. If you see a beautiful sunset you want to say to those around you, “Look at that!” The shepherds could not keep it to themselves as they left the manger. Read again the Luke account as found in “Christmas in the Bible,” #24–26. They spread the word concerning what they had seen and heard, and all who heard it were amazed.

This carol is the believer’s call to tell people the real meaning of Christmas. It is the call of every Christian to share the joy so that all may come and find freedom from the slavery that sin has over them. Some people are slaves to sin without even realizing it. They think they have freedom to do as they please; but in truth, they are bound by the power of darkness. Jesus went to a mountain where He told people the good news. In the Sermon on the Mount, He said, “A city on a hill cannot be hidden … in the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:14, 16).

How soon the good feelings and love we share at Christmas are abandoned and we return to business as usual. But God wants us to carry the message and even the spirit of Christmas throughout the entire year. Remember, “Good News” begins with the letters GO.