babylon has fallen

[riptailedroarer]

Does any one know of the song " Babylon has fallen ( to rise no more)". I've found it was in the scard harp with music by W.E.Chute C.1878 but in other links it says the words are "traditional", and to confuse my search there is a vertion by henry work (?) and various Reggae artists.
I first heard the song when I was involved in English civil war reenacting in the 80s:o, great song to sing as you walk in to battle.with just the drum:D.
I have found the song on you tube being sung from the sacred harp, I just wondered if there was c/w tune for it.

[bhutton]

Re: babylon has fallen

I know that the '97th' Regiment String Band recorded a 'Civil War' version of this , but I don't know if the lyrics in their rendition are period or not, I always thought that they were.

[Danny]

Re: babylon has fallen

At least you can document the Henry Work Civil War version to an 1863 publish date:

http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200000040/pageturner.html?page=3&section=&size=640&from=pageturner

It's in a folio of Union-leaning songs written for Pianoforte.

Dan Wykes

[riptailedroarer]

Re: babylon has fallen

Thanks guys, thease are the lyrics I know http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=415

[amity]

Re: babylon has fallen

"Babylon is Fallen" is just a phrase from the Bible, and you can bet there have been MANY pieces of music by that title over the millenia. Be careful not to confuse them.

The Chute words I would bet are from 1878, because the people who do the editing on the Sacred Harp know their stuff pretty well. The tune that goes with those words is apparently a set piece, so from the same date.

In general, each piece of poetry has a specific meter, for example in the Sacred Harp's Babylon is Fallen it is 8s7s (8 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables in the second, and so on), and you can sing those words to any piece of music with that same meter. ('Meter' is not the same thing as 'time signature.') That is what was done in the period, too.

[Hank Trent]

Re: babylon has fallen

Thanks guys, thease are the lyrics I know http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=415

Search the first line in google books. There are several hits for the same words in songbooks going back to the very early 19th century.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[amity]

Re: babylon has fallen

You are right, Hank. I just checked and it is only the tune that is 1878. My bad.

[Danny]

Re: babylon has fallen

...The Copyright was issued August 1864.....so are you square to play it at an 1863 event...

For the Civil War version sheet music, it was issued in1863. Then, as now, applying for Copyright was all that was necessary to protect it pending formalities.

Dan Wykes

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: babylon has fallen

I hate "Babylon is Fallen," but sure enough it's ACW and it's 1863:

http://www.pdmusic.org/work.html

Also:

http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/lo...0/default.html

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: babylon has fallen

The first site has a publication date of 1863 and the second site has an issue date of 1863.

Even today copyright can follow publication. You send the Library of Congress a couple copies of your book, sheet music, or whatever and then they process it. The process isn't instantaneous now, and I imagine the music division (or clerk) was inundated with stuff back then.

I can't say how widespread it was, but Work's stuff got around. "Marching Through Georgia" couldn't have been written until the beginning of 1865, but by the time of the Grand Review Sherman was already sick of it.

[Hank Trent]

Re: babylon has fallen

The August 17, 1863 edition of the New York Times had the following ad listing three new songs:

Just published by Root & Cady.
BABYLON IS FALLEN. Henry C. Work. Price 25 cents.
This is the sequel to Mr. Work's "Kingdom Coming," and is we think, destined to become equally popular...

For sale at all the Music Stores, or may be obtained by inclosing marked price to ROOT & CADY, Chicago.

It's from ancestry.com by subscription, so I can't post a direct link to the image of the page. :( Edited to add, if anyone already has a subscription, this link might work.

I expect the sheet music that they're refering to would have looked like this. Hope that's a permanent link. If not, search here for the title.

That sheet music includes the words, but appears to have the same tune as the instrumental sheet music that Danny posted.

The words clarify that this tune wasn't meant to be for the hymn of the same name. Just as the publishers say, it's a sequel to Kingdom Coming, and is a similar comic dialect song, this time about the USCT.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Rmhisteach]

Re: babylon has fallen

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/babylon-is-fallen/

Babylon Is Fallen! - Henry Clay Work
Don't you see de black clouds
Risin' ober yonder,
Whar de Massa's old plantation am?
Neber you be frightened,
Dem is only darkies,
Come to jine an' fight for Uncle Sam,

Look out dar, now!
We's agwine to shoot!
Look out dar, don't you understand?
(Oh, don't you know dat)
Babylon is fallen!
Babylon is fallen!
An' we's agwine to occupy the land.

Don't you see the lightnin'
Flashin' in de canebrake,
Like as if we's gwine to hab a storm
?
No! You is mistaken,
'Tis darkies' bay'nets,
An' de buttons on dar uniform.

Way up in the cornfield,
Whar you hear de tunder,
Dat is our ole forty-pounder gun;
When the shells are missin',
Den we load wid punkins,
All de same to make the cowards run.

Mass was de Kernel
In de Rebel army,
Eber sence he went an' run away;
But his lubly darkies,
Dey has been a-watchin',
An' dey take him pris'ner tudder day.

We will be be the Massa,
He will be the sarvant,
Try him how he like it for a spell;
So we crack de Butt'nuts,
So we take the Kernel,
So the cannon carry back de shell.

[Danny]

Re: babylon has fallen

They published it before it was copyrighted ?

Not unusual, Chris. It's similar to patents; think of Gibson P.A.F. (Patent Applied For) humbuckers. They sold 'em before the patent was granted.*

Dan Wykes

*As we've noted on the thread before, by the time of the Civil War the concept of popular music marketing and mass distribution was fully established. If the music was based on a topical newsworthy item (death of Ellsworth, a battle or whatever) the time from writing to publish and distribution was weeks, not months or years - a big profit motive. You wouldn't wait until the Gov't granted the paper, because you were protected retroactive to the point you applied.

I'm no historical lawyer at all, that's my understanding and anyone please check me on that. I do know that today an author doesen't even have to apply, because copyright is implied even without indicating so. Especially if you merely mark it with a "(c) the year Your Name". Then only if it's challenged, you have first permission to apply for to register your claim, and only then do you have to pay $$ to have it approved and registered. That's intended so that budding authors aren't burdened financially but still are protected where it counts.

[Danny]

Re: babylon has fallen

The topic being Copyright, not Patent, that particular CW version of "Babylon Has Fallen" was issued in 1863, while apparently the copyright was not approved and recorded til many months later. I wonder if folks getting the sheet music waited until 1864 to play it?

But thanks for the patent law advice. Gibson was apparently criminally negligent in marking and selling their humbuckers "Patent Applied For", and criminal as well any manufacturer who sells products with a "patent applied for" or "patent pending" mark on it. Who'd a-thunk it? :)

Dan Wykes

[Danny]

Re: babylon has fallen

Lets apply the standard of the A/C to it...So at best it seems to limited to late war...

? Nobody's promoted use of the 1863 version before late war anyway. But whatever. If someone must have a tune of that name there are earlier versions.

Dan Wykes