I'll Hear That Trumpet Sound (lyrics and information)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a three part series that feature Spirituals that mention the angel Gabriel blowing his trumpet.

This post showcases a text version of the African American Spiritual "I'll Hear That Trumpet Sound". Two videos of that Spiritual are also featured in this post.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/08/in-that-great-gettin-up-mornin-gabriels.html for Part I of this series. Part I showcases the Spiritual "In That Great Gettin' Up Mornin'".

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/08/spirituals-blow-gable-blow-blow-your.html for Part III of this series. Part III showcases the Spiritual "Blow Gable Blow" and the Spiritual "Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel".

The content of this post is provided for historical, cultural, religious, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to those who composed this song and thanks to all those who collected this song. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post, and thanks to the performers in these videos and the publishers of these videos.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE ANGEL GABRIEL AND HIS TRUMPET
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel
"In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel (Hebrew: Gaḇrîʼēl, God is my strength; Arabic: جبريل, Jibrīl or جبرائيل Jibrāʾīl) is an angel who typically serves as a messenger sent from God to certain people...

In the Bible, Gabriel is mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments...

The trope of Gabriel blowing a trumpet blast to indicate the Lord's return to Earth is especially familiar in Negro spirituals. However, though the Bible mentions a trumpet blast preceding the resurrection of the dead, it never specifies Gabriel as the trumpeter. Different passages say different things: the angels of the Son of Man (Matthew 24:31); the voice of the Son of God (John 5:25-29); God's trumpet (I Thessalonians 4:16); seven angels sounding a series of blasts (Revelation 8-11); or simply "a trumpet will sound" (I Corinthians 15:52)."...

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Here's information about the original version of the Spiritual entitled "In That Great Getting Up Mornin'":
"The Negro student who brought this spiritual to his instructors at Hampton University shortly after the civil war reported that he had heard it sung at one of the secret midnight meetings held by the slaves in the pre-war days. The student states “I have heard my uncle sing this hymn and he told me how it was made. It was made by an old slave who knew nothing about letters or figures. He could not count the number of rails he would split when his master tasked him with splitting 150 a day. But he tried to lead a Christian life and he dreamed of the Great Judgment, and told his fellow-servants about it, and then made a tune to it and sung it in his camp-meetings. -From Religious Folk Songs Of The Negro As Sung In Hampton Institute (Originally published in 1874)reprinted in Album: Hootenanny Tonight [1959 Folkways Record album No 2511; Notes on the record by Irwin Silber]
http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/folkways/FW02511.pdf

Recorded at two hootenannies in New York City in the Spring of 1959.
Side 1 Band 3; Sung by Leon Bibb with Laura Duncan, Betty Sanders, and Pete Seeger

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From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=79284, posted by Q, 14 Mar 05 - 05:47 PM
...[The book] "Fisk Singers" says George L. White, Civil War veteran, song collector and first director of the Fisk Singers, collected "I'll Hear the Trumpet Sound]" from Jennie Jackson, a former slave. I'll Hear the Trumpet Sound"...

[LYRICS] First strain:
You may bury me in the East,
You may bury me in the West,
But I'll hear that trumpet sound
In that morning.

1. Father Gabriel in that day
He'll take wings and fly away,
For to hear the trumpet sound
In that morning.
You may bury him in the East,
You may bury him in the West;
But he'll hear the trumpet sound
In that morning.

Chorus:
In that morning, my Lord,
How I long to go,
For to hear the trumpet sound
In that morning.

2. Good old Christians in that day,
They'll take wings and fly away,
For to hear the trumpet sound
In that morning.
You may bury them in the east,
You may bury them in the West;
But they'll hear the trumpet sound
In that morning.

You may bury me in the East,
You may bury me in the West;
But I'll hear the trumpet sound
In that morning.

Chorus:
In that morning, my Lord,
How I long to go,
For to hear the trumpet sound
In that morning.

3. Good old preachers in that day,
They'll take wings and fly away, etc.

First strain and chorus:

4. In that dreadful judgement day,
I'll take wings and fly away, etc.

First strain and chorus:

Other 19th c. spirituals with mention of the trumpet are "In the Morning" ... and "Where Shall I Be When de Firs' Trumpet Soun'?" ...
-snip-
Masato Sakurai, another blogger in that same discussion thread wrote on 14 Mar 05 - 10:41 PM that this song is "Sometimes titled "You May Bury Me in the East," as in Johnson & Johnson, The Book of American Negro Spirituals, vol. 1, pp. 181-82 ["You May Bury Me in de Eas'"] .

Lyrics for the Spiritual "In The Morning" and for some other "Gabriel blow your trumpet" Spirituals are also found in that discussion thread.

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FEATURED VIDEOS
Example #1: Walter Arties - Hear the Trumpet Sound



VoiceOfProphecy, Uploaded on Oct 5, 2009

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Example #2: Myra Tate - I'll Hear De Trumpet Sound.mov



gradyrayam, Published on Apr 8, 2012

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