Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents an unofficial excerpt of Chris Fenner's 2023 online article about the history of the African American Spiritual entitled "I Know I've Been Changed". This Spiritual is also referred to as "The Angels In Heaven Done Signed My Name" among other titles.
The content of this post is presented for historical, educational, cultural, and religious purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to unknown composers of this Spirituals and thanks to the unknown and known collectors, arrangers and publishers of this Spiritual. Thanks to Chris Fenner for researching and publishing this article. Thanks to all who are quoted in this post.
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This post is part of a multi-part pancocojams series on the song "I Know I've Been Changed".
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[unofficial] ARTICLE EXCERPT
https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/the-angels-done-changed-my-name
"The Angels Changed My Name
I know I’ve been changed
McKEE
by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
8 February 2023
I. Origins
The roots of this spiritual trace back to the early collections of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, where this song first appeared in The Story of the Jubilee Singers, with Their Songs, edited by J.B.T. Marsh (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1875 | Fig. 1). These collections were cumulative, so the song continued to be printed in successive editions through the end of the century. In this instance, the song was given in two verses, the first beginning “I went to the hillside, I went to pray,” with an inner refrain, “I know the angels done changed my name.” It also had a full refrain (or chorus), beginning “Done changed my name for the coming day,” etc.
[...]Fig. 1. The Story of the Jubilee Singers, with Their Songs,
ed. J.B.T. Marsh (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1875).
The first verse of the Fisk version was presented as the basis for a sophisticated piano arrangement by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, in Twenty Four Negro Melodies (Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1905 | Fig. 2)
[...]
A similar version of the song appeared in R. Emmet Kennedy’s
Mellows: A Chronicle of Unknown Singers (NY: Albert & Charles Boni, 1925 |
Fig. 3). Kennedy explained, “Mellow is the Negro word for melody, and by this
term their devotional songs are called in Southern Louisiana.” Kennedy
(1877–1977) was the son of Irish immigrants, raised in Gretna, across the river
from New Orleans, on 7th Street, next door to New Hope Baptist Church, through
which he became enamored with spirituals. Regarding this spiritual, he
remembered “. . . Negro families sitting out on their front galleries, the rude
false-floors just a few inches above the water line, with an old shovel or a
battered dishpan filled with smoldering rags to smoke off the mosquitoes as
they sat there resignedly singing with impressive confidence, ‘Angel Done
Changed My Name’” (p. 35).
II. Early Analysis & Commentary
This song has sometimes been used to illustrate doctrinal beliefs as expressed in spirituals. In an article by J.C. Ryder in the Afro-American Encyclopedia (1895), “Christian Truth in Slave Songs,” the writer referred to this song as an example of the concept of spiritual conversion:
"How tenaciously they hold to the doctrine of Conversion and Regeneration, the union of the Divine and human in this great change of the soul, is abundantly proved. . . . We find their idea of conversion and regeneration, and the joy of a new-born soul illustrated in the following quaint hymn, “The Angels Done Changed My Name.” . . . Souls that sung and felt that, knew the experiences of the great apostle, when he said, “Wherefore if any man is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.” 2 Cor. v. 17. N.V. [pp. 259–260]
A similar article by H.H. Proctor, “The Theology of the Songs of the Southern Slave,” appeared in The Southern Workman, vol. 36, no. 11 (Nov. 1907), a publication of Hampton University. Proctor categorized this song as being representative of the repertoire’s focus on angels:
In all of the above examples, the texts and melodies as
presented by the authors were essentially identical to what Fisk University had
printed, demonstrating an unusual stability in the recording and dissemination
of this spiritual. Compare this to the breadth of variations printed of the
related song, “I know I’ve been changed,” in section IV below.
III. This spiritual was adapted and arranged as a hymn tune by African American composer-performer Harry T. Burleigh (1866–1949), intended for the text “In Christ there is no east or west” by John Oxenham. Burleigh’s arrangement was first printed as a broadsheet (Fig. 4) and submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office on 15 April 1940, then included in the Episcopal Hymnal 1940 (1943 | Fig. 5) and called McKEE, named after Elmore McNeill McKee, rector of St. George’s Episcopal, New York City, where Burleigh was a member.
The copyright for the tune was not renewed in 1968, according to the rules at the time, and thereafter became public domain.
IV. I Know I’ve Been Changed
Early in the 20th century, another spiritual emerged with a similar thematic idea, a similar inner refrain, although musically different in many respects, known generally as “I know I’ve been changed.” The earliest known copy of the song was printed in the National Baptist collection National Jubilee Melodies (1915). In this instance, the text was printed on one page, headed “Lord, I Know I’ve Been Changed,” the first stanza beginning “One day, one day I was walking along,” with the alternating refrain “The angels in heaven done wrote it down.” The tune indication was for a song called “Lord, I Can’t Turn Back.” The chorus featured rising and falling major triads and the tagline “just because I’ve been born again.” No earlier or later sources for “Lord, I Can’t Turn Back” are presently known.
A few years later, the song was included in Rodeheaver’s
Negro Spirituals (Chicago: Rodeheaver, 1923 | Fig. 7). This version also
featured major triadic shapes, with a slightly different inner refrain or
tagline, “The angels in heav’n have changed my name.” The stanzas were entirely
different from what the National Baptists had published, beginning “I told the
Lord if He’d take my heart.”
Herbert’s 1923 arrangement of the song was repeated in
Rodeheaver’s Gospel Solos and Duets (1925), Quartets for Men (1926), Southland
Spirituals (1936), and Sixty-Two Southland Spirituals (1946), then much later,
in the AMEC Bicentennial Hymnal (1984).
Rev. Wiseman would become the first person to record the
song, with his Wiseman Sextette, on 10 Aug. 1923 in New York City, for
Rodeheaver’s Rainbow Records (Rainbow 1086). Musically, the recorded version
differs somewhat in the way the melody is shaped and in the construction of the
harmonies, but the text is mostly the same, with an extra stanza, which is
difficult to make out. The tempo is quick. This recording has been reissued by
Document Records on Wiseman Sextette/Quartet Complete Recorded Works (DOCD-5520).
A notably different version of the song appeared in Saint Helena Island Spirituals (1925). St. Helena Island, South Carolina, was the home of the Penn Normal, Industrial, and Agricultural School. The songs were collected and transcribed by Nicholas Ballanta, a student-scholar from Sierra Leone, and he gave some indications of his methods:
The melodies of the spirituals contained in this volume were written down as sung by different individuals and by different groups of singers at Penn. . . . The harmonies of the spirituals were supplied by the St. Helena Quartette, . . . whose singing is an evidence of the advance in harmonic conception, that is, the feeling for definite tonality, attained by the Negro in his new environment. [p. xvii]
Fig. 8. Saint Helena Island Spirituals (1925).
Like the others, this version is in a major mode, but the chorus is very different, repeating “O write my name, O write my name, O write my name; the angel in heaven going to write my name,” and the solos are different too.
A version very similar to the St. Helena Island printing was
arranged for voice and piano by John Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954) for The
Second Book of Negro Spirituals (NY: Viking Press, 1926 | Fig. 9). Notice the
tempo indication, “Moderately Fast.”
In 1934, Cleavant Derricks (1910–1977) published his own
interpretation of the song in Pearls of Paradise (Chattanooga, TN:
Stamps-Baxter, 1934 | Fig. 10). At the time, Derricks was developing a
reputation in the Chattanooga community as a capable music director and
songwriter, and he had developed ties with the Stamps-Baxter office there.
Although this version did not have a tempo marking, the note values suggest a
brisk tempo, like what Rev. Wiseman had recorded a decade earlier. The song was
written in a major mode in the chorus, in which the angels have “changed my
name,” but the verses indicate minor thirds and sevenths in the solo voice,
sometimes against major thirds in the accompaniment. The pattern “I’ve been
redeemed / Jordan’s stream” is reminiscent of Rodeheaver’s version (Fig. 7),
otherwise the rest of the verses were new.
Fig. 10. Pearls of Paradise (Chattanooga, TN: Stamps-Baxter, 1934).
Little is known of the song’s development over the next twenty years. After WWII, its history played out on audio discs and airwaves moreso than in print. The song re-emerged in a big way in 1952 when it was recorded by the Dixie Hummingbirds on Peacock 1705. On the label, the song was credited to “Tucker,” that is, longtime group member Ira B. Tucker (1925–2008). A copy of the song had been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office on 17 December 1951, words and music by Don Deadric Robey and Ira Tucker. In this version of the song, the singers initially hint at a minor opening triad, but the accompanying voices settle and stay squarely in a major mode. The tempo was more relaxed, and Tucker exercised a lot of freedom over his interpretation, nicely contrasted against the tightly constructed background harmonies. Here the angels have “changed my name,” and “One of these mornings it won’t be long / You’ll look for me but I’ll be gone,” and “If you get there before I do / Look out for me, I’m coming too.” Particularly notable is the extended ending with the soloist’s cadenza and some advanced harmonies.
In 1934, Cleavant Derricks (1910–1977) published his own
interpretation of the song in Pearls of Paradise (Chattanooga, TN:
Stamps-Baxter, 1934 | Fig. 10). At the time, Derricks was developing a
reputation in the Chattanooga community as a capable music director and
songwriter, and he had developed ties with the Stamps-Baxter office there.
Although this version did not have a tempo marking, the note values suggest a
brisk tempo, like what Rev. Wiseman had recorded a decade earlier. The song was
written in a major mode in the chorus, in which the angels have “changed my
name,” but the verses indicate minor thirds and sevenths in the solo voice,
sometimes against major thirds in the accompaniment. The pattern “I’ve been
redeemed / Jordan’s stream” is reminiscent of Rodeheaver’s version (Fig. 7),
otherwise the rest of the verses were new.
Fig. 10. Pearls of Paradise (Chattanooga, TN: Stamps-Baxter, 1934).
Little is known of the song’s development over the next twenty years. After WWII, its history played out on audio discs and airwaves moreso than in print. The song re-emerged in a big way in 1952 when it was recorded by the Dixie Hummingbirds on Peacock 1705. On the label, the song was credited to “Tucker,” that is, longtime group member Ira B. Tucker (1925–2008). A copy of the song had been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office on 17 December 1951, words and music by Don Deadric Robey and Ira Tucker. In this version of the song, the singers initially hint at a minor opening triad, but the accompanying voices settle and stay squarely in a major mode. The tempo was more relaxed, and Tucker exercised a lot of freedom over his interpretation, nicely contrasted against the tightly constructed background harmonies. Here the angels have “changed my name,” and “One of these mornings it won’t be long / You’ll look for me but I’ll be gone,” and “If you get there before I do / Look out for me, I’m coming too.” Particularly notable is the extended ending with the soloist’s cadenza and some advanced harmonies.
[...]
Other early recordings include The Famous Davis Sisters on
the album Plant My Feet on Higher Ground (Savoy MG 14030, 1958), which is the
first known version with a gospel vamp; The Staples Singers, recorded in 1963
but not released until 1975 on the album Great Day (Milestone M-47028), which
includes the influential variant “the angels in heaven done signed my name”;
Dr. C.J. Johnson leading a congregation on The Old Time Song Service recorded
live in Atlanta in 1967 (Savoy MG-14173); Rev. Cleophus Robinson on He’s Done
Great Things (Peacock PLP 132, 1967); and a funk-inspired version by The
Victory Travelers on a 1967 single (Courtn 1003) and their subsequent
self-titled LP (Jade LP-100, 1970), in which the angels “done signed my name.”
This latter variant seems to suggest being registered in the Lamb’s Book of
Life (Phil. 4:3, Rev. 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12–15, 21:27). See also “The Blood
Done Sign My Name.”
Aside from Rodeheaver’s version appearing in the AMEC
Bicentennial Hymnal (1984), and the appearance of another version in Old Time
Prayer Meeting Hymns (1970), and apart from its general popularity in the
recording industry, the song has not yet achieved inclusion in modern hymnals
or congregational songbooks."
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This is the end of that article except for references.
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