I Got A Home In-a Dat Rock

I Got A Home In-a Dat Rock is one of eight ‘Negro Spirituals’ (as Moerane called them) that he harmonised, and like so many others, it originated as slave song. African American composer Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949) collected hundreds of spirituals, many of which he learned from his grandfather, and it may well be in Burleigh’s solo version in the songbook, Negro Spirituals published by Ricordi in 1917, that Moerane found the tune. The rendition by Paul Robeson on Youtube is sung as a solo with piano, and he may be singing Burleigh’s version. Moerane’s setting captures the gentle lyricism of the song, with the Soprano carrying the melody while the accompanying voices alternately sing and hum the harmonies. In order to help choirs learn Moerane’s choral version, a free rehearsal mp3 at a slow tempo is downloadable when the song is purchased.
Duration: 1’18”

The audio sample below was generated from the Sibelius file of the score and the image on the right shows the first page of the score.