Michael Mosoeu Moerane Scholarly Edition

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The tune, ‘It’s Me, O Lord’ originated as a slave song, as did so many other American spirituals. It was orally transmitted until the late 19th century, when, among others, Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949) arranged it, along with some 200 or more other spirituals, for voice and piano. Moerane may have used one of Burleigh's songbooks as the source for his setting of It’s Me, O Lord, which is in call-and-response style, led by the Soprano, with increasing harmonic and contrapuntal elaborations as the song progresses. The version sung below was arranged by Moses Hogan, and in the absence of a recording of Moerane's version, it gives a good idea of the piece, not straying too far from the simple harmonic setting Moerane made, although there are different melodic twists (as there are with all variants on this tune).

Duration: 2'00"