Hush, Hush, Somebody's Callin' Mah Name: A Song History

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"Hush, Hush, Somebody's Callin' Mah Name" is an African American spiritual; Hymnary.org lists its words as traditional and its tune as a spiritual, both in the public domain.[1][2] The same index links the text to three scripture passages: 1 Samuel 3:4, Isaiah 43:1-2 and Isaiah 45:3-4.[1]

Etching of a bearded old man seated in a chair with his hands folded in prayer

Salomon Koninck, An Old Man in a Chair, Praying, etching, 1624–56. Shown for the spiritual's mood of prayer; it has no connection to the song.

The earliest recording under a form of this title found in the sources consulted here was made for Victor in Camden, New Jersey, in July 1923 by the Bethel Jubilee Quartet, an unaccompanied male quartet; the disc label credits the group's bass singer, T. H. Wiseman, as composer, and those sources do not show whether his song is the same melody later printed in hymnals.[3] On July 21, 1927, the Sandhills Sixteen, a male chorus with piano directed by E. Ellsworth Giles, recorded "Hush! Hush! Somebody's Calling My Name" for Victor, whose ledgers say the song came from a "Book of golden bells"; the side was issued on Victor 20904.[4] The Mississippi Juvenile Quartette, a mixed quartet with piano, followed with an OKeh session in Memphis in February 1928.[5] In print, the earliest appearance in Hymnary.org's index is Edward Boatner's arrangement in Spirituals Triumphant Old and New, issued in 1927 by the Sunday School Publishing Board in Nashville.[1][6][7]

After that 1927 book, the hymnals Hymnary.org lists date from 1993 onward, with settings credited to Moses Hogan for Lift Every Voice and Sing II (1993), Jeffrey Radford for The New Century Hymnal (1995), Nolan Williams, Jr. for the African American Heritage Hymnal (2001) and several later books, and Jason Shelton for Singing the Journey (2005).[1][2] It also appears in Carol Crocker's Songs Of The Spirit, a 31-page book of African American spirituals she publishes herself, each set as a mountain dulcimer solo in DAD tuning with the words included.[8]

Our book that contains the song "Hush, Hush, Somebody's Callin' Mah Name"

Sources

  1. Hymnary.org: "Hush! Hush!".
  2. Hymnary.org: "[Hush, hush, somebody's callin' my name]".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UC Santa Barbara): "Victor matrix B-28172. Hush, somebody's calling my name / Bethel Jubilee Quartet".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UC Santa Barbara): "Victor matrix BVE-38994. Hush! Hush! Somebody's calling my name / Sandhills Sixteen".
  5. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UC Santa Barbara): "OKeh matrix W400351. Hush! Somebody's calling my name / Mississippi Juvenile Quartette".
  6. Hymnary.org: "Spirituals Triumphant Old and New, no. 64: Hush! Hush!".
  7. Hymnary.org: "Spirituals Triumphant Old and New".
  8. Carol Crocker: "Songs Of The Spirit".
  9. Image: Salomon Koninck, An Old Man in a Chair, Praying, etching, 1624–56. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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