I Wonder As I Wander: A Song History

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According to John Jacob Niles's own telling, this carol grew from a scrap of song he heard in 1933 in Murphy, in Cherokee County in western North Carolina, from a girl named Annie Morgan, whose family of traveling evangelists had been told by police to leave town.[1] Niles recalled paying her a quarter for each repetition and still coming away with just three lines of text and a fragment of tune.[1] By his account, he then wrote the remaining verses and shaped the melody himself; the sources consulted here differ on the month of the Murphy encounter.[1][2] He first sang the finished piece at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown that December, and G. Schirmer issued it in 1934 in his collection Songs of the Hill-Folk.[1]

Late 19th-century Appalachian dulcimer with a long narrow body and metal strings

Appalachian Dulcimer, American, cherry wood (?) and metal, late 19th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown because Niles made and played dulcimers; this one has no connection to him.

Because the carol sounds so much like an anonymous mountain song, many listeners have assumed it is one, and its authorship has been disputed.[2] Niles copyrighted it and later went to court to defend that copyright.[1][2] David Brose, a folk historian at the John C. Campbell Folk School, accepted Niles's story only in part, arguing that Niles supplied just the final lines and should not be credited with the whole song.[2] The carol spread widely all the same, through a Benjamin Britten arrangement, a Burl Ives recording, and its adoption by singers from Barbra Streisand to Vanessa Williams.[1]

Niles, a Louisville-born singer, writer and song collector, also carved wood and made a good share of his own stage instruments, dulcimers among them.[3] Some of the dulcimers he made and played are displayed at the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music at the University of Kentucky.[4]

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Sources

  1. N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources: ""I Wonder as I Wander": A Christmas Carol is Born in Cherokee County".
  2. Mountain Xpress: ""I Wonder as I Wander"—At 25¢ a performance, I tried to get her to sing all the song".
  3. Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame: "John Jacob Niles".
  4. University of Kentucky College of Fine Arts: "John Jacob Niles Center for American Music".