Little David: A Song History

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The Traditional Ballad Index identifies "Little David, Play on Your Harp," also printed simply as "Little David," by its refrain, adding that its other verses may tell of David's exploits or range loosely over other Bible subjects.[1] The earliest printing it records is in William E. Barton's Old Plantation Hymns, issued in Boston in 1899.[1][2] Barton's subtitle presented the book as a gathering of "hitherto unpublished melodies of the slave and the freedman," and his short note on this tune observes that it moves mostly through open notes and, though major, opens on la.[2] Hampton Institute's Religious Folk Songs of the Negro also carried it, on page 139 of the 1909 edition.[3]

Renaissance etching of the young David playing a harp for King Saul in an arched hall

Christoph Bockstorffer, David Playing the Harp before Saul, etching, 1531. David playing the harp before Saul, the scene behind the refrain; the etching has no connection to the song.

On December 8, 1909, a male quartet of the Fisk University Jubilee Singers, among them the tenor John Wesley Work, recorded it in Camden, New Jersey, for Victor.[4] The Ballad Index lists many later recordings, among them the Big Bethel Choir's on Columbia in 1926 and Brother Claude Ely's on King in 1954, as well as a 1959 recording of Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers.[1] Hymnary.org credits the text as traditional, gives the United States as its place of origin, and, when checked in October 2026, showed twelve appearances in hymnals, among them Lift Every Voice and Sing II (1993).[5] The song list of Larry Conger's American Spirituals Tab Book, published by Fingers Of Steel, includes a piece titled "Little David" in DAD tuning, which, like every song in the book, comes with an MP3 recording.[6]

Our book that contains the song "Little David"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Little David, Play on Your Harp".
  2. Internet Archive: "William E. Barton, Old Plantation Hymns (1899)".
  3. Internet Archive: "Religious Folk Songs of the Negro, as Sung on the Plantations (Hampton Institute, 1909)".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix B-8450. Little David, play on yo' harp / Fisk University Jubilee Singers".
  5. Hymnary.org: "Little David, play on your harp".
  6. Fingers Of Steel: "Larry Conger, American Spirituals Tab Book".
  7. Image: Christoph Bockstorffer, David Playing the Harp before Saul, etching, 1531. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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