Little Moses: A Song History

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"Little Moses" tells the opening of the Exodus story in a few verses: the baby Moses is set adrift on the water, found and raised by Pharaoh's daughter, and grows up to lead his people across the Red Sea.[1] The song was in circulation well before it reached records; the Traditional Ballad Index gives its earliest dated text as 1905, from H. M. Belden's Missouri Folklore Society collection, where it appears as "Moses in the Bulrushes."[1] A note in the Discography of American Historical Recordings, citing Meade, credits one G. R. Street with a harmonization of the song dated 1871; the sources consulted here do not otherwise document that version.[2]

Wool needlework picture of Pharaoh's daughter and her attendants finding the infant Moses beside a river, with pyramids behind

Mary Ann Parks Hammond, Needlework Picture: “The Finding of Moses in the River Nile”, wool embroidery on linen, ca. 1855. It shows the scene the song describes, but has no connection to the song itself.

The Carter Family recorded it for Victor in Camden, New Jersey, on February 14, 1929, with Sara Carter on autoharp and alto, Maybelle Carter on guitar and soprano, and A. P. Carter singing bass; the issued take came out on Victor V-40110, and the discography, drawing on the disc label and Meade, names A. P. Carter as composer.[2] The same performance was reissued on Bluebird and Montgomery Ward in the 1930s, and Harmon E. Helmick recorded his own version for Champion in 1934.[2][1] The Carter recording was later included on the second volume of the Anthology of American Folk Music, the collection Harry Smith compiled for Folkways in 1952.[3] The song also lived on among Ozark singers: Max Hunter recorded Mrs. Iva Haslett singing it in West Plains, Missouri, on July 31, 1958.[4]

Maureen Sellers includes it in Simply Gospel, Book Two, a collection of gospel songs arranged for solo mountain dulcimer, published by Fingers Of Steel.[5]

Our books that contain the song "Little Moses"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Little Moses".
  2. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BVE-49860. Little Moses / Carter Family".
  3. Mainly Norfolk: "Anthology of American Folk Music".
  4. Max Hunter Folk Song Collection, Missouri State University: "Little Moses".
  5. Fingers Of Steel: "Maureen Sellers, Simply Gospel, Book Two".
  6. Image: Mary Ann Parks Hammond, Needlework Picture: “The Finding of Moses in the River Nile”, wool embroidery on linen, ca. 1855. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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