Wild Stormy Deep: A Song History
"Wild Stormy Deep" is a religious folk song of unknown authorship in which the singer's prayer is answered by God's release from burden and sin.[1] The Traditional Ballad Index entry for it rests on number 95 in Anne Warner's Traditional American Folk Songs from the Anne & Frank Warner Collection, a text and tune credited to the singing of Homer Cornett, with the place and date given as Beech Mountain, North Carolina, 1959.[1] Anne Warner, a writer, and her husband Frank, a musician, gathered songs from the late 1930s onward in places ranging from the Adirondacks to North Carolina's Outer Banks, building an archive of nearly a thousand songs.[2]
Joseph Vernet, A Sea Storm, mezzotint with some etching, 1752–64 (detail). Shown for the song's title; it has no connection to the song.
The Doofus - Occasional Number 3, a book of eighteen waltzes and old-time songs in 3/4 time for mountain dulcimer notated by Neal Walters and Heidi Cerrigione, includes a song listed as "Wild Stormy Deep."[3]
Sources
- The Traditional Ballad Index: "Wild Stormy Deep".
- Syracuse University Press: "Traditional American Folk Songs from the Anne and Frank Warner Collection".
- Neal Walters: "The Doofus - Occasional Number 3 - 18 Waltzes And Old Time Songs In 3/4 Time For Mountain Dulcimer".
- Image: Joseph Vernet, A Sea Storm, mezzotint with some etching, 1752–64 (detail). The Metropolitan Museum of Art.