Piano Sheets > Wallace Willis Sheet Music > Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (ver. 1) Piano Sheet

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (ver. 1) by Wallace Willis - Piano Sheets and Free Sheet Music

  
About the Song
   Other avaliable versions of this music sheet: Version 1  Version 2  
"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is a Negro spiritual. The first recording was by the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1909. In 2002, the Library of Congress honored the song as one of 50 recordings chosen that year to be added to the National Recording Registry. It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was composed by Wallis Willis, a Choctaw freedman in the old Indian Territory, sometime before 1862. He was inspired by the Red River which reminded him of the Jordan River and of the Prophet Elijah being taken to heaven by a chariot. Many non-scholarly sources (see Songs of the underground railroad) claim that this song and "Steal Away"—also composed by Willis—had hidden lyrics referring to the Underground Railroad. Alexander Reid, a minister at a Choctaw boarding.    Download this sheet!
About the Artist
Uncle Wallace Willis (sometimes Wallis Willis) was a Choctaw freedman living in the Indian Territory. He is credited with composing several Negro spirituals. Willis received his name from his owner, Britt Willis, probably in Mississippi, the ancestral home of the Choctaws. He died, probably in what is now Atoka County, Oklahoma, as his unmarked grave is located there. Prior to the Civil War, Willis and his wife, Aunt Minerva, were sent by their owner to work at the Spencer Academy where the superintendent, Reverend Alexander Reid, heard them singing. In 1871 Reid was at a performance of the Jubilee Singers and thought the songs he had heard the Willises singing were better than those of the Jubilee Singers. He furnished them to the group which performed them in the United States and Europe. Many are now famous. It is said that Dvořák used the melody of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" in his "New World Symphony". The tune was also recorded by Eric Clapton, and is a popular song with supporters of the England rugby union team. It is sometimes claimed that the composer of the songs credited to Willis is unknown, but no record exists of any of them.
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