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Idumea

[ Roud 6678 ; Ballad Index LoF125 ; Charles Wesley, A. Davidson]

The Watersons sang the Sacred Harp hymn Idumea in 1977 on their album Sound, Sound Your Instruments of Joy. This recording was also included in the 1990 CD reissue of Frost and Fire, in 2003 on The Definitive Collection and on the Topic CD sampler The Season Round. A.L. Lloyd commented in the original album's sleeve notes:

The words of this beauty are by Charles Wesley ( 1707-88) who wrote more than 6,500 hymns. To our discredit it early faded out of English hymnals, but it was kept alive in the hymnbooks used on the American frontier. The Watersons' tune, which is one of several used for the ballad of Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinder, is claimed by Ananias Davisson, compiler of the Kentucky Harmony (1815). Subsequently, Wesley's words set to Davisson's tune appeared in several influential hymnbooks, notably Southern Harmony (1835) and Christian Harmony (1866). To this day it remains one of the best-favoured hymns in remoter settlements of the upland Southern states of America.

The Young Tradition sang Idumea in 1968 on their last LP, Galleries. Heather Wood commented in the sleeve notes:

An American Sacred Harp hymn. We were taught several of these by some devotees in Washington, D.C. They are also known as shape-note hymns because the music was written out with triangles, squares etc., instead of the usual oval chrotchets and quavers, to enable the musically illiterate to sightread easily.

Frankie Armstrong sang Idumea in 2000 on her Fellside CD The Garden of Love. The liner notes commented:

A shape note hymn with words by Charles Wesley. Frankie says: “Because there is no one voice carrying ‘the tune’, the sound becomes a tonality. Singing these songs, I feel simultaneously myself and taken up in a larger whole.” Incidentally, Idumea is the Latin name for the land of the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, who were the target of a good deal of ferocious Old Testament prophesying.

Lady Maisery sang Idumea at the Royal Oak Lewes on October 27, 2011 as can be seen on this YouTube video:

Lyrics

The Watersons sing Idumea	The Young Tradition sing Idumea
And am I born to die To lay this body down And as my trembling spirit fly Into a world unknown	And am I born to die To lay this body down 𝄆 And as my trembling spirit fly Into a world unknown 𝄇
A land of deepest shade Unpierced by human thought The dreary regions of the dead Where all things are forgot	A land of deepest shade Unpierced by human thought 𝄆 The dreary regions of the dead Where all things are forgot 𝄇
Soon as from Earth I go What will become of me Eternal happiness or woe Must then my fortune be	Soon as from Earth I go What will become of me 𝄆 Eternal happiness or woe Must then my fortune be 𝄇
Waked by the trumpet's sound I from my grave shall rise And see the judge with glory crowned And see the flaming skies	Waked by the trumpet's sound I from my grave shall rise 𝄆 To see the judge with glory crowned And see the flaming skies 𝄇

Acknowledgements

Transcribed from the singing of the Watersons by Garry Gillard.