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Piano sheet music for kids · Spiritual · Level 4: Up to the C above
Deep River
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 4/4, 8 bars. Press Play to hear it on a real piano, slow it down, or hear one hand at a time; click any note to start from there; print it for the music stand.
About this arrangement
One of the best-loved spirituals, slow and calm, in the melody Harry T. Burleigh made famous. “Deep” is one long note that sinks through two more, D and C, all on one breath, and “riv-er” drops to the A below middle C. In bar 3 the right hand leaps a whole octave, from middle C to the C above, for “o-ver Jor-dan”, so practise that jump. Bar 6 has a pause sign over “Lord”, and bar 7 is a run of dotted quavers and semiquavers (dotted eighths and sixteenths), long-short. The left hand plays slow chords, C, F and D minor.
Practice tip: Play it slowly and smoothly, as if singing. Take your time on the pause in bar 6, then let bar 7 flow without hurrying.
The words
Deep river, my home is over Jordan, Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground.
A short history
“Deep River” is an African-American spiritual by unknown singers. It was first printed in 1876, in the first edition of The Story of the Jubilee Singers, the book about the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Nashville, who toured America and Europe singing spirituals to raise money for their university.
The river is the Jordan, which the Israelites crossed into the promised land; in the spirituals it stands for death and heaven, and also for the crossing to freedom. The “campground” is the camp meeting, a great outdoor gathering for worship.
The singer and composer Harry T. Burleigh (1866 to 1949) made several arrangements of it for voice and piano, the last in 1917, and they made it a favourite of concert singers. Marian Anderson recorded it in 1923 and Paul Robeson in 1927.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Traditional (African-American spiritual, printed 1876; melody as arranged by Harry T. Burleigh, 1917)
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 8 bars
- Tempo
- Slowly, crotchet = 60
- Difficulty
- Level 4: Up to the C above (piece 131 of 201)
- Type
- Spiritual
- Hands
- Both: melody in the right hand, chords in the left
- Copyright
- Public domain tune; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal and classroom use
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