Go, Tell It on the Mountain

About this arrangement

The Christmas spiritual, with its verse about the shepherds first and the famous chorus after it. The verse sits in C position, with the little finger reaching up to A; it ends with a jump from the G below middle C up to F, which leads straight into the chorus. The chorus starts high and falls, with dotted quavers (dotted eighth notes) on “tell it on the”, and twice drops to the A and G below middle C for “moun-tain”, so the thumb has to reach down. The left hand plays a bass note and a chord, through C, F, D minor, A minor and G7.

Practice tip: Learn the chorus first, it is the part everyone knows. Let “moun-tain” land firmly on the low G, then lift the hand back to C.

The words

While shepherds kept their watching o'er wand'-ring flocks by night, Behold from out of heaven there shone a holy light. Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and ev-'rywhere Go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born.

A short history

“Go, Tell It on the Mountain” is an African-American spiritual. It was sung long before anyone wrote it down, and it was collected and published in the early 1900s. Its first publication is usually credited to John Wesley Work Jr. (1871 to 1925), a teacher at Fisk University in Nashville and one of the first African-American collectors of spirituals, who gathered it in the early 1900s; the earliest printed copy known is in Thomas Fenner’s 1909 edition of Religious Folk Songs of the Negro, from the Hampton Institute in Virginia.

The verse tells the Christmas story from Luke’s Gospel, the shepherds watching their flocks by night and the angels’ light, and the chorus sends the news over the hills and everywhere.

In 1963 Peter, Paul and Mary sang it with new words, “let my people go”, for the years of the civil rights movement, and it has been recorded by gospel, folk and pop singers ever since.

Quick facts

Tune

Traditional (African-American spiritual, collected by John Wesley Work Jr.)

Key

C major

Time signature

4/4

Length

16 bars and a pickup

Tempo

Joyfully, crotchet = 100

Difficulty

Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 96 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

Questions and answers