Author: Hilton Kean Jones

This is the final tune in my current project of arrangements of tunes from Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion (CD title is Simple Hymns, pairing it with last year’s project, Simple Songs).

The music begins with the piano alone, playing what seems to be the melody of the hymn tune, except it’s not. It’s actually a countermelody. Then the strings come in–first the violins, then the cellos–playing what feels like a counter-melody, but it’s actually the real hymn-tune melody.

Things finally straighten out halfway through the arrangement and the piano plays the real hymn-tune melody by itself, followed by the strings playing versions of the original countermelody.

This is another tune from Southern Harmony for which Walker, the 1835 editor, lists a composer: Robert Boyd. Here’s a couple links to info about him: https://hymnary.org/person/Boyd_R and https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/r/robert-boyd. I can’t find any clue to why he might have named this tune New Orleans!

Here’s a scan of the tune in Southern Harmony itself–remember, the melody is in the tenor.

Here’s a link to a little better understand of the four-note shaped-note system (there’s also a 7-note system, which this is not): https://www.britannica.com/art/shape-note-singing.