Alibama (Oliver Holden)
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- Editor: Barry Johnston (submitted 2015-07-10). Score information: Letter, 1 page, 50 kB Copyright: Public Domain
- Edition notes: Oval note edition. The other five stanzas of Needham's hymn have been added below, renumbered to fit Holden's composition. MusicXML source file(s) in compressed .mxl format.
- Editor: Barry Johnston (submitted 2015-07-10). Score information: 7 x 10 in (landscape), 1 page, 62 kB Copyright: Public Domain
- Edition notes: Note shapes added (4-shape). The other five stanzas of Needham's hymn have been added below, renumbered to fit Holden's composition.
General Information
Title: Alibama
First Line: Hark! 'Tis the trumpet's piercing sound
Composer: Oliver Holden
Lyricist: John Needham
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Sacred Meter: 88. 88 (L.M.)
Language: English
Instruments: A cappella
First published: 1800 in Plain Psalmody, p. 12
Description: Words by John Needham, 1768. Holden used the third stanza of Needham's hymn in his composition.
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
The heart, dejected, sighs to know,
Why vice triumphant reigns below;
Why saints have fallen in every age,
The victims of tyrannic rage.
Fast roll successive years away;
Fast hastens on the important day,
When, to the astonished world's surprise,
God's high tribunal shall arise.
Hark! 'Tis the trumpet's piercing sound,
The rising dead assemble round,
In long procession see they come,
Each to receive his righteous doom.
Lo! there, a vile, degenerate race;
Pale terror sits on every face:
Here, on the right, a joyful band,
The sons of suffering virtue stand.
The sentence passed, lo! these arise
To bliss and glory in the skies:
While those, who once stood high in fame,
Sink to contempt, remorse, and shame.
Thus shall God's government appear
Without a shade, divinely fair;
And blushing doubts, with joy, confess,
The Lord's a God of righteousness.