Darling Nelly Gray : song & chorus

Title

Darling Nelly Gray : song & chorus

Contributor

Greene & Walker.

Date

1856

Language

English

Instrumentation

For voice and piano, with 4-part chorus refrain

Historical Context Note

The Baylor University Libraries strive to make our digital collection resources available and useful to our faculty, staff, students, alumni, researchers, and the general public. Through our Web sites, the Libraries offer broad public access to a wide range of information, including historical materials that may contain offensive language or negative stereotypes. Such materials must be viewed in the context of the relevant time period. Baylor University does not endorse the views expressed in such materials.

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Asset Details

Title

Darling Nelly Gray : song & chorus

Alternative Title

Nelly Gray

Digital Collection

["Arts and Special Collections Research Center - Frances G. Spencer Collection of American Popular Sheet Music"]

Digital ID

fa-spnc-sco_p314_54

Identifier

(Call number) Spencer P314 .54

Date

1856

Contributor

Greene & Walker.

Publisher

Boston (277 Washington St., Boston) : Oliver Ditson & Co.

Language

English

Subject

Songs with piano. ; Choruses, Secular (Mixed voices, 4 parts) with piano. ; Popular music -- United States -- To 1901. ; African Americans -- Songs and music.

Rights

https://library.web.baylor.edu/about/policies

Physical Description

1 score (4 pages) ; 34 cm

Notes

Verses 3-6 printed as text on p. 5. ; Staff notation.

Custodian

["Baylor University - Arts and Special Collections Research Center"]

Composers | Arrangers

Hanby, Benjamin Russel, 1833-1867.

Historical Context Note

Additional Dates

First line of verse

There's a low green valley on the old Kentucky shore

First line of chorus

Oh! my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away

Statement of Responsibility

words & music by B. R. Hanby.

Lyricist

Hanby, Benjamin Russel, 1833-1867.

Instrumentation

For voice and piano, with 4-part chorus refrain

Cover Art Description

Illustrated t.p.: black and white; illustration of a lady, vines.

Spencer Subject

["Black music - subjects.","Patriotic and historic.","Piano.","Popular music.","Vocal."]

Lyrics

There's a low green valley on the old Kentucky shore,
There I've whiled many happy hours away,
A sitting and a singing by the little cottage door,
Where lived my darling Nelly Gray.

When the moon had climb'd the mountain, and the stars were shinning too,
Then I'd take my darling Nelly Gray,
And we'd float down the river in my little red canoe,
While my banjo sweetly I would play.

One night I went to see her, but "she's gone!" the neighbors say,
The white man bound her with his chain;
They have taken her to Georgia for to wear her life away,
As she toils in the cotton and the cane.

My canoe is under water, and my banjo is unstrung,
I'm tired of living any more,
My eyes shall look downward, and my song shall be unsung,
While I stay on the old Kentucky shore.

My eyes are getting blinded, and I cannot see my way;
Hark! there's somebody knocking at the door -
Oh! I hear the angels calling, and I see my Nelly Gray,
Farewell to the old Kentucky shore.
Oh! my darling Nelly Gray, up in heaven there they say,
That they'll never take you from me any more,
I'm a coming - coming - coming, as the angels clear the way,
Farewell to the old Kentucky shore.

Chorus
Oh! my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away,
And I'll never see my darling any more,
I'm sitting by the river and I'm weeping all the day,
For you've gone from the old Kentucky shore.

Format

["Sheet music"]

Type

["Text"]

Image Details

Title

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