RICH MAN AND LAZARUS SONG FULL

Ralph Vaughan Williams first used the tune in his arrangement of the hymn tune 'Kingsfold' (1906), to which two sets of words are commonly sung: 'O sing a song of Bethlehem', and 'I heard the voice of Jesus'. Peter Kennedy's 1952 recording of Emily Bishop of Bromsberrow Heath, Gloucestershire (available via the British Library Sound Archive) uses a similar text and tune, suggesting that Broadwood was correct in matching Afred Hipkins' tune with the old text. Her notes and transcription of the tune can be seen on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Broadwood then published the Hipkins tune with those lyrics in English Country Songs (1893) under the name 'Lazarus'. Broadwood matched a typical version of the lyrics to 'Dives and Lazarus' with this tune attested by Hipkins and the lady from Westminster, stating that 'they suit it so well that there is a great probability of their having at one time been associated together'. An elderly woman in Westminster, London, in 1892 reportedly recognised the tune Hipkins knew as belonging to a song about the Lazarus parable. Lucy Broadwood wrote that the musicologist Alfred James Hipkins had known the tune for years and called it 'Lazarus', but did not know the lyrics. Traditional folk songs which have been known to use the 'Dives and Lazarus' tune include the English songs ' The Two Brothers', ' The Unquiet Grave' (Child 78), ' The Thresher' (Roud 19) and 'The Murder of Maria Marten' (Roud 215), as well as a Welsh song from Gwynedd called 'Baledwyr Nefyn'.Īssociation with 'Dives and Lazarus' I regret never having stopped to hear the words.

RICH MAN AND LAZARUS SONG FULL

I recollect hearing the tune at Kilburn, full forty years ago, and have, with tolerable annual regularity, ever since. Sometimes the men are dressed like sailors at other times they look like workmen out of employment. If the reader should meet any half-a-dozen men perambulating the streets of London together, and singing, the probabilities are great that they sing to this tune. In one version Dives asks Lazarus (who is apparently unable to help him) for a drop of water, and complains about his eternal punishment. However, the servants are unable to whip Lazarus, and the dogs 'lick his sores away' instead of biting him.Īs both men die, angels carry Lazarus to heaven, and serpents drag Dives to hell. Dives answers that he is not the brother of Lazarus, denies Lazarus food and drink, and sends his servants to whip him and his dogs to bite him. The poor man Lazarus comes to Dives' door and repeatedly begs 'brother Dives' to give him something to eat and drink. The rich man Dives or Diverus makes a feast. Textual references suggest that the ballad, in some form, may date back at least to the 1550s, though the form known today seems to date from the early 19th century. The only known authentic audio recording of the song is Peter Kennedy's 1952 recording of Emily Bishop of Bromsberrow Heath, Gloucestershire, which can be heard online via the British Library Sound Archive. Cecil Sharp nevertheless collected a handful of versions in the 1910s and 20s in Herefordshire and Shropshire, using different tunes. Lucy Broadwood noted in 1893 that the song had a strong presence in Worcestershire and was sung in Warwickshire into the early nineteenth century, suggesting that it had become virtually extinct by the turn of the nineteenth century. The song traditionally used a variety of tunes, but one particular tune, published by Lucy Broadwood in 1893 and used in other traditional songs, inspired many notable works and appeared in several pieces composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams.įrancis James Child collected two variants in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. It is considered a Christmas carol and based on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (also called 'Dives and Lazarus' and found in Luke 16:19–16:31). Dives and Lazarus is traditional English folk song listed as Child ballad 56 and number 477 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

Rich man and lazarus song