This African-American spiritual expresses the difficulty of the lives of those who would have been singing it, and yet, embedded in its intensity is a call for strength and perseverance. Freedom will come but we must hold on. Both struggle and hope are represented in this arrangement by variations in scoring, beginning with the cello and bass in their lower register and ending with the violins in third position, and by fluctuating dynamics and varying articulations.
Concert/Contest.
