Since 1977, the majority of Easter mornings in my life have included the singing or hearing of Natalie Sleeth’s Joy in the Morning. In fact, it hardly seems like Easter at all if that song is missing from my day – so I have been known a few times to go out and find it on YouTube!
Besides being a very beautiful, powerful, and meaningful song, I have a strong connection to both the song and the composer. Natalie Sleeth wrote it in Buckhannon, and it was first sung by the WVWC Tour Choir at the inauguration of her husband, Ronald Sleeth, as the thirteenth president of West Virginia Wesleyan College. I was present at that debut. Since that time it has sold more than one million copies and been performed all over the world.
In 1987, Natalie Sleeth wrote a book called Adventures for the Soul: 35 Inspirational Poems and the Stories Behind Them in which, in her own words, she shares her thoughts, inspirations, and motivations for 35 of her best-known pieces including Joy in the Morning.
This small, but mighty, volume is available to borrow on the Internet Archive Open Library (free to sign up). In it, she tells about the inspiration for and development of Joy in the Morning. I would like to invite Natalie Sleeth to be the guest bloggist this week to share her thoughts with you.
Joy In The Morning
This piece “happened” one August weekend in Buckhannon, West Virginia and began with the phrase, “Joy In The Morning” — which, it turns out was from Psalm 30 though I didn’t know that at the time. I may have gotten it out of thin air or from a book I once read by that title; but whatever the origin, the phrase kept recurring to me, and I began to ponder it. As I worked with the idea and with developing the text into a full “statement” (of related ideas) it began to generate more excitement for me, particularly when it “allied itself” to a strong, minor melody with a sequential section in the middle.
I remember working on it all weekend–until very late at night (since I was by myself) and beginning again early in the morning–and enjoying the challenge of working with four parts rather than just the two I often stop with. Perhaps at the back of my mind was the hope that it might prove suitable for an “inauguration anthem” for my husband’s inauguration as President of West Virginia Wesleyan College, but that was not uppermost in my mind at the outset. The best (most satisfying) part of writing the whole piece came when I had the idea for the ending with the delayed final major chord. I remember feeling excited at the effect it seemed likely to produce. I also enjoyed the realization that the second time through the material, to avoid a total “repetition” (albeit in another key) I could slow down one part by doubling the note values and achieving a contrast this way–especially by making it (virtually) a capella. So, the nature of the idea itself, plus the wrestling with it, brought about its ultimate form. It was not all conceived from the start by a long shot…but that seldom happens anyway.
I wrote out a piano accompaniment and then showed the manuscript to a few people at the college with the idea of its possible use at the Inauguration. But it seemed there would be no keyboard instrument at that occasion and someone suggested “translating” the accompaniment into brass instruments. I did this, with the help of the director of the band at the college, Mr. Dave Milburn, and it was performed at Ron’s inauguration on October 22, 1977 with a brass ensemble (two trumpets, two trombones) and the Tour Choir, under the direction of Mr. Jamie Schuppener.
I had listened to a choir rehearsal or two early in the fall (from manuscript) and made a few minor amendments in the score as a result (for better balance of voices and instruments) and the piece was finally published in the spring of 1977. I dedicated it to the W.V.W.C. Tour Choir, and put a footnote into the piece, giving credit to Jamie Schuppener as the director of the choir.
This piece has somehow traveled farther than any of mine, except perhaps for Baby, What You Goin’ To Be. It has been sung (many times, I understand) by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir over their regular radio broadcasts and by many other choral groups as well. The publisher made available a tape of the accompaniment (no voices), using brass and organ, so that small churches without these resources readily available can still sing the piece.
The cover (front) is very colorful and exemplifies the idea in the text but the back cover is uniquely appropriate to the “place of birth” of the piece, since it is the picture off the college catalog of W.V.W.C, taken in West Virginia not too far from Buckhannon. (The area looks like that!)
Something Worth Singing, and Something Worth Singing About
In the book, Natalie Sleeth ends her preface (which she calls Sharings) with this:
I would somehow like to think that the messages of my texts, especially the “inspirational” ones, have the potential for educating, enlightening and enriching people (rather than simply entertaining them), and perhaps of making them somehow better than they were before they encountered my song. That is a lofty goal, to be sure, but I continue to seek it and to try to write “something worth singing, and something worth singing about.”
This Easter in particular, during the Pandemic of 2020, this song seems even more relevant than ever before. Not just for Buckhannon, or West Virginia, or the United States. For the entire world. With that in mind, I leave you with this video of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church Choir of Singapore singing Joy in the Morning in July 2014. Well done, Natalie Sleeth!!
