Victory Shall Be Mine

DESCRIPTION: "Victory, victory shall be mine (x2); Just hold your peace and the Lord will fight your battles, Victory, victory shall be mine." "Victory, victory shall be mine in the morning..." (Or, "When in trouble," or "In the evening," etc.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 176, "Wictory Shall Be Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 57, "Victory" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank and Anne Warner, "Wictory Shall B Mine," Vol. XXV, No. 2 (Nov 1977), p. 77, "Wictory Shall Be Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa176 (Partial)
Roud #16403
NOTES [128 words]: Yes, the Warners' informant (name uncertain) pronounced it "wictory" -- a peculiar error for an American, as it is considered characteristic of Cockney speech (and even in that dialect, some insist that its frequency is exaggerated) and other parts of East Anglia and southeastern England. The NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article declares the exchange of v and w to be characteristic of Outer Banks dialect.
The tune has another, even more surprising, peculiarity: It uses quarter tones. And not just any quarter tone; it has a quarter tone in place of the fifth (i.e. A♭# instead of G in the key of C). At least, that's how it shown in Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl ; I don't see it in the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal transcription. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Wa176

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