Streams of Meaning in Shawn Kirchner’s “Sweet Rivers”

 Have to tell you that I’ve just finished doing a deep dive into the career of the composer/songwriter of “Sweet Rivers,” Shawn Kirchner, and I am exhausted. You can read his professional bio on his website¹ if you’d like; just be sure you’re sitting down before you start.

Although Kirchner was classically trained, his compositions have become more and more attuned to popular music, whether folk, jazz, or bluegrass. Within those categories he’s written many sacred pieces, one of which is “Sweet Rivers,” pairing text by the itinerant preacher John Adam Granade with his own tune. Granade was an active participant in the “Great Revival in the West” that’s usually dated to 1800 and is part of the “Second Great Awakening” that swept over the Northeast and Midwest US especially, although outbreaks of religious fervor occurred all over the nation. Granade was known as “the wild man of Goose Creek” (a settlement in Tennessee) and became a prolific hymnwriter. Here’s a description of his behavior:

In the midst of religious exercises, he uttered aloud impassioned exclamations, and this he denominated shouting. He composed many hymns and spiritual songs, all of which were filled with these impassioned exclamations. He was proverbially called the wild man, on account of the strange history he gave of his experience. His preaching produced wonders in the land. Thousands were seized with the same propensity for shouting; and in a short time, the whole country was filled with shouting congregations.²

Granade’s original lyrics run to seven verses, but Kirchner used only three. Believe me, that’s more than enough to keep me occupied in this shortened version. Let me look at each verse in turn. Here’s the first one:

Sweet rivers of redeeming love lie just before mine eyes;
Had I the pinions of a dove, I’d to those rivers fly.
I’d rise superior to my pain, with joy outstrip the wind:
I’d cross o’er Jordan’s stormy waves and leave the world behind.

The first line echoes the Book of Revelation in the Christian New Testament: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (22:1 KJV) John the Apostle is speaking of the visions he’s being shown by an angel. Granade’s “dove” imagery might be taken from the Jewish Bible book of Psalms: “And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.” (55:6 KJV) The verse closes with a reference to the river of Jordan, which literally marked the boundary of the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, in the Jewish Bible, but which came to symbolize death, with heaven replacing Canaan. So in these four lines Granade has referenced three widely-separated biblical texts.

On to verse 2:

A few more days, or years at most, my troubles will be o’er:
I hope to join the heav’nly host on Canaan’s happy shore.
My rapt’rous soul shall drink and feast in love’s unbounded sea,
The glorious hope of endless rest is ravishing to me.

 Note Granade’s emphasis on the brevity of life and also its hardships. He spent his life after conversion at the age of 36 as an itinerant preacher. Sadly, his voice and health began to fail quite rapidly, and he was forced to quit the strenuous life of travel that he’d been following for, indeed, only a few years. He decided to go into medicine, married at age 42, and died only two years later in 1807.³ Look at the words “unbounded” and “endless”—clear references to eternity.

Here’s the final verse in Kirchner’s composition; he has changed the wording somewhat and incorporated ideas from a couple of Granade’s original verses, which I include below the videos:

O! come, my Savior, come away, and bear me through the sky,
Nor let thy chariot wheels delay, but quickly draw thou nigh.
Then I shall join the angel throng and circle ‘round thy throne;
I’ll sing through all the ages long, and joy to be thine own.

Here Granade references the second coming of Christ. Maybe he won’t have to go through death after all if his prayer for his Savior’s return is granted. Did you catch the phrase “chariot wheels”? The reference is to the prophet Elijah, who was taken up to heaven by a “chariot of fire.” We get the story in the Jewish Bible book of II Kings:

And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. (2:11 KJV)

 And, yes, the title of the movie Chariots of Fire indeed references this story, albeit somewhat indirectly.

Kirchner’s setting of these moving lyrics is full of “motion and excitement,” to quote from the sheet music notes. I don’t do musical analysis in these posts and so will let you experience the piece firsthand by watching the video below of the premier performance by the commissioning organization, the Atlanta Master Chorale:

 But you knew, didn’t you, that I wouldn’t be able to limit myself to just one video? So here’s a version of the first verse of Granade’s hymn sung to one of its early tunes in the “shape-note” style. Be sure to read my earlier post about “Hark! I Hear the Harps Eternal” for more info about this fascinating early American singing style. Note the square formation of the singers with the directors in the middle, and that she goes through the tune using “fa-so-la” first and then has them sing the words. Sadly, only the first verse is included in this video:

And here’s another version, with an unidentified singer and lots of commentary –not a video per se, but you can click the player and hear a great performance:

Here, as promised, are Granade's complete lyrics:

1 	Sweet rivers of redeeming love,
Lie just before mine eyes;
Had I the pinions of a dove,
I'd to those regions fly.
I'd rise superior to my pain,
With joy outstrip the wind:
I'd cross bold Jordan's stormy main,
And leave the world behind.

2 	While I'm imprison'd here below,
In anguish, pain, and smart,
Oft times those troubles I forego,
When love surrounds my heart.
In darkest shadows of the night,
Faith mounts the upper sky;
I then behold my heart's delight,
And would rejoice to die.	
	
3 	I view the monster death and smile,
Now he has lost his sting;
Though Satan rages all the while,
I still the triumph sing.
I hold my Saviour in my arms,
And will not let him go;
I'm so delighted with his charms,
No other good I'd know.

4 	A few more days, or years at most,
My troubles will be o'er:
I hope to join the heav'nly host,
On Canaan's happy shore.
My rapt'rous soul shall drink and feast
In love's unbounded sea:
The glorious hope of endless rest
Is ravishing to me.

5 	O! come, my Saviour, come away,
And bear me through the sky
Nor let the chariot wheels delay;
Make haste and brings it nigh.
I long to see thy glorious face,
And in thy image shine;
To triumph in victorious grace,
And be forever thine.	
	
6 	Then I will tune my harp of gold,
To my eternal King;
Through ages that can ne'er be told,
I'll make his praises ring.
All hail, eternal Son of God,
Who died on Calvary;
And sav'd me with thy precious blood
From endless misery.	
	
7 	Ten thousand thousand join in one,
To praise th' eternal Three;
Prostrate before the blazing throne,
In deep humility.
They rise and tune their harps of gold,
And sweet the immortal lyre;
And ages that can ne'er be told,
Shall raise thy praises higher.	
	

1. https://shawnkirchner.com/about/ ↩︎
2. “John Adam Granade: The ‘Wild Man’ of Goose Creek” ↩︎
3. His widow was pregnant with a son at the time of his death, and since he’d died intestate she apparently didn’t inherit anything and had to confine herself to buyng his “second-best mare.” I know that the facts of Granade’s estate don’t really have anything to do with the lyrics of this song, but I’m fascinated and puzzled in equal measure at poor Widow Polly’s situation. Wouldn’t she have automatically inherited everything if her husband died without making a will? He left a somewhat considerable estate, including 30 hogs! But everything was put up for sale; who got the proceeds? Here’s hoping that she did, but the wording of the article cited above is unclear. I’m going to restrain myself with great difficulty from looking up inheritance laws in 1800’s rural Tennessee. ↩︎

(c) Debi Simons