Well, it’s complicated.
“Great Day” is a spiritual, meaning that it falls into the category of true folk music, a genre that starts out with oral traditions and only later involves writing the words down. By the time a true folk song is committed to paper it almost always has multiple versions. And why do I keep using the word “true”? Because there are many songs written “in the style of” a folk song that aren’t truly so since they have a known, single author. In the case of this version of the piece (which my own choir, the Cherry Creek Chorale, will be performing in March 20241) there is an arranger, Warren Martin, but no composer or lyricist, so we seem to be in the “true folk” category. In my signature bopping around the Internet looking for clues I’ve found a number of sites that have published the lyrics, but there are none that try to unpack the layers of meaning contained in them. So I’m venturing out on my own here. If you’d like to read a general discussion of spirituals and their origins, I’d recommend that you read an earlier post on this website, “How Did We Get the Spirituals?”
In general there tend to be three layers of meaning in a spiritual:
- Actual biblical references, sometimes gained from Christian slave churches that were allowed to exist on southern plantations and sometimes picked up by slaves listening outside the white churches from which they were excluded or inside those churches which they were forced to attend but also made to sit in separate sections. (Obviously there was a lot of variation here.)
- Application of biblical truths to the slaves’ current situation, holding out hope of deliverance, either in this life or the next.
- Code language providing an outlet for feelings that otherwise had to be repressed about longing for freedom in general or escape ideas/plans in particular.
Here are the most common verses of the song:
Refrain:
Great day! Great day, the righteous marching;
Great day! God’s going to build up Zion’s walls!
Great day! Great day, the righteous marching;
Great day! God’s going to build up Zion’s walls!
Chariot rode on the mountain top,
God’s going to build up Zion’s walls!
My God spoke and the chariot did stop,
God’s goin’ to build up Zion’s walls! [Refrain]
This is the day of jubilee,
God’s going to build up Zion’s walls!
The Lord has set His people free,
God’s going to build up Zion’s walls! [Refrain]
We want no cowards in our band,
God’s going to build up Zion’s walls!
We call for valiant-hearted men,
God’s going to build up Zion’s walls! [Refrain]
Goin’t ‘take my breastplate, sword and shield,
God’s going to build up Zion’s walls!
And march out boldly in the field,
God’s going to build up Zion’s walls! [Refrain]2
With the three possible layers of meaning in mind, let’s take a look at some representative lines in the piece:
“Great Day”—All through the Bible there are references to “the day of the Lord.” Usually the meaning is that of the final day of judgment, a day when all things will be set right. This “day,” therefore, would/could be a symbol of hope to enslaved people. You can also imagine a slave who was being beaten or otherwise mistreated singing about this coming day with a specific thought of his tormenter. But (and see also below) in this song the “day” sounds more like a battle than a judgment, if that makes sense.
“God’s going to build up Zion’s walls”—Specifically this phrase would seem to reference the return of exiled Jews to Jerusalem (“Zion” refers literally to Jerusalem but generally to God’s kingdom), when they were given permission and support by Cyrus king of Persia in around 540 BC to rebuild the walls that had been destroyed in the siege of the city by Nebuchadnezzar. But the whole tenor of the piece, along with the phrase “the righteous marching,” has a martial feel to it that could imply the inclusion of the original conquest of Canaan by the Israelite army in the book of Joshua. And, further, the battle may be the final battle, the Battle of Armageddon in the New Testament book of Revelation in which the forces of good and evil have their final confrontation. All of these ideas can be implicit at the same time without any contradiction.
“Chariot rode on the mountain top/My God spoke and the chariot did stop”—This line has to be at least partly a reference to the prophet Elijah’s being taken up into heaven: “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.” (II Kings 2:11 KJV) Felix Mendelssohn wrote a great chorus on this subject in his masterpiece Elijah.) The general idea, once again, is that of deliverance. If God took Elijah up into Heaven from earth, might He not do the same for the enslaved?
“This is the year of jubilee/The Lord has set His people free”—Under Mosaic law, as codified in the book of Leviticus, there was to be a general release of all debts and a freeing of all slaves: “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” (25:10 KJV) Does the phrase “proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” ring a bell? It should! These words are inscribed on the Liberty Bell. (Sorry about the terrible pun.) On a spiritual and a physical plane, the slave hoped as he or she sang these words that God would indeed bring about this freedom.
“Goin’t ‘take my breastplate, sword and shield”–A reference to actual battle, of course, but also to spiritual warfare as recorded in the Christian New Testament book of Ephesians:
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:13-17 KJV)
One more thing: this spiritual, as is true of many, is written in the “call and response” format. There’s a repeated chorus: “God’s going to build up Zion’s walls,” and then as many rhyming couplets as desired. Slaves, particularly those out working in the fields, would use this type of song as a means of distraction from the monotonous, wearying labor and also to keep up a rhythm. All this is to make two final points on the text: 1) We have absolutely no idea how many verses there were originally, and indeed every plantation that used the song could have had its own version, and 2) Many of the couplets were made up on the fly, so there wasn’t always a deliberate attempt to infuse deep theological meaning into them. On the other hand, these ideas about freedom, justice, conquest, deliverance, and judgment were the concepts in the minds of those who sang and from which they drew the lyrics.
The arranger of the specific arrangement my choir is performing, Warren Martin, devoted most of his adult life to serving on the faculty of The Westminster Choir College, also producing a body of work including orchestral, chamber, and choral/solo music. Two interesting factoids about him gained from Wikipedia: Much of his work remains unpublished, in manuscript form, and archived at the College. And . . . he’s best known for a humorous musical comedy called The True Story of Cinderella. In the spirit of giving you a full picture of our arranger, I’m posting a concert version of the musical. It doesn’t have many views and the video quality is poor, but the voices are great!
First, though, a video of his spirited arrangement of “Great Day”:
- If you’re reading this post before March 8 & 9, 2024, and you live in the Denver metro area, be sure to make plans to attend this concert. Here’s the link to the website: Cherry Creek Chorale. Click on the “Buy Tickets” button at the top of the page. If you’re a little early and tickets aren’t on sale yet, be sure to remind yourself to come back later! ↩︎
- Source: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal #408, as recorded in the very useful website Hymnary. ↩︎
© Debi Simons
