Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, 1919. Harry Thacker Burleigh, 1866-1949. Music Division, Library of Congress. Call number: M1671.S

Burleigh arranged Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child for solo voice in 1918. He created a setting for women's chorus the following year, dedicated to The Schumann Club, conducted by Percy Rector Stephens.

The alto carries the stately melody accompanied by a mournful, falling motive in the two soprano lines on the word "oh." The top-voiced harmonization is creative, and the melodic writing is vocally demanding. The work climaxes on a high, five-part divisi chord at the penultimate statement of the text, "A long way from home." The work ends pp in augmented note values on a hopeful D-major chord.