Ol’ Man River (orch. Thomas Beijer)

Program notes

About the Work

‘Ol’ Man River’ is the great anthem of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s groundbreaking 1927 musical Show Boat, and one of the most famous songs in the American theatre. Sung in the show by a Black dockworker, it contrasts the unending, indifferent flow of the Mississippi (‘he just keeps rollin’ along’) with the suffering and toil of the people who labour on its banks. With its hymn-like melody and its undertow of weariness and quiet protest, it transcended its origins to become a song of endurance and dignity, indelibly associated with the great bass-baritone Paul Robeson, who made it his own.

Heard tonight in an orchestral arrangement by Thomas Beijer and sung by Davóne Tines, whose acclaimed album Robeson pays tribute to that legacy, it sits perfectly in a programme exploring the Black American voice in music, a Broadway classic with the weight of a spiritual.

What to Listen For

Listen for the broad, rolling melody, which seems to flow like the great river it describes, in long, sweeping phrases that build to the famous climactic line. The power of ‘Ol’ Man River’ lies in its combination of nobility and sorrow: a tune of hymn-like grandeur carrying words of hardship and endurance. In the hands of a great bass-baritone like Davóne Tines, heir to the Robeson tradition, listen for the dignity, depth and quiet defiance he brings to it: a show tune that, sung this way, becomes something close to a sacred song.