I Wonder as I Wander (Piano Solo – Tonioli)

I Wonder as I Wander – arr. Jason Tonioli

This is a Christmas carol written by John Jacob Niles.  The carol has its origins in a song fragment collected in 1933 at a fundraising meeting held by evangelicals who had been ordered out of town by the police.  In the unpublished autobiography, Niles wrote:

“A girl had stepped out to the edge of the little platform attached to the automobile. She began to sing. Her clothes were unbelievably dirty and ragged, and she, too, was unwashed. Her ash-blond hair hung down in long skeins…. But, best of all, she was beautiful, and in her untutored way, she could sing. She smiled as she sang, smiled rather sadly, and sang only a single line of a song.”

Based on this girl’s song, Niles wrote this well known tune.

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