Like many spirituals, "Oh, I Know the Lord" was written for responsorial singing. The refrains are sung by the entire group, and a soloist sings the stanzas with melodic and rhythmic freedom. (The soloist's melody descends, like the Lord reaching down his hands!) Sing either unaccompanied (perhaps with E-flat drone humming during the soloist's lines) or with minimal keyboard accompaniment.
Edward Boatner's arrangement was published in Lift Every Voice and Sing (1981). Boatner (b. New Orleans, LA, 1894; d. unknown, 1981) was a composer, educator, choral director, and concert singer. He studied music at Western University, Boston Conservatory, and New England Conservatory, and received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Chicago Musical College, Illinois, in 1932. Best known for his compositions and arrangements of spirituals, Boatner served as the director of music for the National Baptist Convention from 1925 to 1931 and taught at two Texas institutions, Samuel Houston College and Wiley College, in the 1930s.
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1988
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