Description
Kallman Creates Publications
2-part treble chorus, piano. Duration: 2’15”
Part of Early American Songs, Set 1.
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(Children’s Chorus of the Honors Choirs of Southeast Minnesota, Amy Nelson conducting)
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Composer’s Notes
This arrangement is part of the set Early American Songs, Set I. The other pieces in the set are: Simple Gifts and She’ll Be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain, also available separately.
The melody for this lullaby may have roots in either early African-American music or in folk music from England or Scotland. It was collected and published in American Ballads and Folksongs by Alan Lomax in 1934. Due primarily to the minor key, I have always imagined it being sung by a poor, rural mother to comfort her child to sleep, in the full knowledge that there will be no pretty little horses for the child in the morning.
