DUP Song Histories – 2020-21

September – Salutation from the Daughters of Utah Pioneers The composer of this song wrote: “In 2016, I started attending DUP meetings as chauffeur for a carload of friends. I later joined, and opportunity for which I have been very grateful. The very first day I attended I became the resident pianist because they were singing their opening song acapella. After three years of playing the same song I developed a strong desire to give our camp an alternative choice to sing once in a while – a shorter, simpler song with its own melody and a vibrant, hopeful message written in our current vocabulary and looking forward rather than looking back. This song is the result.” Evadene Barron

October – Home on the Range Home on the Range is a classic western folk song, sometimes called the unofficial anthem of the American west. It is also the official anthem of the state of Kansas. Dr. Brewster M. Higley of Smith County, Kansas, wrote the lyrics in the poem My Western Home in 1872. He had moved from Indiana to Kansas in 1871 and was so inspired by his surroundings that he wrote the words to this song. In 1947, it became the Kansas state song. In 2010, members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the top 100 western songs of all time.

November – Tenting Tonight This song, originally titled Tenting Tonight on the Old Campground, was one of the most poignant and sorrowful songs from the Civil War, with words and music by Walter Kittredge. Civilian and soldier alike responded to Kittredge’s song, and as the war continued and the casualty lists lengthened, it gained in mass appeal as a popular expression of the yearning for peace. It is told that Walter composed this song on his violin during the evening before he was to be drafted into the Union Army in 1863, he was rejected, however, because of a recent bout with rheumatic fever, but the song inspired by the impending induction did go to the front and became a melancholy favorite with troops on both sides as the war dragged on.

December – Jingle Bells and/or Hark the Herald Angels Sing Jingle Bells was written by Medford, Massachusetts resident, James Pierpont in 1850, inspired by the annual one-horse open-sleigh races on Salem and Pleasant Streets between Medford Square and Malden Square. Pierpont penned the racing song in Simpson’s Tavern, a boardinghouse that had only piano in town. It was originally written around Thanksgiving time for his father’s Sunday school class but was enjoyed so much that it was sung right through the Christmas holidays. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing is one of the most popular Christmas carols we hear during the holidays, and one with an especially interesting history involving four creative minds over the span of two centuries. (See page 3 of this document for additional background about this song.)

January – Short’nin’ Bread This is a plantation song. Its first written version was captured by poet James Whitcomb Riley in 1900. He titled the song “A Short’nin’ Bread Song”, and wrote the chorus as: Fotch dat dough fum the kitchin-shed, Rake de coals out hot an' red, Putt on de oven an' putt on de led, Mammy's gwiner cook som short'nin' bread. The dialect rendered into common English would be: Fetch that dough, from the kitchen shed, Rake those coals out, hot and red, Put on the oven and put on the lid, Mommy's going to cook some short'nin' bread.

DUP Song Histories 2020-21 Page 1

February – Buffalo Gals The phrase “Buffalo Gals” has become an American expression, though its meaning varies. It appears in titles of books about women of the west, such as Women of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and in fiction. This song has had places and names swapped out as it has traveled around the United States, far from Buffalo, New York. As the song has traveled those gals may be women of the west, pioneers, cowgirls, or perhaps fancy women from the east coast in and around Buffalo, New York, where the song originated.

March – Home Sweet Home Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home is a reminder of a similar statement made by Dorothy in when she was “stuck” in the Land of Oz in the Wizard of Oz movie. It reminded her, as she clicked her red slippers together that there is no place like being safe at home. As humble as it may be, home is the best place of all. It’s a nice reminder of the comfort of home whenever we come home, especially after a long journey. This song is adapted from American actor and dramatist John Howard Payne’s 1823 opera Clari or Maid of Milan. The song’s melody was composed by Englishman Sir Henry Bishop with lyrics by Payne.

April – I’ll Go Levi Savage, Jr. was the great-great-great-grandfather of the DUP Members who wrote and composed this song, Sheryl Nabrotzky and Valanne Jeppson. Levi suffered many hardships and was called upon to do some very difficult things in his lifetime. He marched with the Mormon Battalion, served a mission in India and Burma, picked up after the Donner Party, and led a portion of the Willie Handcart Company. In all of that, he stands as an inspiration of faith and willingness to serve. He always said, “I’ll go”.

May – Rock-A-Bye Baby or All My Mothers Rock-A-Bye Baby - If you think about it, this popular nursery rhyme, Rock-A-Bye Baby contains some strange lyrics. After all, it tells of a baby rocking in the branches of a tree and falling to the ground when a limb snaps, which is, in and of itself, rather violent, disturbing and horrible. Why is that baby even up there? Sticking an infant in a tree doesn’t sound like a parental safe practice today, but the ditty must have some odd backstory that we don’t know about yet. So, as it turns out, there are several stories that explain the origins of this somewhat disturbing nursery rhyme. (See the stories on the page 4 of this document and determine for yourself which one you think might be the true origin.)

All My Mothers - The lyrics to this song are by Susan Evans McCloud and Michael Moody wrote the music. Susan Evans McCloud said this about the song: “In thinking about the hardships and adventures of my great-grandmother, who came from Scotland, and of my Welsh ancestors, my thoughts turned to all the noble women who have gone before me. I felt a deep sensation of love and appreciation for them. I believe All My Mothers yearn over me and pray for me and my children and are part of the things that happen in our lives. I wanted it to be a simple and gentle, and Michael understanding this, did an excellent job with the tune and arrangement. He is a tender, guileless soul, and it is easy to feel this in the music he writes.”

DUP Song Histories 2020-21 Page 2

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing Additional Background Information

Step 1: A Methodist preacher’s 1739 hymn Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was an English leader of the Methodist movement (his older brother, John Wesley, was founder of the movement). Over the course of his career, Wesley published over 6,000 hymns (text, no music); one of those hymns, entitled Hymn for Christmas-Day, was printed in John and Charles Wesley’s collection Hymns and Sacred Poems (London, 1739).

Step 2: A contemporary preacher alters the text Wesley’s friend and colleague George Whitefield (1714-1770) was a famous preacher and instrumental force in the “Great Awakening”; he studied with the Wesley brothers early in his career and was inspired to re-work Wesley’s Hymn For Christmas-Day, most notably changing the opening lines to what we all now know by heart. See the altered hymn as published in Whitefield’s A Collection of Hymns for Social Worship (London, 1753).

Step 3: An Englishman applies a new tune The English musician William Hayman Cummings (1831-1915) accomplished a unique feat when in 1855 he married Whitefield’s adaptation of Wesley’s hymn to a melody by one of classical music’s most notable composers: none other than the great Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847).

Cummings, a tenor, organist, and educator, had personally encountered Mendelssohn as a teenager when he sang in the chorus under the direction of the composer himself at the London premiere of Elijah in 1847. Eight years later, while considering Whitefield’s reworking of the Wesley Christmas hymn, Cummings thought of a tune from a different Mendelssohn work — his 1840 cantata, Festgesang zur Eröffnung der am ersten Tage der vierten Säcularfeier der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst.

Though his name is never printed alongside Mendelssohn nor Wesley, Cummings triumphs as the hero of this tale, fusing together the work of three men (Wesley, Whitefield, and Mendelssohn) who never could have foreseen such an enduring product. It’s striking how perfectly Mendelssohn’s melody and Whitefield’s version of the Wesley text fit together; one might never suspect that the two were intended to exist as separate entities! Cummings’ arrangement was reportedly printed as early as 1857.

DUP Song Histories 2020-21 Page 3

Rock-A-Bye Baby Additional Background Information

The Kenyon Family of Tree Dwellers The remains of the Kenyon family yew tree. Some stories claim that the impetus of “Rock-A-Bye, Baby” came from the real-life Kenyon family of Derbyshire, England. Back in the 1700s, Kate and Luke Kenyon and their eight children made their home in a hollowed-out yew tree. The tree was massive and old – perhaps as old as 2,000 years. According to legend, the Kenyons hollowed out one of the branches of the tree and made it into a cradle for their babies. Tucked safely into the tree branch, the child could be lulled to sleep by the movement of the tree in the wind. Apparently, the yew tree still exists in the woods outside Derbyshire, but it was damaged in the 1930s when vandals lit a fire inside it.

Creative Native American Moms Native American moms used tree cradles to lull their babies to sleep. Another origin story for “Rock-A- Bye, Baby” claims that the lyrics were based on the written observations of a pilgrim boy who was new to the New World. The young child witnessed Native American moms placing their infants in sturdy cradles made from birch bark. The cradles were hung from the trees low branches so the soothing motion of the wind could gently rock the babies to sleep, freeing up the mothers to do their work.

An Allegorical Nursery Rhyme Some historians say that “Rock A Bye, Baby” was not meant to be a nursery rhyme. Instead, it was an allegory about the political unrest of the time. In this origin story, the ditty was supposedly penned in a British pub during the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The lyrics refer to the new heir to the throne, born to King James II of England, and actually, express the hope that the infant prince would die so that the reign of King James II could be overthrown.

The Davey Crockett Connection Did Davy Crockett's cousin write Rock A Bye, Baby? A more recent claim states that “Rock A Bye, Baby” was written by Effie Crockett, a cousin of the legendary Davy Crockett. Effie Crockett, who later went by Effie I. Canning, claimed she wrote the lyrics to the nursery rhyme in 1872 as a way to calm the fussy infant she was babysitting. Although many people doubt her claim, a search of Effie I. Canning’s IMDB filmography shows that she was given credit for the lyrics in more than 175 television shows and movies.

DUP Song Histories 2020-21 Page 4