With Modern and Traditional Harmonization by David Berger and Chuck Israels Popular Music for Study and Performance With Modern and Traditional Harmonization By David Berger and Chuck Israels Popular Music For Study and Performance The Public Domain Song Anthology Published in 2020 by Aperio Press University of Virginia PO Box 400109 Charlottesville, VA 22904 http://aperio.press A Music Library Association Open Edition Book and Cover Design by Nina Schwartz/Impulse Graphics Text and Forewards: David Berger, Chuck Israels, Robert Schwartz, & Peter Jaszi First Edition: 2020 ISBN: 978-1-7333543-0-1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32881/book2 Manufactured in the United States of America This is where you might ordinarily find a copyright notice, but this is not an ordinary book. To the best of our knowledge, the original versions of songs published in this book are free of all copyright in the United States. To the extent possible under law, the authors of this book have waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights, if any, associated with the new material in this book. This work uses the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. To view a copy of this dedication, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ Suggested citation: Berger, D. & Israels, C. (2020). The Public Domain Song Anthology: With Modern and Traditional Harmonization. Charlottesville: Aperio Press. https:/doi.org/10.32881/book2 The digital edition of this book, including music files, can be downloaded for free at https://doi.org/10.32881/book2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to the following institutions whose financial support made this project possible: Publishing Partners Arthur Friedheim Library of the Peabody Institute University of Michigan Library University of Virginia Library Premier Executive Producers Duke University Libraries Executive Producers California Digital Library UC Berkeley The Claremont Colleges Library UC Davis George A. Smathers Libraries at UC Irvine The University of Florida UCLA Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, Harvard University UC Merced Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University UC Riverside Johns Hopkins University Libraries UC San Diego Lewis Music Library, Massachussetts Institute UC San Francisco of Technology UC Santa Cruz Lilly Music Library, Tufts University University of Colorado Boulder Libraries Otto E. Albrecht Music Library, University of Kansas Libraries University of Pennsylvania University of Kentucky Libraries, Penn State University Libraries Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library Endowment Princeton University University of Massachusetts, Amherst Rutgers University Libraries University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries Syracuse University Libraries University of North Texas Music Library Texas A&M University Libraries University of Richmond Tufts University VCU Libraries UC Santa Barbara Virginia Tech UC Santa Barbara Library And to all individuals and institutions who donated financial support. Publication Committee: Kathleen DeLaurenti, Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University Brandon Butler and Dave Ghamandi, University of Virginia / Aperio Melissa Levine, University of Michigan Paul Cary, Baldwin Wallace Matthew Vest, UCLA Special Thanks To: Peter Jaszi and Staff of Washington College of Law, American University Prudence Adler and Krista Cox, Association of Research Libraries Marc Schwartz, Engraver And To These Volunteers: Provenance Research: Faculty and Students of the Glushko-Samuelson IP Law Clinic, Washington College of Law; Abby Flanigan, University of Virginia; Nina Schwartz, Robert Schwartz. Notation and Lyrics Proofreaders: Christian Dancy, Seth Greenstein, Howard Leikin, Herb Nachmann, Rob Orwin, Brandon Walsh. Promotional Video: Guitarist Steve Herberman. The Musical Heritage David Berger We’ve chosen songs for this volume based on quality and sustained interest, leaving out music that was M.T. REGAN M.T. good but never very popular, or popular but not very good. But—and this is important—this book is offered as an open educational resource (“OER”) (available free, digitally and in print, to every student or per- former at every level)—meaning that researchers, teachers, and students are free to add, subtract, aug- ment, and re-edit, with no obligation to, or need for permission from, us, its curators. So, our decisions are informative, not dispositive. Use this book, but develop it, too. Here are the choices we’ve made in compiling a sin- iving memory is not sufficient to preserve gle volume of popular music that is now in the U.S. our musical heritage. Popular songs that are public domain: in the public domain (free of U.S. copyright L • We’ve focused on forms that evolved into what obligation) needed to be collected and made freely became known as the American Songbook— available. This is what Chuck Israels and I, with sup- compact verse/chorus songs, as in most folk mu- port from the Music Library Association and oth- sic. So, we’ve excluded most long-form composi- er worthy institutions and people, set out to do in tions—classical music, marches, waltzes, and early this book. Expressed in these songs are our culture’s jazz pieces written in march form. joys, aspirations, and sorrows, as well as our defi- ciencies and prejudices. Some of the music is from • We haven’t updated the musical notation with other shores and earlier times, but most dates from more modern phrasing or syncopation, because our frontier, through the gilded age and World War rhythm is personal and instinctive. In popular mu- I, into the jazz age. To this day we encounter many sic, nobody plays or sings the notes on a page quite of these tunes in movies and cartoons. the same way, and no one should. Harmonic choic- es, however, are more developmental, and can be Thousands of folk or music hall songs were written a teaching opportunity. So, Chuck and I have add- before 1924 and now reside in the U.S. public do- ed suggestions of more modern chord changes, main. Very few were good enough to survive more shown in italics above the original chords. than a generation or two, let alone a century or a millennium. The oldest song in this anthology is • We’ve omitted additional verses that were sepa- “Greensleeves,” which dates from about 1580. Oth- rate from the refrain. So, “My Darling Clementine” ers, like “Scarborough Fair,” are from about the same contains its inseparable verse (you can’t possibly period, but evolved over the years. perform this song without the verse), while the verse to “April Showers” has been omitted. The re- In this book we’ve chosen music of enduring quality frain stands by itself, while the verse is rarely if and interest that is in danger of being lost. For a lit- ever performed. erary work, public domain status may enhance pop- ularity, as free digital and print distribution make it • Blues songs often include several choruses of dif- widely, cheaply, and permanently available. Popu- ferent music, as well as other, non-blues-structure lar music, however, rides on popular taste and time sections. In the case of longer form blues, such available to listen. Without collection or promotion, as “Royal Garden Blues,” we have chosen to omit it may be forgotten. these. The one exception is the iconic “St. Louis THE PUBLIC DOMAIN SONG ANTHOLOGY | https://doi.org/10.32881/book2 v Blues.” It contains several sections and is always Other songs were re-appropriated by Black musi- performed in its entirety. cians as jazz flourished in the 20th century. Personal- ly, I wouldn’t perform the original lyrics to “Swanee • Many of the songs evolved melodically or lyr- River (Old Folks at Home)”—but not to know this ically. We have chosen the versions that are the well-known and influential song would be a critical most artistic, yet still within the public domain. gap in one’s musical education. Knowing this music For example, the wonderful and emotive Al Du- helps students appreciate Ray Charles’s recording bin lyrics to Victor Herbert’s 1919 piano piece “In- of this song or Charles’s powerful version of James dian Summer” were added in 1939, so you won’t Bland’s “Carry Me Back to Old Virginia.” Bland, find them here. “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” which known as the “Black Stephen Foster” in his time, is most Americans know from Mitch Miller’s 1955 one of the most prolific composers of American mu- hit recording, began its life as a minstrel song with sic and considered the first commercially successful somewhat different and (as discussed more gener- Black songwriter. “Carry Me Back” and the other ally below) problematic lyrics. We have included Bland song included in this volume, “Golden Slip- the original minstrel version but omitted lyrics pers,” have complicated places in American history. that would be interpreted as racist today. Musicians of all ages should explore the history of these songs in the Further Reading section and use Lyrics that knowledge when considering performance of Lyrics have raised some difficult issues, as this this music. volume is meant for education at any level, in addition to research and performance. A number of spirituals are also included in this volume. While lyrics for some songs have been Popular song lyrics reflect society as it was. Songs updated, the lyrics to these spirituals come from of musical quality were written and/or performed the groundbreaking work of Harry T. Burleigh, and, in environments influenced by racism, religious in other cases, the earliest written records of these intolerance, sexism, and xenophobia. In some cases, songs. The Further Reading list also provides re- we have felt obliged to change some of these lyrics. sources for curious musicians to learn more about In some cases, because of the extreme fame of the the history of these songs for making performance songs, and the wonderful music that accompanies decisions. them, we have published only the music and omitted the lyrics entirely.