Ingalls Wilder Family Songbook

The eight Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957), anchored in her family’s history and filled with memories of frontier life, are cornerstone classics in American children’s literature.  Embedded in them are citations to 127 pieces of music—from parlor songs, stage songs, minstrel show songs, patriotic songs, Scottish and Irish songs, hymns and spirituals, to fiddle tunes, singing school songs, play party songs, folk songs, broadside ballads, catches and rounds.  No books in American literature of comparable standing and popularity feature America’s vernacular music so centrally, assign it such a major narrative role, and index it in such rich abundance.

 

This edition is a reconstruction of "the family songbook," based on the music referenced in Wilder’s books.  Although no such object ever existed, her representations of music-making have likely informed the imaginations of more Americans than many a paper-and-bindings anthology, for what millions of readers have come to know about  America’s musical heritage is what they learned from the Little House books—the titles and lyrics to songs; how songs and tunes functioned; where they were heard; what they meant; the importance of music to individuals, families, and communities.  Wilder’s references and her evocative images of music-making thus form the basis of understanding about "American music" to many readers.  The Ingalls Wilder Family Songbook is an effort to give fresh voice and sound to the music inscribed in these great books and new appreciation about how music functioned during a place and time important in American history and mythology.

Children’s Songs

  1. Billy Boy

  2. Bye, Baby Bunting

  3. Pease Porridge Hot

  4. Pop Goes the Weasel

  5. Ring around the Roses

  6. Sing a Song of Sixpence

  7. Uncle John

  8. Weevily Wheat

Fiddle Tunes

  9. The Arkansas Traveler

  10. The Campbells Are Coming

  11. The Devil’s Dream

  12. The Girl I Left behind Me

  13. Haste to the Wedding

  14. Highland Fling

  15. The Irish Washerwoman

  16. Life Let Us Cherish

  17. Money Musk

  18. Polly Put the Kettle On

  19. The Red Heifer

Folk Songs

  20. Barbara Allen

  21. Green Grows the Laurel

  22. Let the Toast Pass

  23. Mary of the Wild Moor

  24. Nobody Ask’d You

  25. Old Grimes

  26. The Railroader

  27. Roll the Old Chariot Along

  28. The Tread-Mill

 

Concert/Theater Songs

  29. The Big Sunflower

  30. De Boatmen’s Dance

  31. Buffalo Gals

  32. Buy a Broom!

  33. Camptown Races

  34. Captain Jinks

  35. Come In and Shut the Door

  36. Darling Nelly Gray

  37. Dixie’s Land

  38. Down in Alabam

  39. De Floating Scow of Old Virginia

  40. The Gipsy King

  41. The Gum Tree Canoe

  42. Home! Sweet Home!

  43. I Wish I Were Single Again

  44. Keep the Horseshoe over the Door

  45. Kitty Wells

  46. A Life on the Ocean Wave

  47. Little Annie Rooney

  48. The May Queen, Part Second: New Year’s Eve

  49. Mistress Jinks of Madison Square

  50. A Motto for Every Man

  51. My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night

  52. Nelly Was a Lady

  53. The New Year’s Come

  54. Oh! Boys, Carry Me ’Long

  55. Old Dan Tucker

  56. Old Folks at Home

  57. Old John Brown

  58. Paddle Your Own Canoe

  59. Roll On Silver Moon

  60. Skidmore Guard

  61. Susanna

  62. ’Twill Nebber Do to Gib It Up So!

  63. Uncle Ned

  64. Uncle Sam’s Farm

  65. Wait for the Wagon

  66. Where There’s a Will There’s a Way

Hymns/Sunday School Songs

  67. Am I a Soldier of the Cross?

  68. Canaan

  69. Doxology

  70. The Evergreen Shore

  71. Gentle Words and Loving Smiles

  72. The Good Old Way

  73. The Happy Land

  74. The Home of the Soul

  75. Jerusalem, the Golden

  76. Jesus Holds My Hand

  77. Lend a Helping Hand

  78. Merry, Merry Christmas!

  79. Mountain of the Lord

  80. My Sabbath Home

  81. The Ninety and Nine

  82. On Jordan’s Stormy Banks

  83. Pull for the Shore

  84. Rock of Ages

  85. A Shelter in the Time of Storm

  86. The Star of Bethlehem

  87. Sweet By and By

  88. What Shall the Harvest Be?

  89. When I Can Read My Title Clear

Parlor Songs

  90. The Battle Cry of Freedom

  91. The Beacon-Light of Home

  92. Ben Bolt

  93. Beware!

  94. The Blue Juniata

  95. Daisy Deane

  96. The Gipsie’s Warning

  97. Golden Years Are Passing By

  98. In Dreamland far Away

  99. In the Starlight

  100. Jingle Bells

  101. Lilly Dale

  102. Love’s Old Sweet Song

  103. Marching through Georgia

  104. The Old Time

  105. Polly-Wolly-Doodle

  106. Rock Me to Sleep, Mother

  107. The Singin Skewl

  108. When Johnny Comes Marching Home

  109. The Whip-Poor-Will’s Song

Scottish/Irish Songs

  110. All the Blue Bonnets

  111. Auld Lang Syne

  112. Bonny Doon

  113. Comin’ thro’ the Rye

  114. Highland Mary

  115. My Heart Is Sair for Somebody

  116. Oft in the Stilly Night

  117. O Whistle and I’ll Come to You

Singing School Music

  118. Gaily Now Our Boat Is Sailing

  119. Great Is the Lord

  120. The Heavens Declare the Glory

  121. The Song of the Grass

  122. Three Blind Mice

  123. We Are All Here

 

124. America

125. Hail Columbia

126. The Star Spangled Banner

127. Yankee Doodle