Ah Poor Bird: A Song History

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The Traditional Ballad Index lists the author of the round "Ah, Poor Bird" as unknown and gives as its earliest date Fred and Irwin Silber's Folksinger's Wordbook of 1973.[1][2] The Index treats the Wordbook as a handy compilation rather than an authority, since it gives no sources and often misattributes authorship.[2] The Kodály Music Education Institute of Australia labels it a traditional English canon, citing Bolkovac and Johnson's 150 Rounds for Singing and Teaching (Boosey & Hawkes, 1996).[3] None of the sources consulted here traces the round to a printing before 1973 or to a named composer.[1][3] The Index also points to a different poor-bird round, "Thou Poor Bird," in the songbook Songs of All Time, which Robert B. Waltz, writing for the Index, suspects but is not certain may be an ornate rewriting of the same piece.[1][2]

Japanese woodblock print of a small bird perched on a blue camellia branch, with calligraphy

Utagawa Hiroshige, Camellia and Bird, woodblock print; ink and color on paper, ca. 1833. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown in fun for its small bird; it has no connection to the round.

The Ballad Index tags the round as a camp song and cites Patricia Averill's Camp Songs, Folk Songs, a 2014 study of camp songs.[1][2] The "Remembering Camp Scott" collection at Oklahoma State University Libraries holds a recording of Girl Scouts singing it at a History Harvest gathering.[4] It has also been paired with another camp round: the Index records a 2023 recording by Judy and Dennis Cook that joins it to "Rose, Rose" as a medley.[1][5] The Index's entry for "Hey, Ho, Nobody Home" cross-references "Rose, Rose," and Waltz remarks that the "Rose, Rose" tune recalls the older round a little.[6][5]

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Ah, Poor Bird".
  2. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Bibliography".
  3. Kodály Music Education Institute of Australia: "Ah Poor Bird" (song analysis sheet).
  4. Oklahoma State University Libraries, Remembering Camp Scott: "Ah Poor Bird".
  5. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Rose, Rose".
  6. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Hey, Ho, Nobody Home".