Little Rosewood Casket: A Song History

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"Little Rosewood Casket" began as a sentimental parlor song, first issued as sheet music in 1870; the Traditional Ballad Index credits it to Louis P. Goullaud and Charles A. White and notes that its authors called it "A Package of Old Love Letters."[1] The Discography of American Historical Recordings, citing Meade, likewise names Goullaud as lyricist and C. A. White as composer.[2] Johns Hopkins University's Levy Sheet Music Collection holds a copy entered for copyright in 1870 by the Boston firm of White & Goullaud, under the slightly different title "Package of Old Letters," arranged by E. N. Catlin for voice and piano with a four-part chorus.[3] In the song, a dying woman asks her sister to bring the small rosewood box holding her sweetheart's letters and read them to her, then asks that the letters, a ring and other keepsakes be buried with her.[1]

Black-and-white photograph of a lidded rosewood box with metal corner mounts and hinges

Writing box, Indian rosewood (huali), 17th century. A rosewood box from China, shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.

In oral tradition the song goes by its rosewood-casket name, and the Ballad Index observes that the authors' own title seems to have died out; it lists about thirty printed sources for the song, from several regions of the United States, including the Appalachians and the Midwest, and from Australia, and the Frank C. Brown collection from North Carolina alone printed three texts and mentioned twenty-one more.[1] It was also an early country-music favorite: Ernest Thompson recorded it for Columbia in 1924, Vernon Dalhart recorded it for many labels from 1925 onward, and George Reneau and Bradley Kincaid followed in 1925 and 1929.[1] One of Dalhart's versions, made in New York on October 1, 1925, came out on OKeh under the name "Tobe Little," accompanied by fiddle, guitar and harmonica.[2]

Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper recorded it for the Rich-R-Tone label at some point after the Second World War.[1] Maureen Sellers includes it in My Teaching Book For Appalachian Dulcimer, Volume Two, an instruction book for mountain dulcimer players, published by Fingers Of Steel.[4]

Our books that contain the song "Little Rosewood Casket"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Ballad Index: "The Little Rosewood Casket".
  2. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "OKeh matrix 73669. The little rosewood casket / Tobe Little".
  3. Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection, Johns Hopkins University: "English Songs. Duetts, Trios Etc. No. 4. Package of Old Letters.".
  4. Fingers Of Steel: "Maureen Sellers, My Teaching Book For Appalachian Dulcimer, Volume Two".
  5. Image: Writing box, Indian rosewood (huali), 17th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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