Peace Round: A Song History

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Rise Up Singing lists “The Peace Round” among the songs composed by Jean Ritchie.[1] The Folk Music Index to Recordings lists it in her 1971 songbook Celebration of Life and in Dulcimer People, a 1975 collection she edited.[2] A Smithsonian catalog record confirms that Celebration of Life: Her Songs…her poems came out in New York from Geordie Music Publishing in 1971.[3] The same index lists Ritchie’s own recording on the LP Jean Ritchie at Home on Pacific Cascade, which it dates to 1974.[2] A University of Wisconsin library record gives a bracketed date of 1975 for that album, so the sources differ on the year.[4] The sources consulted here give no date of composition, and the 1971 book is the earliest appearance they document.[2]

Painting of a child standing among a lion, leopards, an ox and other animals gathered peacefully under trees

Edward Hicks, Peaceable Kingdom (detail), oil on canvas, ca. 1830–32. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its theme of peace; it has no connection to the song.

The round also appears in the group-singing songbook Rise Up Singing, which places it in its section of sacred songs.[1] In 2014 Compass Records released the tribute album Dear Jean: Artists Celebrate Jean Ritchie.[5] A PopMatters review notes that the album ends with “The Peace Round”: a 1992 live recording of Ritchie with many of the album’s singers added behind her.[6]

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Sources

  1. Rise Up Singing: "Jean Ritchie" (artist/composer page).
  2. Folk Music Index to Recordings (ibiblio): "The Peace Round".
  3. Smithsonian National Museum of American History: "Jean Ritchie Celebration of Life: Her Songs…her poems".
  4. University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries: "Jean Ritchie at home".
  5. Rambles.NET: "Various artists, Dear Jean: Artists Celebrate Jean Ritchie".
  6. PopMatters: "Dear Jean: Artists Celebrate Jean Ritchie".