Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose: A Song History

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"Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose" is a round from the camp-song repertoire; the Traditional Ballad Index lists its author as unknown, and the earliest source it gives is Janet E. Tobitt's camp songbook Yours for a Song (1939).[1][2] Tobitt later gathered that book's songs into The Ditty Bag (1946), which also prints the round, a collection the Index tentatively links, like its predecessor, to girls' camps.[1][2] Robert B. Waltz, writing in the Index, hears its minor-key tune, which ends on the fifth, as faintly recalling "Hey, Ho, Nobody Home," a round already in print in Ravenscroft's Pammelia (1609).[1][2][3] Its words vary between sources, and Patricia Averill's study Camp Songs, Folk Songs (2014) names three songs derived from it, "Peace, Peace," "Love, Love" and "America, America."[1][2] Averill also reports a claim that the round refers to the Wars of the Roses; Waltz considers this very unlikely, pointing out that the Lancastrians did not use a rose badge at the time and that the scene of rivals declaring their side with red or white roses is drawn from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 1 rather than from the historical record.[1]

A loose bouquet of pink, red and cream roses in a green vase on a table.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Roses in a Vase, oil on fabric, c. 1890. Roses in a vase, shown for the title; the painting has no connection to the round.

It is still sung: the Remembering Camp Scott collection at Oklahoma State University Libraries holds a 2018 recording of Girl Scouts singing it.[4] The Index also lists a 2023 recording by Judy and Dennis Cook, who sang it in a medley with "Ah, Poor Bird."[1] For groups of dulcimer players, Mark Gilston includes it among the 28 rounds, canons and circular songs in Playing-A-Round With Dulcimers.[5]

Our book that contains the song "Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Rose, Rose".
  2. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Bibliography".
  3. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Hey, Ho, Nobody Home".
  4. Oklahoma State University Libraries, Remembering Camp Scott: "Rose, Rose".
  5. Mark Gilston: "Playing-A-Round With Dulcimers".
  6. Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Roses in a Vase, oil on fabric, c. 1890. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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