I’m helping my old fraternity update their songbook, and recently ran across an 1897 edition of the songs. No music is annotated, but the tunes are given titles, and there are a few I’m having trouble running down. I want to make sure the composers (even if long-dead) are properly credited in the next edition, something my predecessors were pretty sloppy about.

I’ll start with the hardest two. One song gives the air as “The Typical Tune of Zanzibar.” The Billy Joel song swamps any attempt to find anything about this; I don’t even know if that was the actual title of a song, or if there was a lyric called “Zanzibar,” and this was intended to be sung to the most common tune, or even if this was based on alleged folk song of Zanzibar. The song would likely have been popular in the late 1800s; it has an 8-line verse and a 4-line chorus; the first two lines of the chorus are, “Rah, rah rah rah, rah rah rah, rah, rah, rah,” repeated.

The next challenge is “Sparkling and Bright.” Again, way too common a phrase to find from a Web search… This one has 4-line verses and a 4-line chorus.

The next two, I have the tunes for, but am trying to track down the composers if possible. “Donahue” is in waltz time, in B? major: f4 | bf2 a4 | g2 f4 | g2 f4 | d2 f4 | bf2 a4 | g2 f4 | f2. …

Another is given as “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.” The Internet hymnal has been very helpful here; the S.V.R. Ford setting seems the best match, but it’s partial and not quite on. The version I have is in 6/8, in F major: c4 f8 a4 g8 | f8 e8 d8 c4. | d8 e8 f8 f8 e8 f8 | a8 g8 f8 g4 …

As a bonus challenge, two of the songs are college songs, published in Songs of Yale. They are completely anonymous, as far as I can tell, but if anyone has a citation for a composer of “Wake, Freshmen, Wake,” or “My Comrades, When I’m No More Drinking,” I’d love to hear them.

Thanks in advance!

—crism