Origins: The Crow (The Rook, by Stravinsky)

Subject: Origins: The Crow
From: GUEST,Beirne
Date: 29 Jun 26 - 10:18 PM

At the end of the year in about 5th grade in the late 1960s our teacher let us pick any songs out of the music book we'd like to sing. One guy picked a song that I think was called "The Crow". The song stuck in my head but I've never found mention of it again. Here are the lyrics I remember. Does anyone know anything about this song?

On the bridge above the bay, sat a crow one sunny day.
I took him by the tail and heels, then upon the bridge I kneeled.
In the bay I set him to watch the water him.

Next day I came back to see,
Underneath the bridge was he,
I took him out and with a cry,
Put him in the sun to dry.

That's all I remember. And that our teacher was not thrilled that my classmate picked this song, but she stood by her offer.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Crow
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jun 26 - 01:05 AM

Hi, Beirne,
Your classmate had pretty sophisticated taste - it's from Stravinsky.
It's an interpretation of Three Little Songs "Recollections of my Childhood": II. The Rook by Igor Stravinsky

Google AI says:

"The Rook" (Russian: Vorona) is the second movement of Igor Stravinsky's Three Little Songs: Recollections of My Childhood (1913), a set of brief, whimsical vocal miniatures based on traditional Russian folk texts. The lyrics tell a playful nonsense tale about two rooks and a narrator who catches them: one rook washes under a bridge, while the other dries its feathers on the bridge. The narrator then playfully swaps their roles, throwing the washing rook on the bridge to dry, and the drying rook under the brook to wash. Musically, it showcases Stravinsky's early neoclassical economy and shifting, asymmetrical Russian rhythmic accents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW0CVcwNIA8
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioNzIcqkXbE

And here's sheet music

Subject: ADD: The Crow (Stravinsky/Rosenbloom)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jun 26 - 01:19 AM

I found the lyrics you have in the Fourth Grade volume of Exploring Music, published in 1966 by Hold, Rinehart, and Winston. Authors are Boardman, Landis, and Hoggard.


THE CROW
(Music by Igor Stravinsky
Words by Linda Rosenbloom)

On a bridge above the bay
Sat a crow one sunny day.
I took him by the tail and heel,
Then upon the bridge I kneeled.
In the bay I set him
To watch the water wet him.

Next day I came back to see,
Underneath the bridge was he,
I took him out and with a sigh,
Put him in the sun to dry.

Yesterday I saw him,
The sun's still shining on him.


So, there ya go.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Crow (The Rook, by Stravinsky)
From: GUEST,Beirne
Date: 02 Jul 26 - 09:26 AM

Wow! Thank you Joe! That solves a mystery bouncing around my head for decades. This may be the only thing I remember from fifth grade. :-)