Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells

Subject: RE: White Coral Bells: date? provenance?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 02:30 PM

Wery widespread; Birmingham, England Scouts and Guides have it in their songbook, and it appears in English Gardening books (more recent than 1946).
They are also called "Our Lady's Bells."

White coral bells and Lily of the Valley are two entirely diffeent plants, but the flowers are superficially similar.

Subject: RE: White Coral Bells: date? provenance?
From: GUEST,Joe's sister
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 11:23 PM

I'm sure that we were singing "White Coral Bells" at Girl Scout camp in Wisconsin in 1960, and I know that it seemed like an old song then. We were told that Girl Scouts sang it because Juliet Low, our founder, loved lilies of the valley, and also that they were in her bridal bouquet.

When I taught it to girls, we always sang it as a round or canon. It's a pretty song.

Subject: RE: White Coral Bells: date? provenance?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 07:42 AM

From Folk Music Index:

White Coral Bells

1. Songs for Swinging Housemothers, Fearon, Sof (1963/1961), p118
2. New Song Fest Deluxe, Charles Hansen, Sof (1971/1948), p142
3. Sing for the Fun of It, Florida MYF, sof (195?), p E
4. Ditty Bag, Tobitt, Sof (1946), p 31
5. Woods, Sylvia. Teach Yourself to Play the Folk Harp, Woods Books, sof (1978), p22b

(Sof - Book, Soft Cover)

Subject: RE: White Coral Bells: date? provenance?
From: cetmst
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 07:14 AM

Tom Glazer's Treasury of Folk Songs for the Family, pub. 1964, notes "This song may have come from Germany or Holland. There is some evidence of this, though not conclusive". Might give a new direction for search.

Subject: RE: White Coral Bells: date? provenance?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 03:32 AM

Thanks, Masato. Tobitt's 1946 Ditty Bag was the first place I looked, and the song wasn't in the index. Turns out there is a separate index for canons and rounds. Sure enough, there it was.

OK, so now our earliest printed source is 1946, and Ebbie remembers it from the 1940's. Can we do better?

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: White Coral Bells: date? provenance?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 03:19 AM

According to The Song Index of the Enoch Pratt Free Library (Garland, 1998) and Song Finder (Greenwood, 1995), "White Coral Bells" is also in Janet Tobitt, The Ditty Bag (New York: Janet E. Tobitt, 1946); in Robert E. Nye, Basic Music for Classroom Teachers: An Activities Approach to Music Fundamentals (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1954); in Bjornar Bergethon, Musical Growth in the Elementary School (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963); and, as "Klokkene Sma," in Mike Sevig, Mike And Else's Norwegian Songbook (Minneapolis: Skandisk Publications, 1985).

Subject: RE: White Coral Bells: date? provenance?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 02:46 AM

This round is in 101 Plus 5 Folk Songs for Camp, edited by Mike Cohen (Oak, 1966, p. 104); and in Songs of Man, edited by Norman Luboff and Win Stracke (Prentice-Hall, 1965, p. 189), which says it is "An American version of a Round which is English in origin."

~Masato

Subject: RE: White Coral Bells: date? provenance?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 02:24 AM

Damn, Joe, you ARE old! I graduated in 1970. (Of course, I was only 7.)

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: White Coral Bells: date? provenance?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 02:20 AM

I thought it was a Girl Scout standard from long ago. I have a first edition (1949) of Sing Together from the Girl Scouts, and it doesn't have the song. It does appear in the third edition (1973), which says it's traditional, taken from the 1966 edition of Exploring Music 4 (Holt, Rinehart, Winston). Exploring Music says it's traditional and doesn't give any more information.
So, that takes it back to 1966, the year I graduated from high school. I guess that's ancient history - at least my kids think it is.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: White Coral Bells: date? provenance?
From: mg
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 02:16 AM

it was a pretty standard song for girl scouts...I think it goes back at least a ways..turn of the century perhaps?? mg

Subject: RE: White Coral Bells: date? provenance?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 02:08 AM

It certainly predates 1972! I learned it around 1960, but I'm sure it's earlier than that. What an interesting question! Where is Bruce O. when we need him? Maybe Masato knows?

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: White Coral Bells: date? provenance?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 01:43 AM

Boy, there sure isn't much about the song in the Traditional Ballad Index. They found it in the Prairie Home Companion Folk Song Book (Pankake), but not in any of the other sources they have indexed. Seems like very few books spend much time documenting rounds. I think I learned it from my little sister, who learned it in Girl Scouts.
-Joe Offer-

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White Coral Bells

DESCRIPTION: "White coral bells upon a slender stalk, Lilies of the valley (line/grace) my garden walk. Oh don't you wish that you could hear them ring? That will only happen when the (angels/fairies) sing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (as "May Bells," in the "Fourth Year" volume of the "Hollis Dann Music Course")
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 268, "White Coral Bells" (1 text)
Notes: One of the tiny handful of songs in my mother's singing tradition. Seems to be a genuine folk song, even if no one knows what it's supposed to be about.
Jack Manischewitz, who did the research leading to the 1916 date for the May Bells variant, has found a number of people who also know the song from early life. He notes that the 1916 publication listed no author, although authors were listed for most of the other pieces. This would imply, at minimum, that the copyright had expired by 1916, which would hint at a nineteenth century origin. - RBW
File: PHCFS268

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Subject: RE: WhiteCoralBells: date? provenance?
From: open mike
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 12:46 AM

i was just recommending that someone look up White Coral Bells
in the Digi-Trad when lo and behold it is not there! The lyrics
were posted in this thread but the song did not get entered into
the data base.

this page has a midi melody of a prayer written to the same tune.
http://www.users.ms11.net/~gsong/Graces/tune/coralbell.html

another place it is found is here:
found this tab...


7    -7 -6   6
White coral bells


5-5 -6 6 -5    5
upon a slender stalk.


4 5   -4 -5   5 6
Lilies of the Valley


7   8 -8 -7   7
deck my garden walk.


7   -7    -6    6    5
Oh, don't you wish that


-5   -6    6    -5   5
you could hear them ring?


4    5   -4 -5 5 6
That will happen only


7    8 -8 -7    7
when the fairies sing.

Subject: RE: WhiteCoralBells: date? provenance?
From: MMario
Date: 03 Aug 01 - 12:06 PM

trad and anon are the only attributions I find.

Subject: RE: WhiteCoralBells: date? provenance?
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 Aug 01 - 12:01 PM

I learned it as a round in school in the mid-40s. I remember teaching it to my younger brother as we rode our horses along side by side in our woods. Thanks for the memory!

Ebbie

Subject: DTADD: White Coral Bells^^
From: GUEST,DrWord
Date: 03 Aug 01 - 10:17 AM

Any 'catters happen to know whence this "trad & anon" round made its earliest appearances? I've found most of the variant lyrix, but nothing pointing to a country or era. 4 reference, here's the version I learned:

White coral bells, upon a slender stalk,
Lilies-of-the-valley deck the garden walk.
O don't you wish that you could hear them ring?
That can only happen [or "happen only"] when the fairies sing!^^

Thanks for any help!
dennis

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