Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...

Subject: ADD: Little Shepherd Boy
From: GUEST,LadyThorn
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 06:33 PM

My mother used to sing me this song, and then we sang it together. Is anyone else familiar with it? Thanks in advance for any help!

LITTLE SHEPHERD BOY

Little shepherd boy,
On a hill in the sunshine lying.
Hear his lonely pipe,
All on a summer's day.
La-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la,
To keep his flock from wandering.
La-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la,
They come when they hear him play.

Oh my fair Nanette,
Won't you come and sit beside me?
Oh how blue your eyes,
As blue as the summer sky.
La-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la,
Nanette, won't you sit beside me?
La-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la,
Fair maid I bid thee stay!

I'll not sit me down,
Though my eyes be brown or blue, sir.
I'll not sit me down,
My mother bade me, "Nay."
No-no-no-no-no, no-no-no-no,
I'll not linger here with you, sir.
No-no-no-no-no, no-no-no-no,
My mother bade me, "Nay."

Little shepherd boy,
On a hill in the sunshine lying.
Hear his lonely pipe,
Re-echoing down the glade.
La-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la,
And now he has ceased from playing ... playing ...
Where is the tune, oh where is the tune,
That will call back a fair young maid?

Subject: RE: Little Shepherd Boy
From: Judy Cook
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 12:54 AM

My sister sings this song. I'll ask her about it later today.

--Judy Cook

Subject: RE: Little Shepherd Boy
From: Judy Cook
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 04:11 PM

My sister Joanie learned it from Toni, her C.I.T. counselor at Girl Scout Camp Potomac Woods, Maryland in 1968. There are very slight differences in words, but it is very much the same song. They sang it in two-part harmony. She also sings it with *her* daughter.

She taught it to her campers at Camp Evergreen in Washington State in the early 1970's

--Judy Cook

Subject: RE: Little Shepherd Boy
From: LadyThorn
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 05:41 PM

My mom told me last night that she learned at Camp Fire Girl camp in the late 50's. Seems to be a pattern here!

I'm still hoping to get the actual origins.

Subject: RE: Little Shepherd Boy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 07:24 PM

I've looked and looked for this one, but couldn't find any origins information. It's not in any of the school songbooks or World Around Songs songbooks we have indexed, or in any of my scout songbooks.
My guess is that it's a European song that was translated for a U.S. songbook. It follows the pattern of the Czech songs that were posted the last couple days.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Little Shepherd Boy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Mar 06 - 04:10 AM

refresh - I thought I'd found it, but it was a Greek shepherd, with no Nanette....

Subject: RE: Little Shepherd Boy
From: LadyThorn
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 04:11 PM

No, no Nanette?

Thanks for trying!

We're in the process of learning it anyway, for possible performance. My hope is that someone will hear it, and be able to point me in the right direction.

Cheers all!
Kathleen

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 01:30 PM

Ah my fair Annette

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 01:33 PM

Ah my fair Annette I bid you a gay good morrow
Ah how blue your eyes, like the sky on a summer day

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,Iris Lassiter
Date: 19 Mar 12 - 11:36 PM

Funny, I sing it all the time. I learned it in 5th grade chorus at Carver Elementary School in Chesapeake Va. That was 40 years ago. I have always wondered where it came from.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,Adrienne
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 06:05 PM

My sister and I used to sing this together as children. I think we learned it at Girl Scout Camp Ann Bailey in West Virginia in the 1950s. It is wonderful to see the lyrics so we can reconnect with it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,Guest Kathie
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 11:11 PM

I first learned this when visiting in Kings Mountain NC about 60 years ago. I have taught it to a few people but nobody can help me with the harmony. My cousin and I sang it over and over again, then.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,Sandi
Date: 20 Jun 14 - 04:54 PM

I learned this exactly with one word different the way Lady Thorn posted it. I learned it at YWCA Camp Timbertall in 1954 and I teach it to my singing group, Sing Thing Family Singing, every so often. I, also, do not know where it came from and have no ideas on the matter. I'd love to find out. Nice variable harmonies for each verse. 2 parts, but the harmony changes each verse.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,#
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 11:18 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r7di72HruU

While looking for the thread song I stumbled over this. Give it two minutes. What a voice this guy has. Whew!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,Owen
Date: 18 Jul 14 - 03:38 PM

My mom used to sing this to me whenever I asked for a song. I think she learned it at trailblazers. A sort of co ed camping thing. Except I could have sworn she said "...won't you LAY beside me."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 19 Jul 14 - 09:56 AM

Wouldn't surprise me, Owen.

I read somewhere that in some European countries it was considered perfectly reasonable to send a kid (either boy or girl) as young as 13 up into the mountains with the family herd to spend the entire summer alone. The scope for loneliness, for illness or injury, or to be taken advantage of was enormous.

If the story line of this translation is anything like the original, then the song approached a serious purpose in a light-hearted way: teaching how to avoid becoming a pregnant teenager.

I wonder if the "tra la la"s and "no no no's" represent yodeling.

I tried listening to the YouTube, but I just couldn't stand it. Personal preference.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,Maureen in Mich/Wis
Date: 26 Jun 15 - 06:24 PM

We learned this song as a duet, in Sacred Heart Catholic school in Shawano, Wis., mid-60's.

In our version, he plays upon his pipe the whole of the summer day, and it's to keep his flock from straying. Her eyes are blue as the summer day (rhymes more closely), and we said "Oh, sit thee down beside me!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,Maureen in Wis./Mich.
Date: 27 Jun 15 - 01:47 AM

Our version was "Fair Annette" as I remember from the alto part in verse two--not fair Nanette. Could possible be French derivation, Basque, Spanish?

Another song from possibly the same collection we sang from was "Angeline, Caroline, Adeline, Three Merry Maidens in the Lane" (later found out it was a completely secular re-arrangement of a Czech Christmas carol!) and "I Saw 9 red horsemen riding over the plain" and "Dio d'oro, I bought him to my sorrow" and "The Fishermen of Gloucester" and even songs from operas (which I didn't know at the time), such as:

"Once long ago, while this music was playing,
ladies and gentlemen, gracefully swaying,
danced to its rhythm so stately and slow,
Turning and curtseying, bowing so low,
stepping to music, stately and slow."

Which is really Figaro's somewhat bitter snark to the Count, his former friend, who is trying to poach Figaro's fiancee: He's really saying, If you want to dance, Mister Count, I'll call the tune!

All these songs were from collections used in our upper-Wisconsin (near Green Bay) Catholic schools grades 1-8, Sisters of St. Joseph of Rondelet, (for me, 1958-1966-ish) and they included many Christmas songs translated from many Catholic sources (Czech, Polish, Spanish, Basque, French) as well as many other sources: Lu, lullabye Jesu; When stars in the heavens are blinking at me; Still, still, still; and many more.

I wonder, if we couldn't find out who the major publishers of grade-school classroom vocal music might have been then and in that area, and see what was actually published then, and maybe get our hands on some copies? Sounds like a LOT of us really liked that particular song. Let's find it!

(p.s. I'm. a DMA in vocal music from Indiana University, but have sung folk/pop/country-western all my life as well, and I have been hunting for some of the songs from my childhood over the past few years, as Internet search options have greatly expanded!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,Sisu93
Date: 22 Sep 17 - 11:52 PM

'Learned this awesome song at San Francisco Girl Scout camp in the Sierrra Nevada Camp Sugar Pine in the early 1950's. So much fun singing together after each meal in an open air dinning hall.

Such beautiful harmony from a hundred or more Girl Scouts! Those were the days!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 07:44 PM

This song seems to be in a book called Sing High! Sing Low! compiled by Mary A. Sanders (New York: Mary Allison Sanders, 1946), page 24.

It's not viewable online, but it is available through several libraries.

I found one catalog entry that gave the full contents: A-jogging along -- All night, all day -- Cert'nly Lord -- Come en go wid me -- Cloud-ships -- Come to the fair -- Country dance -- A dance song -- Deep in the forest -- Dona nobis pacem -- Eight bells -- Everywhere, everywhere Christmas tonight -- Four-leaf clover -- Frennelly -- Goin' to leave ol' Texas -- Good news -- John Peel -- Like as a father -- Little shepherd boy -- Loaf of bread -- March of the men of Harlech -- Mi chacra = My farm -- Moravian round -- Morning comes early -- October's bright blue weather -- O Lord I want two wings (two versions) -- The owlet -- Paul and the chickens -- Pick a bale o' cotton -- Shepherdess walk -- Some folks do -- Tiratomba -- Trampin' -- Wind, wind! -- When the love come.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,Beth Watkins, Katy, Tx
Date: 11 Mar 18 - 01:34 AM

I have the sheet music. Copyright 1933 by E. C. Schumer Music Co. Translated from the French and adapted by Katerine K Davis
It's 2 part soprano/alto.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,E. Anderson
Date: 09 Apr 19 - 12:46 PM

We had the lyrics a bit different, but the song was basically the same. One note: this song is traditionally sung as a round. Old English, Europeon .org.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,Sandi Morey
Date: 10 Jul 19 - 04:16 PM

I've always thought it was French. Thanks to Beth Watkins for the copyright date & the other info. she contributed. I'm teaching it this summer in a 6 week singing group I've run for 3 decades. It is fun to sing the 4 harmonies, one for each verse.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Little Shepherd Boy on a Hill in the ...
From: GUEST,GUEST Genie in Washington DC
Date: 25 Sep 19 - 07:47 AM

I'm SO glad to have found this! Could not remember the whole thing! We sang it in school in NYC when I was a child in the 1940's. It might have been in a Concord Song Book full of translations of European folk songs. Ours had the line about Annette - not Nanette. "Ah my fair Annette, I bid you again good morrow. Ah so blue your eyes like the sky on a summer's day"