Children’s Folk Songs of America

John Langstaff: A Brief Biography

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 24th, 1920, John Meredith Langstaff grew up in a household filled with traditional and folk music. His mother was an accomplished pianist and accompanist and she taught her young son a plethora of traditional music at the piano. From a very young age, she involved him in their yearly Christmas musical celebrations which featured communal carol sings and evenings of musical merriment. By the age of 8, Langstaff was enrolled at the Grace Church Choir school in New York City where he was recognized as a talented boy soprano (Temin, 1981). During his teenage years, Langstaff had his first experiences with traditional, unaccompanied vocal music at the White Top Festival in Virginia and also attended Pinewood Camp in Massachusetts where he became involved with the English traditions of Morris Dancing and Mummers’ Plays. These seminal experiences with traditional music and customs, both in his childhood home and among communities of musicians, instilled in him a passion and appreciation for folk music and inspired a lifelong commitment to music education and the dissemination of these musical traditions (Alarik, 2005).

As a young man, Langstaff decided to pursue a career in classical singing, studying at both The Julliard School of Music in New York City and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Following his debut recital at New York’s Town Hall, the young baritone’s burgeoning career as a classical singer was put on hold when the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor spurred the United States to enter World War II. Langstaff enlisted in the army, serving as an infantry lieutenant on the Pacific front. He carried his passion for singing halfway around the world, organizing a men’s chorus in his barracks and leading his fellow army men in traditional songs and rounds. At the Battle of Okinawa, Langstaff was shot in the chest and spent 18 months recovering in the hospital (Davis, 1995). During this convalescence, “he was encouraging other young men on his hospital ward to sing, he recognized the community building and healing powers of singing together” (G. Rich, personal communication, May 10, 2007).

Following the war, Langstaff enjoyed some success as a professional singer in London, but ultimately moved to the Washington, D.C. area to teach music at The Potomac School. He served as Head of Music at the school for more than a decade, incorporating “much of the music he had sung at home as a boy, and that he had collected at folk camps and in his travels” (G. Rich, personal communication, May 10, 2007), and sharing his love of traditional and folk music with new generations of music makers. During this time he also began writing and publishing music books for children, winning the prestigious Caldecott Award for Children’s Literature for “Frog Went a-Courtin’” in 1955. From that point on, Langstaff devoted considerable energy toward making accessible the folk music and traditional songs of both England and America, publishing more than twenty songbooks, many geared toward children. After moving to the Boston area in 1968, he was appointed Head of Music at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, a teaching post he held for 5 years before leaving to share his expertise with future music educators at Boston, Simmons, and Wheelock Colleges (Davis, 1995).

John Langstaff’s most recognizable legacy may well be The Christmas Revels productions, which were conceived in 1957, but became an annual tradition in Cambridge, Massachusetts during the 1971 holiday season. Through these annual productions, Langstaff sought to create musical communities to disseminate the traditional and folk music he so loved. During the 1980s, Langstaff worked tirelessly to develop the Revels organization, producing songbooks, choral arrangements, educational videos, and teacher training materials, and spawning numerous fledgling Revels productions across the country. Langstaff retired from his position as Artistic Director of the Revels organization in 1995, although he continued to be active in the organization until his death in 2005 (Alarik, 2005).

Folk Songs for Young Singers

John Langstaff’s philosophy of “folk songs for all singers” is quite evident in his collected recordings and published songbooks. His life’s work reveals a passionate dedication to the dissemination of traditional music, with an eye toward finding ways for children to engage with music, folklore, and cultural heritage. In the preface to Jim Along, Josie (Langstaff & Langstaff, 1970), a collection of traditional songs and singing games for children, Langstaff and his coauthor and wife, Nancy Langstaff, justified their use as “. . . the child’s first contact with poetry . . .” suggesting that folk songs might serve as “. . . doorways to the finest in music” (p. ii). The Langstaffs also extol the many virtues of folk music as both beautiful and educationally sound. They note a “natural correlation between children’s early songs and the basic elements of beginning reading skills: oral language, aural memory, aural discrimination, directional movement, sequencing and rhythmic cadence of the words” (Langstaff & Langstaff, 1986, p. 6). They further stress the accessibility of folk song for even very young children, stating that the “three ‘Rs’ of rhyme, repetition, and rhythm, found so consistently in many folksongs, make for easy learning and remembering” (p. 6).

In several collections of traditional songs, notably Jim Along Josie (1970), Sally Go Round the Moon (1986), and Hot Cross Buns (1978), Langstaff compiled a rich repository of traditional folk songs and singing games intended for use with young people. Piano, guitar, and percussion accompaniments are often included, although the emphasis is on healthy in-tune singing, and educators are instructed not to be “hesitant about unaccompanied singing” since “originally, folk songs were always sung this way” (1970, p. i). Optional percussion accompaniments are often offered, including examples of “countermelody or ostinato (that) can be played on chime bars, glockenspiel, xylophone, piano, recorder, tuned bottles or glasses” or on “drums, claves, maracas, flower pots, triangles, tambourines, and pie tins” (1970, p. iii). The songs he so carefully selected and compiled represent a rich body of child-friendly folk music that may be explored creatively in a great variety of musical ways. As children sing these traditional tunes, move to the beat, play the accompanying games, add instrumental accompaniment, or explore elements of drama and poetry, teachers might let their “enthusiasm for these wonderful little songs communicate itself to the children as you make music together” (Langstaff & Langstaff, 1986, p. 6).

A perhaps unconventional music educator, John Langstaff dedicated his life to engaging people in performances of folk and traditional music, leading friends and colleagues in song, teaching and interacting with children, staging community performances and pageants, and compiling resources for parents and educators. His legacy lives on in the hundreds of Revels productions that take place each year and in printed folk song materials that remain relevant resources for music educators wishing to share these rich musical traditions with their own students.

Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Brief Biography

A fascinating figure in the landscape of American music, not much is known about the life and music-educational contributions of Ruth Crawford Seeger. The multifaceted musical life of Ruth Crawford Seeger began in July of 1901 in Ohio. The second child of the Crawford family, Ruth demonstrated musical aptitude from a very early age. Following her family’s move to Florida, Crawford’s piano studies began at age 7, through which she came to know both nurturing and stern piano instructors. She was driven to continue her musical life at the piano through performances in a wide variety of community venues, yet she was also driven to share her musical knowledge with others. On graduating from high school, Crawford became the piano teacher at Foster’s School of Musical Arts where she began her engagement with young children. This fertile musical time in Crawford’s life not only led to the cultivation of her performing and teaching skills, but it marked the beginnings of her composition career as well. She began experimenting with composition through the creation of short pieces for use in her teaching endeavors, compositions that received positive attention from her teachers and peers (Gaume, 1986; Tick, 1997).

Although she lived a fruitful musical life in Florida, the early 1920s found Crawford leaving home to further her music studies at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Crawford refined her composition skills, while experiencing a whirlwind of new social and musical experiences. Such was her interest and commitment to composition that she eventually left Chicago for New York. There, she immersed herself in social circles of composers, eventually meeting Charles Seeger in 1929, who became her composition teacher. Crawford spent time abroad composing in the early 1930s as the first woman to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her return to the United States ushered in her married life to Charles Seeger and eventually the rearing of their four children (Gaume, 1986; Tick, 1997).

The mid-1930s found the Seeger family living outside of Washington, D.C. and participating in a very rich musical life enhanced by frequent social and musical exchanges with many of the most popular folk artists of the time, such as Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter. Through these gatherings, the Seegers became acquainted with John and Alan Lomax who were collectors of folk songs. The Lomaxes traveled thousands of miles in and around the United States collecting the songs and stories of regular, everyday people who wanted to share. They made recordings of these bits of America’s musical heritage on Edison wax cylinders, hoping that these excerpts would one day become a published collection. The Lomaxes, however, were in need of a music editor, someone with musical training who could help them transcribe their findings into traditional notation. Crawford was chosen to collaborate in this monumental project (Tick, 1997).

It was arduous work as Crawford spent many an hour listening to the Lomax’s recorded excerpts, attempting to capture each unique performance as accurately as possible. This was no easy task given the complexity of vocal undulations, metrical shifts, and regional dialects. Nor was it easy to negotiate notations with the opinionated Alan Lomax. Despite her challenging work, Crawford began to adopt some of these folk songs into her own life, arranging them and using them in her own home with her children, the seedlings of her next venture (Tick, 1997; Wilding-White, 1988).

American Folk Songs for Children

In addition to her many musical endeavors, Crawford was a mother to four children. As her daughter Barbara began nursery school, Crawford learned that, in addition to a tuition payment, she was expected to volunteer one morning per week with the children. Unsure as to what to do with the children, Crawford drew on the multitude of folk songs stored in her memory and very successfully engaged the students in a morning of music-making. The children and their families so loved their music time with Crawford that they requested copies of the tunes for use in the home. These informal song books grew into her own published collection of folk music titled American Folk Songs for Children (1948), thus combining her study of piano, her immersion in the folk music of America, and her new endeavor as a teacher of young children (Seeger, 1948; Tick, 1997; Wilding-White, 1988).

Crawford recognized the importance of bringing American folk music to children because “it belongs to our children—it is an integral part of their cultural heritage” (Seeger, 1948, p. 21). She further noted that “it is a kind of music which everyone can help make—it invites participation” (Seeger, 1948, p. 24). She used this initial collection as a vehicle through which to invite families to make music together and to get past any musical inhibitions that might prevent musical engagement from happening. She further used the preface to American Folk Songs for Children to instruct parents and teachers as to how to use the collection, suggesting ideas for improvisation, how to incorporate music into household routines, how to use the songs at school, how to accompany the songs, and how to extract tonal and rhythmic components for fun and meaningful musical engagement. This first collection was followed by three others: Animal Folks Songs for Children (Seeger, 1950), American Folk Songs for Christmas (Seeger, 1953), and Let’s Build a Railroad (Seeger, 1954).

Despite their mid-20th century publication, the songs within Crawford’s collections are just as fresh and fun today, timeless bits of children’s musical lore with many classroom applications and opportunities for meaningful musical engagement. For example, the classic children’s folk song “Toodala” comes with Crawford’s own notes about how to spin the song out into a variety of activities, including text improvisation, incorporation of the song into classroom routines, and opportunities for movement exploration. Similarly, Crawford crafted activities for both younger and older children to accompany “The Closet Key,” featuring hide and seek games as well as a more sophisticated play party. Crawford’s timeless collections bear the marks of a careful, creative, and attentive musical hand, preserving for future generations the enduring songs of America’s heritage and providing an invaluable resource that music educators of today can bring into their classrooms with confidence.

Music of the Past in Present-Day Classrooms

The folk music legacies of John Langstaff and Ruth Crawford Seeger celebrate heritage musics of the past, yet are rich with possibilities for contemporary music teaching situations. Throughout their folk music compilations, both Langstaff and Seeger provide ideas and points of departure for music-educational uses for these time-tested tunes (see Figure 1 for a brief resource list). For example, the folk tune “Our Gallant Ship” from the collection entitled Sally Go Round the Moon (1986), compiled by John and Nancy Langstaff, presents a variety of meaningful music learning possibilities for children (see Figure 2 for text). The Langstaffs provide the following directions for using this song with children:

The children join hands in a circle and dance around until the last line, when they suddenly stop and jump slowly four times, once on each beat of the seventh measure. On the word “sea,” they sink to the ground—ready to jump up and do it all over again! (p. 79)

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Figure 1.

Resources for teachers.

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Figure 2.

“Our Gallant Ship”.

Teachers might elect to extend this circle activity by adding instruments; children may tap a tambourine or jingle stick to the beat as they march in a circle, shaking their instrument as the ship sinks at the end. One might further develop this activity into the conceptual realm by inviting children to consider how they would march and play if the ship sailed slowly or quickly or softly or loudly, presenting an opportunity to connect concepts and terms with concrete musical behaviors.

Further ideas for classroom applications might be found in Ruth Crawford Seeger’s American Folk Songs for Children, in which she offers many and varied practical ideas for using this collection with children. This particular collection includes the folk tune, “I Got a Letter” (see Figure 3 for text), a song ripe with possibilities for the music classroom. Seeger presented various classroom applications of this piece, including an improvisation activity where new verses are crafted and possibly acted out in dramatic fashion. She additionally suggested using this tune as a solo singing activity wherein the teacher sings “I got a letter this morning,” and the child responds “oh, yes,” a compelling opportunity to assess blossoming singers within a playful context. A further extension of “I Got a Letter” might include props and manipulatives to accompany the song. For example, a small metal mailbox with real envelopes and “letters” might suggest to the children ways to move creatively during repetitions of the song (building movement vocabulary) or different expressive ways to perform the song (piano, forte, legato, staccato, etc.). The songs and pedagogical approaches offered by Langstaff and Seeger provide opportunities for meaningful music making in and of themselves, yet, clearly, present teachers with foundational materials with which to be creative and expressive.

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Figure 3.

“I Got a Letter”.

Preserving the Past, Forging Ahead to the Future

The music educational contributions of John Langstaff and Ruth Crawford Seeger are too prolific to ignore. They dedicated much of their lives to the preservation and passing on of America’s heritage music to future generations. In the spirit of all that Langstaff and Crawford have contributed to our storehouse of musical resources, it is fitting to consider how we may engage our students the preservation of their own musical heritages. Conducting interviews with members of their own families and communities, recording songs and chants, representing song collections through notation, and exploring the meanings and uses of personal heritage music are all exciting opportunities for young people to carry on the Langstaff/Seeger legacy while coming to know themselves more fully as musical beings.