Little Bo Peep

[owlfish]

[Poll #1928956]

Last week in guitar class, it was news to me that "Little Bo Peep" had any tune at all. The other students were mildly astonished; they'd never known it without one.

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

To be more precise, "I've never heard the tune." Most nursery rhymes have been set to music at various points in the past. I've just not heard this one.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

In the cases that I know about, the tune came first and the words were put to it. A very large proportion come from the 18th century and are a good window into 18th century popular music

[gillo]

That was my gut feeling too - Ride a cock horse is pretty much Lilibulero, after all. And some nursery rhymes started out as satire - The Grand Old Duke of York, for example.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

Apparently none of them started off as being for children; they were just songs that people knew that they sang to children, and this developed into a tradition even when the contemporary allusions were forgotten

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I shall remember this for next time I read Tristram Shandy.