UnionPublicSchools,
Grove second graders practice a folk song, starting in on
the floor and then creating circles over and over until everyone is in a large
circle, singing and dance. Music teacher Stephanie Farlow said the song
"Go Around the Corn, Sally" is a timely Thanksgiving folk song
because of the harvest theme.
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases four YouTube videos of the African American work song
"Round The Corn, Sally" performed as a children's singing game.
Some historical information about "Round The Corn, Sally" is included in this post along with the lyrics to these showcased videos and performance directions. An explanation of the words "corn husking" is also included in this post.
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, recreational, and educational purposes.
Thanks to the unknow composers of the original "Round The Corn, Sally" song. Thanks to all those who are featured in these showcased videos and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
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SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "ROUND THE CORN, SALLY"
From https://voices.pitt.edu/TeachersGuide/Unit1/Round%20the%20Corn(er)%20Sally.htm
"Round the Corn(er), Sally
Traditional, 1700s
Song Background
Often novels and memoirs are the only sources for learning the history of a song. Such is the case with “Round the Corn, Sally.” Because it is mentioned in several early American novels, it is one of the earliest known examples of an African American slave song. Dena Epstein notes the presence of “Round the Corn, Sally” in one of the first novels of plantation life, George Tucker’s The Valley of Shenandoah (1824). In the novel The Old Plantation and What I Gathered There in an Autumn Month (1859), James Hungerford cites it as a rowing song. It is also mentioned in Richard Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast (1840).
Eileen Southern notes that “Round the Corn, Sally” was used to coordinate the movements of work teams. Enslaved people loading cotton along the Eastern Seaboard or Mississippi River likely sang “Round the Corn, Sally,” where it was adapted by the seafaring population and turned into a sea chanty. Interaction between various singing populations often gave rise to new songs. The melodies and rhythms of the two versions are similar, and they share a call-and-response structure. The expert chantyman improvised lyrics of the repeating phrase, while the sailors, hard at work, would repeat the chorus. This chanty was likely used to coordinate the crew’s movement raising sails, a strenuous effort made easier by singing. This version of the sea chanty probably dates from the mid-1800s (after California became a US territory), but “Round the Corn, Sally” is a much earlier slave song."
-snip-
WHAT CORN HUSKING MEANS
"Round The Corn, Sally" was sung by emslaved Black Americans in the United States South during corn husking. "Corn husking" means to remove the outer layer (the husk) of the corn. According to what I've read about this song "Round The Corn, Sally", during slavery in the southern region of the United States, large piles of un-husked corn were placed on the ground and there was a competition as to who would "husk" the most corn. The song "Round TheCorn, Sally" was sung by people while they husked the corn, and/or during the dancing that occurred at the end of a day's & night's work husking the corn.
-snip-
OTHER TIMES THIS SONG WAS SUNG
There is also documentation that enslaved Black Americans sung this song while rowing boats on the river. "Round The Corn, Sally" and other dance songs were also sung by enslaved African American while they marched around the plantation big house and performed for the "master" and "mistress" on Christmas day.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/06/four-examples-of-round-corn-sally.html for the 2014 pancocojams post entiteld "Lyrics For Four Early Examples Of "Round The Corn, Sally" (African American Corn Husking Song) for more information about that African American work song and for four early words only examples of that song.
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LYRICS AND PERFORMANCE DIRECTIONS FOR VIDEO #1*
Children form a circle (first a girl only circle, then a boy
only circle, then a circle formed by girls and boys together). Children hold
hands and walk around the circle)
Soloist-Go around round and round
Group-Go around the corn, Sally
Soloist-Go around round and round
Group-Go around the corn, Sally
Soloist -Hey now, hey now
Group-Go around the corn, Sally
Soloist -Hey now, hey now
Group-Go around the corn, Sally
Soloist- What to do what to do – (Children stop circling movement and start jumping in
place up and down)
Group-Round and round the corn Sally- (Children stand in place and turn around)
Soloist -What to do what to do
Group-Round and round the corn, Sally
Soloist -All around all around (Children hold hands and walk around the circle
again)
Group-All around the corn, Sally
Soloist -All around all around
Soloist and Group-All around the corn, Sally (Children sing this last line slower and at the end
sit on the floor with crossed legs)
-snip-
*This is my transcription of the video and its performance directions (given in parenthesis.)
Additions and corrections are welcome.
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #2: Go
Around the Corn, Sally! (Danielle Solan's 08-09 BTE 2nd Grade Concert).
Danielle Solan,
-snip-
A student introduces "Go Round The Corn, Sally" as "an African American work song that is almost two hundered years old. Workers used to sing this song while picking corn in the fields".
The children stand in place in front of their audience while singing. The children bob up and down to the instrumental introduction to this song. They sing in unison and perform imitative movements (given in parenthesis. Each "verse" is sung two times.
Lyrics & Performance :
(Children stand in horizontal rows on a stage.)
Go around, go around (The children make a circle with their arms in front of their body while singing these lyrics)
Go around the corn, Sally (The children stand still while singing these lyrics.)
Go around, go around
Go around the corn, Sally
Hey, now. Hey now. (Children raise both arms in the air each time they say "Hey".)
Go around the corn, Sally
Hey, now. Hey now. (Children raise both arms in the air each time they say "Hey".)
Go around the corn, Sally
Fly around etc. (Children flap their arms to imitate birds flying.)
Swim around etc. (Children make swimming motions.)
Clap around etc. (Children clap their hands to the rhythm of the song.)
-snip-
Correction to the information that was given in the introduction to this song:
Read the information above about the meaning of "corn husking".
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #3: 2nd Grade "Go Around the Corn Sally"
Winding Ridge, June 8, 2012
2nd Graders singing "Go Around the Corn, Sally"
during their spring concert.
-snip-
Children are divided into two groups who stand apart from each other. One group sings the changing "call" and the other group sings the fixed "response" (Go around the corn, Sally). The only motions that I observed was the group singing the fixed response playing tambourines while they sang and holding up those tambourines at the end of the song.
Here are the lyrics for this version of "Round The Corn, Sally": [Additions and corrections are welcome.]
Group #1- Go round, round and round
Group #2 - Go around the corn, Sally
Group #1- Go round, round and round
Group #2 - Go around the corn, Sally
Group #1- Hey now, hey now
Group #2 - Go around the corn, Sally
Group #1- Hey now, hey now
Group #2 - Go around the corn, Sally
Group #1- Faster still. Faster still.
Group #2 - Round and round the corn, Sally
Group #1- Faster still, Faster still.
Group #2 - Round and round the corn, Sally
Group #1- All around, all around
Group #2- All aound the corn, Sally
Group #1- All around, all around
Group #2- All aound the corn, Sally [The name "Sally" is elongated in this last line.]
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