The World Turned Upside Down

“The World Turned Upside Down” is an English Ballad also known by the title “When the King Enjoys His Own Again.” It was first published in 1643 as a protest against Oliver Cromwell’s attempt to ban Christmas celebrations.

Legend has it that when Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781, signaling the end of the American Revolution, the British band played this tune. Aedanus Burke vividly describes the atmosphere created by the music at Yorktown: 'They marched thro' both Armies at a slow pace, and to the sound of music, not military marches, but of certain airs, which had in them so peculiar a strain of melancholy.”


Download this piece and more from Mark O'Connor's album, Liberty!
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Soldier's Joy

One of the most popular fiddle tune in history,  “Soldier’s Joy” can be traced to collections published in London and Scandinavia in the middle 1700s. Early versions can be traced to Scotland, and variants found in the French Alps and Newfoundland. The tune was also well known in Ireland.

As is the case with many fiddle tunes, lyrics were added later. In America, “Soldier’s Joy” eventually came to be known as the morphine used by Civil War soldiers when they were injured in battle. A popular lyric for the tune was: “Twenty-five cents for the old morphine, now carry me away from here.”

From Book I of the O'Connor Method.
Purchase this piece off of Mark O'Connor's album, Liberty!
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Sweet Betsy from Pike

“Sweet Betsy from Pike” is a song about two young “forty-niners” traveling
from Pike County, Missouri, to the gold fields of California. In 1849, word traveled across the country that there was a fortune to be found in California's Sierra Mountains. Thousands of people left their homes and endured tremendous hardships journeying west to look for gold. The lyrics to this song describe many of the troubles typically encountered by the “forty-niners.” The song's author is unknown, but the lyrics may have been written by John A. Stone. Stone, also known as “Old Put,” was a San Francisco entertainer who wrote, adapted and collected songs about the gold miners of that time.

The melody is most likely a variation of a tune originally from Ireland. The hard times described in the song become especially poignant when, after all of their trials and tribulations during their journey west, Betsy and Ike do not end up together as a couple.

Read more about what there is to learn about "Sweet Besty from Pike" here!

From Book I of the O'Connor Method.
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Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier

“Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier” is an American folk song that was popular during the American Revolutionary War. The lyrics speak of the sacrifices many a young woman made during that time: selling her spinning wheel to buy her “love a sword of steel.” The melody is thought to have been an older Irish tune.

The American Revolution was bravely fought by many Americans, young and old, seeking independence from the King of England. Music written during this time has become important traditional music that continues to be embraced today. This observation was made by an American military leader about the American Militias who helped win the war: “What can you not achieve with such small bands who have learned to fight dispersed, who know how to use every molehill for their defense, and who retreat as quickly when attacked as they advance again.”

Listen to "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" performed by James Taylor and Mark O'Connor



From Book I of the O'Connor Method.
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Golden Slippers

 “Golden Slippers” was written in 1879 by African- American composer James A. Bland. The song’s original title and lyric “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers,” was originally popularized by traveling troupes of African American minstrels also known as “Georgia Minstrels.” The composer, Bland, experienced slavery first-hand and also lived to see it outlawed after the Civil War. He wrote the song and lyrics during the post-War “reconstruction” period of American history.

The lyrics speak of a man’s prized possessions: a long-tailed coat, a white robe, a banjo and, most importantly, golden slippers. The lyrics also present the image of going to heaven in a chariot, a conventional metaphor for escaping slavery.

From Book I of the O'Connor Method.
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Old Joe Clark

Joe Clark lived as a shiftless mountaineer in Virginia in the 1800s. He had many enemies and is reported to have met
his end at the hand of one of them in 1885. Although the identity of the writer of this old American song is technically unknown, legend has it that a rejected beau of Joe Clark’s daughter wrote it after Clark’s death. The lyrics are silly and poke fun at Old Joe.

They also suggest that the writer did have some personal knowledge of, and perhaps some interest in, the Clark family home: “Eighteen miles of mountain road, and fifteen miles of sand. If I ever travel this road again, I’ll be a married man.”

From Book I of the O'Connor Method.
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Bonaparte's Retreat

The melody of “Bonaparte’s Retreat” was originally a Scotch/Irish tune played on bagpipes. In 1815, the tune was named for the military defeat of the French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte. It is commonly thought that this battle, fought at Waterloo, Russia, was
the turning point for Bonaparte and prevented him from achieving his ambition of conquering the world.

When Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States, Bonaparte acquired the Territory of Louisiana and owned a home in New Orleans. It is assumed that he had his sights set on acquiring much more of the American West to add to his Empire. The defeat of Bonaparte’s army at Waterloo was cause for celebration around the world, and “Bonaparte’s Retreat” has been a favorite tune for Americans to play ever since. In 1946, country music stars Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart wrote a hit song using the melody of this fiddle tune. The song was recorded by Kay Star.

From Book I of the O'Connor Method.
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When the Saints Go Marching In

“When the Saints Go Marching In” is an African American spiritual originally played by jazz musicians and brass bands in New Orleans, Louisiana. The tradition of playing this tune at a slow hymn-like tempo while accompanying a coffin to the graveyard and then jazzing it up in a “hot” or “Dixieland” style on the way back home
is still practiced today.

The lyrics express a wish of the deceased to join the Saints marching through the “Pearly Gates” into heaven. Many New Orleans musicians in the early 1900s made a practice of turning church songs into brass band and dance tunes. “The Saints” became well known as jazz music as well as early rock music.

Purchase this tune and more here!
From Book I of the O'Connor Method.
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Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace is a hymn. The lyrics were written by John Newton, slave ship captain (B. 1725, London). On one voyage, a violent storm swept a crewman overboard from the place where Newton had been standing just minutes before. As he continued steering the ship through the storm, he realized his ultimate helplessness and concluded that only the grace of God could save him and the ship.

Many years later, Newton turned to the ministry and repented his role in slavery. The lyrics of “Amazing Grace” are his reflections on a Biblical text and describe his own conversion while on his ship in 1748.



Listen to Mark O'Connor's beautiful rendition below

From Book I of the O'Connor Method.
Purchase this piece from Mark O'Connor's Double Violin Concerto Album or Midnight on the Water.
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Buffalo Gals

“Buffalo Gals” is a traditional American song from almost 200 years ago. In 1844, it was published by a minstrel performer named John Hodges. Originally, the song was about Buffalo, NY, during the construction of the Erie Canal ending in 1825. At that time, before steam engines were commonly used, barges carrying cargo for trade and distribution were pulled by mules through the Canal.
 

The title of the song, “Buffalo Gals,” refers to the pretty girls on Canal Street in Buffalo. Because of the song’s popularity, minstrel performers began to alter the lyrics to appeal to the local audiences where they were performing - “New York Gals,” “Boston Gals,” “Charleston Gals” and “Round Town Gals” to name a few.

From Book I of the O'Connor Method.
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Oh! Susanna

“Oh! Susanna” was written in the 1840s by America’s first great songwriter, Stephen Foster. The Virginia Minstrels and The Christy’s Minstrels (two of New York’s first performing troupes) encouraged the young Foster to write minstrel show music. “Oh! Susanna” fits this category and eventually enjoyed great popularity. The lyrics describe a man from Alabama traveling to Louisiana to court his lover.

From Book I of the O'Connor Method.
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Boil 'em Cabbage Down

“Boil `em Cabbage Down” is an African American hoedown. The tune has roots reaching all the way to the African slaves that were brought to the southern part of the United States almost 400 hundred years ago. Africans played “bowed” string instruments that resembled the fiddle, so they found the violin to be a familiar instrument. African American fiddlers played with percussive effects and rhythmic bowings derived from their music culture. Early African American and European American fiddlers created the “hoedown” by combining African string playing and Scotch/Irish “reels.”

The title “Boil `em Cabbage Down” speaks of cooking cabbage by boiling it. “Cabbage” could have meant any leafy green vegetable such as collards, kale etc. The Southern style of cooking “greens” that have been cooked down into a gravy came with the arrival of the African slaves to the southern colonies. They boiled these greens down until they were soft, smoothing out their bitter flavor, and created the famous “southern greens.” The chorus of the tune also contains the term “hoe-cake.” This refers to a bread that African American field workers cooked in a round skillet or on the blade of a shovel (hoe) held over a fire like a griddle.

Hear Mark O'Connor play Boil 'Em Cabbage Down with Wynton Marsalis, below:

Hear Mr. O'Connor's version in Book I of the O'Connor Method.



The plantation “Juba” dance was brought from West Africa and is thought to be the predecessor of modern tap dancing. “Pattin’ the Juba” and “Hambone” (involving patting the arms, legs, chest, and cheeks) mixed with clogging and buck dancing were popular with fiddle tunes like “Boil `em Cabbage Down.”
Plantation owners and servants would often dance together. As the musicians became more and more intoxicated with the spirit of the dancing, they played faster and wilder, until finally no one could keep up any longer. Playing music and dancing was about the only good time to be had in early plantation life.

“Alas! Had it not been formy beloved violin, I scarcely can conceive how I could have endured ...”
- Solomon Northup

Variations of Boil 'em Cabbage Down in Books I, II and III.
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