Musical Mother Goose

Description:

Donald composed this collection of settings for Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes for his daughter Martha in 1948.

Table of Contents: [View Table of Contents]

1. Sing, Sing [View Actual Page]
2. Little Miss Muffet [View Actual Page]
3. I Saw an Old Woman
4. Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
5. Simple Simon
6. Ding Dong Bell
7. Pease Porridge Hot
8. I Had a Little Pony
9. Jack Spratt
10. Humpty Dumpty
11. The Crooked Man
12. Hickory, Dickory, Dock
13. Little Tommy Tucker
14. Wee Willie Winkie
15. Diddle, Diddle Dumpling
16. There Was an Old Woman
17. Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son
18. Peter Piper
19. Hush, Baby, My Dear
20. Sing a Song of Sixpence
21. The Queen of Hearts
22. Hot Cross Buns
23. The North Wind
24. Little Boy Blue
25. Pat-a-Cake
26. Old Mother Hubbard
27. Old King Cole
28. Little Bo-Peep
29. There Was a Little Girl
30. As I Was Going to St. Ives
31. Jack and Jill
32. Hey Diddle Diddle
33. Mistress Mary
34. A Dillar, a Dollar
35. Georgie Porgie
36. Goosey Goosey Gander

About Donald Jay Grout (1902-1987) --- prominent musicologist

Donald Jay Grout was born on September 28, 1902, in Rock Rapids, Iowa. His parents both came from the Town of Spafford, Skaneateles, New York. In 1906, when Donald was four years old, his father moved the family back to Skaneateles to establish a dental practice in that village. Donald attended the Skaneateles Academy and Skaneateles High School, graduating in 1919.

His mother taught him to play the piano when he was four. From 1914 to 1919 he studied piano and organ with Joseph B. Tallmadge of Auburn, New York. At the age of twelve, in 1914, he became the organist of the Skaneateles Methodist Church. In 1919, he became the organist for the First Universalist Church in Syracuse where he played until 1923 when he graduated as Valedictorian of Syracuse University, with a major in philosophy. He also played the organ at the Strand Movie Theater in Syracuse from 1919-20 and 1922-23. He played the organ at various churches in the Boston area from 1923-33 and irregularly at Harvard University Memorial Church from 1936-1942. He was organist at the Firs Christian Church in Austin, Texas, from 1943-45. At Cornell University, he was the Director of the Sage Chapel Choir from 1945-52. He was Conductor of the Cornell University Chorus from 1957-59.

After graduation from Syracuse University in 1923, Donald went to Boston where he studied theology at Boston University for about six months. Then he began the study of piano with Raymond Havens and continued with Havens until 1928. During these years he taught piano and gave numerous recitals. In 1928 he began studying piano with Clara Larsen and George Proctor. In 1931, he gave a professional recital at Jordan Hall. In 1932, he played in the Naumburg Piano Competition and took second place.

Donald received his master's degree in music from Harvard University in 1932 and a Ph.D. in music from Harvard in 1939. He began his teaching career in 1935 as a visiting lecturer on the history of music at Mills College. He served the next three years as a tutor in the division of music at Harvard University and Radcliffe College. He served as an instructor of music at the two colleges from 1940 to 1942, and after that Dr. Grout served three years as an associate professor of music literature at the University of Texas at Austin.

He joined the faculty of Cornell University in 1945 as a professor of music and served as chairman of Cornell's department of music from 1947 to 1951 and from 1953 to 1958. He was a Given Foundation Professor of Musicology from 1962 until his retirement in 1970.

Donald was also a visiting professor at Carleton College, the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands and the University of Louvain in Belgium. He was a Visiting Ernest Bloch Professor of Music at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1975 to 1976.

Best known as author of several books, including A Short History of Opera, A History of Western Music, and Alessandro Scarlatti, An Introduction to His Operas, he also wrote many essays and reviews.

Donald received both Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships during his career as a music scholar. He was elected to the British Academy in 1978, the Royal Academy of Belgium in 1970, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1961. In 1962, he received the Archibald Thompson Davison Medal for Musicology in London, and in1965 he received Syracuse University's George Arents Pioneer Medal. He was also named an honorary doctor of music by Eastman School of Music in 1981 and by Dickinson College in 1983.

Donald composed this collection of settings for Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes for his daughter Martha in 1948.

Donald Jay Grout died at Cloudbank, his home in Spafford, New York, on March 9, 1987.