[Callers] Contra Dance Birthday Round

[William Loving via Callers]

Dear Contra friends, 

With the help of a number of contributors I believe I finally have a good accounting of the origins of the now rapidly spreading “Contra Dance Birthday Round”. You can read all I’ve put together here on the Downtown Amherst Contra Dance website, with more details, links to recordings and sheet music: 

http://www.amherstcontra.org/Amherst_Contradance/Birthday_Song.html

We’ve known for a long time that the song was composed in the 1950s or early 60s by Dorothy Dushkin, co-founder of the Kinhaven Music School & Camp in Weston, Vermont, but the origins of the tune have remained a mystery until recently. Some years ago, long-time contra dance caller Ralph Sweet came across an out-of-print Girl Scout songbook at a flea market, and in it he recognized a song that had the same melody as the birthday round. He bought the book, took it home and then, misplaced it for a time. 

In today’s mail, I received from Ralph a photocopy from that book with the song “Whene’er You Make a Promise”, written in 1828 by English composer William Shield, who also composed the tune to “Auld Lang Syne” (to lyrics from Robert Burns). The original lyrics are lovely and may also be familiar to anyone who was in the Girl Scouts or Girl Guides, this apparently having been sung as a campfire song for generations.

     When e're you make a promise,
     Consider well its importance
     And...when...made,
     Engrave it upon your heart.

Enjoy!

Will Loving
Northampton, Massachusetts
USA