Pretty Little Girl With The Red Dress On

 

Listen

 

SA / piano
American Folk Song

A tender, poigant look at loss and legacy.

Duration 2:50

 

Program Notes:

 

Fragments and phrases of this song show up all over the folk music of the American South. The meaning of this song in the form that I first heard it, in a recording by Leadbelly, appears to refer the relationship between "Po' Howard" and his lover with a wandering eye. It is sung at a much faster tempo and rhythmic structure than this arrangement. I have taken a much different view of it, the view of a person in that area between the loss of parents and the realization that their own children will experience that loss when they pass on.

 

 

 

Notes on preparation and performance:

 

Take your time with the phrase shapes, and carry them through to the end. Don't be afraid of the spaces between singing. Use American soft non-plosive "t's" in the words "pretty" and "little." It should be sung with a sweet, nostalgic attitude, loving and sad at the same time.

 

 

Text

 

Traditional American Folk Song

 

Poor old Howard's dead and gone

left me here to sing this song

Who'll be here when I am gone?

Pretty little girl with the red dress on... who knows?

 

 

 

$1.75

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