DUP Song Histories 2021-22 Page 1
DUP Music
2021-22
All sheet music for songs and audio files can be found at: ISDUP.org → Leadership tab → Music
Opening songs for camp meetings:
Song Title
Sung By
“Daughters of Utah Pioneers” Linda Lee
Pioneer Songs (green book) page 158 or on website
“Salute to our Utah Pioneers” Karen Bruestle
Pioneer Songs (green book) page 321 or on website
List of monthly songs:
September “Then You’ll Remember Me” Megan Midgley
Pioneer Songs (green book) page 241 or on website
October “Skip to My Lou” Micah and Larisa Forsgren
On website
November “If the Way Be Full of Trial, Weary Not” Micah Forsgren
On website
December “Star Bright” Melissa Hinrichs
On website
January “The Riddle Song” Kyle Jensen
On website
February “The Handcart Song” Peay Family Children
Pioneer Songs (green book) page 21 or on website
March “Grandmother’s Old-Fashioned Garden” Maurie Tarbox
On website
April “Beautiful Dreamer” Jessica Sant
On website
May “We’re Here to Walk to Zion” Larisa Forsgren
Pioneer Song Contest Collection, last song or on website
DUP Song Histories
2021-22
September 2021: “Then You’ll Remember Me”
This song was written by M. W. Balfe (Michael William Balfe), a well-known Irish composer and singer born in Dublin May 8, 1808. He became principal violinist in The Drury Lane Orchestra, London, in 1823. In 1825 he went on the stage as an opera singer. He married a prima donna, Lina Roser, and became a composer of operas of which his Bohemian Girl was the most successful. He sang in New York in 1834, and in 1857 published A New Singing Method. He died in Hertfordshire, England, Oct. 21, 1870, in his sixty-third year. He had made two visits to the United States and was intending to come again in 1871.
Synopsis from Bohemian Girl: Count Arnhem’s daughter Arline was kidnapped as a child and raised by gypsies. She has recently been reunited with her father and is living in his castle, but she has fond
memories of the gypsy camp and Thaddeus, the man she loved. Thaddeus now comes to her window and sings this serenade.
October 2021: “Skip to My Lou”
According to The Prairie Years by Carl Sandberg, a book about the young life of Abraham Lincoln, “Skip To My Lou” was a common lyrical game in southern Indiana and Kentucky. This aligns with the presence of the song in rising popularity in the 1840s, specifically in the Midwest. This song was used to break the ice and replace dancing with instruments at the time. It was a fun way for young people to get to know one another.
Often it would be accompanied by a single fiddle or other instrument while people danced. At the time, churches were pushing to ban or, at least, strongly discourage dancing with large-scale bands as these were thought to lead people to sin. This caused the birth of the play party which featured lyrics describing the moves of the dance. Often these would be ordinary dance tunes with descriptive words added later. It's unclear for “Skip To My Lou” whether the melody or the words came first. Regardless it easily stepped into the play party role. The word "Lou" is thought to be an Americanized version of the Scottish word, "loo" which means love. This fits the song as does the melodic style. The most common difference in the variations is the chorus. Traditionally it was most likely, "Skip, skip, skip to my lou." The other variation is, "Lou, lou, skip to my lou." Outside of the chorus, there's a huge list of changing verses used in many different orders. Here are some of them:
DUP Song Histories 2021-22 Page 3 Off to Texas, two by two.
Cows in the pasture, two by two. Cows in the barnyard, moo, moo, moo. Found my partner, love it true.
Little red wagon painted blue.
There's a little red wagon, paint it blue. Hurry up slowpoke, do oh do.
I'll get her back in spite of you. Gone again, what shall I do?
November 2021: “If the Way Be Full of Trial, Weary Not”
There are nearly 70 hymns that were originally written in English that have been translated into other languages and are included in official hymnbooks of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “If the Way Be Full of Trial, Weary Not” is one of these. Included in the current Portuguese, Samoan, Spanish, and Tongan hymnbooks, it is well-known to a significant percentage of Church members. The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square has several recording of this song found on YouTube videos. The hymn was included in official English publications in 1969.
December 2021: “Star Bright”
“For we who are tied closely by tradition to the European music of Christmas, the rhythm of this melody might transport our hearts from the old world to the new. In an easy flowing tempo, the long tones
suggest long nights of looking upward. They remind us that in these latter days, we, too, live in anticipation. Those of us who really believe, continually search our own hearts and the heavens for a sign of that great day when Christ will again return to the earth and in all His glory rescue mankind from the evil of
transgression. This song tells us to search the heavens. It says to find a bright star and let it symbolize the light of conscience--ever shining, ever reaching across the eons of time, ever telling us that in this vast universe we are not alone.” Lorin F. Wheelwright
January 2022: “The Riddle Song”
February 2022: “The Handcart Song”
Though the handcart era lasted for only 4 of the 22 years of Mormon pioneer overland trail migration, the handcart quickly became a durable iconic symbol of the pioneer gathering just as surely as did the ox-drawn covered wagon.
A lasting contribution to the cultural lore of the handcart was penned early on by Church missionary John Daniel Thompson McAllister. “Brother McAllister introduced ‘The Handcart Song’ in 1856 while helping a handcart company prepare to travel to the Salt Lake Valley,” wrote Virginia B. Cannon in her 1992 book, Our Children's Songs.
Over the years, many children have learned the song in Primary. It is still found today in The Children's Songbook (No. 220) though with altered words. In a biography quoted by Sister Cannon, Lucile McAllister Weenig wrote that while Brother McAllister was on a mission in Belfast, Ireland, in December 1855, he preached a discourse he called a "Telegraphic Handcart." He later commented, "The Saints got the Spirit of it, and rejoiced to think the time was coming when they would have the privilege to push or draw a
handcart to Zion."
"This may have been the time when John wrote the words to “The Handcart Song” that he later put to music," Sister Weenig wrote. "Before the handcart company left Iowa, he did take the time to teach his 'Handcart Song” to the handcart pioneers who sang it as they pushed and pulled their carts across the plains and the mountains to Zion."
With a simple, infectious melody, the song is ideally suited. One can easily visualize handcart pioneers singing the song in a march tempo to help them sustain their pace. The tune is easily learned: The melody of the verses is virtually identical to that of the chorus.
March 2022: “Grandmother’s Old-Fashioned Garden”
Laura Mildred Tanner Pettit was a composer and is best known for her songs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her friend, Naomi Randall, mailed her lyrics to "I Am a Child of God" and Pettit set them to music. The song is known and revered throughout the Church. Pettit also composed "Reverently, Quietly" and "Father, I Will Reverent Be" which are included in the Children's Songbook and "The Light Divine," #305 in the 1985 Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Pettit was born on August 8, 1895, in Payson, Utah. Her father, Henry Smith Tanner, was the first city judge in Salt Lake City and her mother, Laura Lauretta Woodland, was the first woman to serve in the Utah State Legislature and the first state president of the PTA.
DUP Song Histories 2021-22 Page 5
April 2022: “Beautiful Dreamer”
Composed late in his life and published posthumously, Stephen Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer" (1864) is one of the composer's most memorable ballads. It was written at least six months before Foster's death when he was destitute and in poor health and survived by selling songs (at extremely cheap rates) that were written in haste. While prolific in number, these last songs, for the most part, were less inspired than his earlier efforts, such as "Oh! Susanna,” which had launched his career as a songwriter.
For his songs composed after 1860, Foster turned his creative energy to the parlor ballad, a type of song noted for its sentimental or narrative text, frequently at a slow tempo. The subjects of Foster's ballads were relatively free from minstrel-song influences and centered on topics devoid of southern themes, such as mother, love, and home. With its lilting triplet rhythm, "Beautiful Dreamer" exemplifies Foster's final sentiments and has become one of America's most beloved serenades. (Library of Congress, loc.gov)
May 2022: “We’re Here To Walk To Zion”
Annette W. Dickman wrote the following: “This song was written about my husband's
great-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Jackson Newman. She and her husband, William, and five children were converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England. They left their family-owned bakery there and traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, where they opened another bakery to save money for the rest of the
