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Horse Called Rover, The
Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, southwestern Pa. ARTIST: Hiram White (elderly fiddler from Greene County, Pa., 1930's) [Bayard]. CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: 1800’s RECORDING INFO:
OTHER NAMES: "Rooster in the Strawpile," "Cotton Eyed Joe." SOURCES: Hiram White (elderly fiddler from Greene County, Pa., 1930's) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 10, pgs. 20-21. NOTES: G Major. Standard. ABB. A composite tune, perhaps fashioned in America. The 'A' part is quite old, asserts Bayard (1981), going back to the 16th century and appearing as "Malt's Come Down" (included in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book arranged by William Byrd). The 'B' part is a common strain which can be found in collections from European countries (Germany), and in the chorus of the American minstrel ditty "Jim Along Josey" (1840). A version of the tune is found in Ford (1940, pg. 60) as "Cotton Eyed Joe", while the oldest set Bayard found was in Aird (Vol. 1, No. 155) as "The Virginian." The tune was collected in Pennsylvania with these words:
Had a little horse and I called him Rover,
When he lived, he lived in clover,
And when he died, he died all over.
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