Index to Kindergarten Songs Including Singing Games and Folk Songs — A Reader’s Guide

Structure and Scope

The index follows a straightforward plan: three types of books are indexed—those with only kindergarten songs, those mixing kindergarten and folk songs, and those with folk songs alone. Entries are arranged in one alphabet, with composer, first line, title, and author of the words as access points. When variations exist in composer, first line, or title, these are noted in parentheses below the entry, and each version is labeled a variant when the parent song cannot be determined. The main index lacks subject headings, but a separate list of songs for special days is appended. The preface emphasizes that the list is comprehensive but not a discriminative purchase guide.

Evidence of Collaborative Compilation

The preface reveals a collaborative effort: valuable preliminary work was done by Miss Effie L. Power and Miss Margaret Curran, while the librarian, Arthur E. Bostwick, limited his role to occasional policy advice. The index was originally intended for publication by the St. Louis Public Library but grew too large, and the A.L.A. Publishing Board took over. This backstory underscores the index's origin in practical, on-the-ground demand rather than top-down design. The entries themselves show meticulous cross-referencing, as seen in the multiple variants listed for songs like "Merrily, merrily let us form a ring" and "Merry Christmas bells."

Patterns in Song Entries

Sample entries reveal recurring patterns: many songs are listed with only a title and composer, sometimes with a note like "Music only" (e.g., "Sleep, gentle babe. TLB"). Others include multiple variants, such as "Merrily, merrily let us form a ring" with three sources (Heerwart, Hubbard, Smith). First lines are frequently given, as in "Merry frogs are blithe and gay" (see Hailmann. Frogs. HR). The index also tracks songs that appear under different titles, like "Mill" appearing under multiple composers (EL, WS, Gaynor, etc.) with cross-references to variants like "Mill by the rivulet." This granularity reflects the compiler's aim to resolve the confusion kindergartners faced when searching for familiar tunes under unfamiliar names.

Readers using this index should note that it reflects the song collections available to St. Louis educators in the early 1910s. The variant entries are particularly useful for tracing how a single melody might appear under different titles or attributions across sources. For those researching early childhood music education or the history of folk song dissemination in American schools, this index offers a concrete snapshot of the repertoire in use a century ago.

That rainy afternoon, the index felt less like a tool and more like a ledger of childhoods—sixty-three collections, each a small, humming archive of sung moments. Turning its careful pages, I found myself thinking about how we translate sound into memory, and then, almost by accident, my hand reached for The Pianolist: A Guide for Pianola Players — Reading Notes, another kind of quiet map, for different fingers.