- Old McDonald Had a Farm
"Old McDonald Had a Farm" is a children's song about a
farmer named McDonald (or MacDonald) and the variousanimal s he keeps on hisfarm . Each verse of the song changes the name of the animal and its respective noise. In many versions, the song is cumulative, with the noises from all the earlier verses added to each subsequent verse. [ [http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/ballads/R457.html "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" at The Traditional Ballad Index] ]Lyrics
In the version commonly sung today, the lyrics allow for a substitutable animal and its respective sound.
:Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.:And on that farm he had a [animal name] , E-I-E-I-O,:With a [animal noise twice] here and a [animal noise twice] there :Here a [animal noise] , there a [animal noise] , everywhere a [animal noise twice] :Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
For example, a verse using a cow as an animal, and moo as the cow's sound would be:
:Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.:And on that farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O.:With a moo moo here and a moo moo there:Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo moo:Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
Early versions
In the 1917 book, "Tommy's Tunes", a collection of
World War I era songs by F. T. Nettleingham, the song "Ohio (Old Macdougal Had a Farm)" has quite similar lyrics--though with a slightly different farmer's name and refrain::Old Macdougal had a farm in Ohio-i-o,:And on that farm he had some dogs in Ohio-i-o,:With a bow-wow here, and a bow-wow there,:Here a bow, there a wow, everywhere a bow-wow.
The Traditional Ballad Index consider the "Tommy's Tunes" version to be the earliest known version of "Old Macdonald Had a Farm", though it cites numerous variants, some of them much older. [http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/ballads/R457.html]
Two of these variants were published in
Vance Randolph 's "Ozark Folksongs" in 1980. One was "Old Missouri", sung by a Mr. H. F. Walker ofMissouri in 1922, a version that names different parts of themule rather than different animals::Old Missouri had a mule, he-hi-he-hi-ho,:And on this mule there were two ears, he-hi-he-hi-ho.:With a flip-flop here and a flip-flop there,:And here a flop and there a flop and everywhere a flip-flop:Old Missouri had a mule, he-hi-he-hi-ho.
A British version of the song, called "The Farmyard, or The Merry Green Fields," was collected in 1908 from a 74-year-old Mrs. Goodey at Marylebone Workhouse,
London , and published inCecil Sharp 's "Collection of English Folk Songs".:Up was I on my fa-ther's farm:On a May day morn-ing ear-ly;:Feed-ing of my fa-ther's cows:On a May day morn-ing ear-ly,:With a moo moo here and a moo moo there,:Here a moo, there a moo, Here a pret-ty moo.:Six pret-ty maids come and gang a-long o' me:To the mer-ry green fields of the farm-yard.
Perhaps the earliest recorded member of this family of songs is a number from an
opera called "The Kingdom of the Birds", published in 1719-1720 inThomas D'Urfey 's "Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy "::In the Fields in Frost and Snows,:Watching late and early;:There I keep my Father's Cows,:There I Milk 'em Yearly::Booing here, Booing there,:Here a Boo, there a Boo, every where a Boo,:We defy all Care and Strife,:In a Charming Country-Life.
Translations
The lyrics have been translated into other languages and modified slightly to fit rhythmic and cultural requirements. It is still sung as a children's song to the same tune. An
Egyptian Arabic version of the song exists, with "Amu Ali" (Uncle Ali, Egyptian Arabic: عمو على) being the farmer character. The Italian version isNella vecchia fattoria . In Spanish it's "En la granja de Pepito" or "En la vieja factoría".Portuguese Brazil
O seu McDonald tinha um sitio, iaiao
e neste sitio ele tinha um cachorrinho, iaiao
era "au au" pra ca, "au au" pra la, iaiao
neste sitio ele tinha uma vaquinha, iaiao
era "Mu" pra ca, "Mu" pra la, iaiaoMandarin Chinese
As with English, many different versions and adaptations exist. The example verse below talks of small
chicken s and their 'zi zi' sound. Other animals are given different sounds: geese 'gu gu', goats 'mie mie' and dogs 'wang wang'. Fact|date=June 2007Finnish
Piippolan vaarilla oli talo,
hiiala, hiiala, hei!
Vaari se hoiteli porsaitansa,
hiiala, hiiala, hei!
Nöf, nöf siellä ja nöf, nöf täällä ja
siellä nöf, täällä nöf, joka puol(el)la nöf, nöf,
hiiala, hiiala, hei!The animals:
a pig - nöf nöf
a sheep - mää mää
a duck - kvaak kvaak
a horse - ihahahaa ihahahaa
a dog - hau hau
a cat - miau miauItalian
Nella vecchia fattoria, ia-ia-oQuante bestie ha zio Tobia, ia-ia-oC’e il cane (bau!) cane (bau!) ca-ca-cane, cane (bau!)Quante bestie ha zio Tobia, ia-ia-o
Nella vecchia fattoria, ia-ia-oQuante bestie ha zio Tobia, ia-ia-oE il gatto (miao!) gatto (miao!) ga-ga-gatto, gatto (miao!)Quante bestie ha zio Tobia, ia-ia-o
Nella vecchia fattoria, ia-ia-oQuante bestie ha zio Tobia, ia-ia-oE la mucca (muu!) mucca (muu!) mu-mu-mucca, mucca (muu!)Quante bestie ha zio Tobia, ia-ia-o
Japanese
いちろうさんの 牧場でイーアイ イーアイ オー
おや ないてるのは ひよこイーアイ イーアイ オー
あら チッチッチッ ほら チッチッチッあっちもこっちも どこでもチッチッチッチッチッ ほら チッチッチッあっちもこっちも どこでもチッチッ
いちろうさんの 牧場でイーアイ イーアイ オーwedish
Per Olsson hade en bonnagård, lia, lia, lej
Och på den gården bodde det en ko, lia, lia, lej
Å det var mu, mu, här. Å det var mu, mu där
Mu här, mu där, mu var det här
Per Olsson hade en bonnagård, lia, lia lejCzech
A strýček Donald farmu měl híja híja hou,
a strýček Donald farmu měl a na tý farmě krávy měl híja híja ou.
Bůbů sem, bůbů tam,
bů sem, bů tam, bů na všechny strany.A strýček Donald farmu měl híja híja hou.
...
...Recordings
The oldest version listed in The Traditional Ballad Index is the
Sam Patterson Trio 's "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," released on the Edison label in 1925. This was followed by a version byGid Tanner & HisSkillet Lickers , "Old McDonald Had a Farm" (Columbia Records , 1927) and "McDonald's Farm" byWarren Caplinger 's Cumberland Mountain Entertainers (Brunswick Records , 1928). In 1954, the composition was arranged foraccordion sextet and recorded forRCA Thesaurus transcriptions byJohn Serry, Sr. in theUnited States . [http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/ballads/R457.html]Sophie Ellis-Bextor has performed a short excerpt of the song acoustically, live. Other popular versions are byNat King Cole ,Ella Fitzgerald ,Flatt & Scruggs ,The Three Stooges ,Sesame Street cast, andGene Autry .In popular culture
*Renowned
computer scientist Donald Knuth jokingly shows the song to have a complexity of in "The Complexity of Songs ," attributing its source to "a Scottish farmer O. McDonald."*On the
GNU Hurd kernel, the error message "Computer bought the farm" has theerror code EIEIO
.*The
PowerPC instruction set uses the "eieio" mnemonic ("Enforce In-order Execution of I/O") for a memory barrier instruction.ee also
*
List of animal sounds References
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