| Old MacDonald | |
|---|---|
 | |
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Other Names |
MacDonald, Macdougal, McDonald |
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First Appearance |
English Nursery rhyme/Folk Song |
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Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
Old MacDonald is the the farmer from the traditional children's song and nursery rhyme Old MacDonald Had a Farm which is about various animals he keeps.Each verse of the song changes the name of the animal and its respective noise. For example, if the verse uses a cow as the animal, then "moo" would be used as the animal's sound. In many versions, the song is cumulative, with the animal sounds from all the earlier verses added to each subsequent verse.
The song was probably written by Thomas d'Urfey for an opera in 1706, before existing as a folk song in Britain, Ireland and North America for hundreds of years in various forms then finally being standardized in the twentieth century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 745.
The lyrics to the standard version begin as follows, with the animal sound changing with each verse: Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O! And on his 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!
Frederick Thomas Nettleingham's 1917 book Tommy's Tunes, a collection of World War I era songs, includes a variant of the song called "Ohio" which lists nine species: horses (neigh-neigh), dogs (bow-wow/woof woof/ruff ruff), chickens(hen=cluck cluck/chicks=chick chick), ducks (quack quack), goose (Honk Honk), cows (moo moo), pigs (grunt grunt), cats (meow meow), sheep/goat (baa baa) and a donkey/mule (hee-haw). The farmer is called "Old Macdougal", unlike in most other traditional versions where the farmer is unnamed.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Old MacDonald from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Tommy's Tunes (1917)
Public Domain Music Appearances[]
- Fields in Frost and Snow (1706)
- The Farmyard Song (1880)
- Father’s Wood I O (1906)
- The Farmyard (1908)
- Ohio (1917)
- Old Missouri (1922)
- Old MacDonald Had a Farm (1925)
Public Domain Comic Appearances Inspired by Old MacDonald[]
- Atomic Mouse #4: Text article Sing and the World Sings with You! featured the song "L'il Atomic Mouse" set to the tune of "Old MacDonald's Farm."