Description
Fantasia on English children’s songs was commissioned by Opus Anglicanum in September 2014 and first performed later that year. From the outset, I imagined a piece animated by a sense of play, in which a children’s choir would occasionally join the chorus. Out of a more dream-like opening, fragments of familiar tunes begin to surface: Sing a song of sixpence, Old MacDonald had a farm, Mary, Mary, quite contrary, and Oranges and lemons, framed by the call of Boys and girls come out to play. These melodies are overlapped and gently reshaped, often sounding at the same time. My hope was to preserve something of their innocence, while layering them to create soft, unexpected dissonances. Elsewhere the songs move together, forming a brighter, more animated texture.
© Owain Park 2026
Old King Cole was a merry old soul…
Three blind mice…
Sing a song of sixpence…
Girls and boys come out…
Humpty Dumpty sat…
The Grand Old Duke of York, he had ten
thousand men…
Yankee Doodle came to town…
Twinkle twinkle…
Upon Paul’s steeple stands a tree…
Little Bo Peep…
Girls and boys come out to play
The moon doth shine as bright as day;
Leave your supper and leave your sleep,
and come to your playfellows in the street;
Come with a whoop, and come with a call,
Come with a goodwill or not at all.
Up the ladder and down the wall,
A halfpenny roll with serve you all.
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.
Baa! Baa! Black sheep, have you any wool?
Aye, marry, have I, three bags full;
One for my master, and one for my dame,
But none for the little boy that lives down the
lane.
Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye;
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie;
When the pie was open the birds began to
sing,
Wasn’t that a dainty dish to set before the King.
The King was in his counting house counting
out his money;
The Queen was in the parlour eating bread
and honey;
The maid was in the garden hanging out the
clothes,
There came a little dicky bird, and pecked off
her nose.
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.
Old King Cole
Was a merry old soul,
And a merry old soul was he:
He called for his pipe,
And he called for his bowl,
And he called for his fiddlers three.
Now every fiddler had a fiddle,
And a very fine fiddle had he.
Tweedle dee, tweedle dee, went the fiddlers
three,
With King Cole and his fiddlers three.
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are.
Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement’s.
You owe me five farthings,
Say the bells of St. Martin’s.
When will you pay me?
Say the bells of Old Bailey.
When I grow rich,
Say the bells of Shoreditch.
When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney.
I do not know,
Says the great bell of Bow.
Upon Paul’s steeple stands a tree
As full of apples as may be,
The little boys of London town,
They run with hooks to pull them down.
Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
And here comes a chopper to chop off your
head!
Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep
And doesn’t know where to find them;
Leave them alone, and they’ll come home,
Bringing their tails behind them.
Girls and boys come out to play…
