AIRS 4th Annual Meeting: 2012 Title: Children's Song: Contemporary vs. Historical Versions Authors: Christopher Roberts (University of Washington) Abstract In 2011, I presented my AIRS-sponsored research, which identified and described five different websites that held historical field recordings of children singing from a variety of cultures, transcribed 34 songs, and provided a classification system for the musical material. This followup study focused on three recordings from one website (Alan Lomax’s Association for Cultural Equity), tracing the ways in which the three songs have been used by adults interested in bringing music to children. The field recordings of children were compared with similar field recordings made of adults, as well as modern versions, both commercial recordings available for purchase and the “series textbooks” that are commonly used in K-5 music classrooms in the United States and Canada. Similarities and differences regarding instrumentation, performance style, and melodic and rhythmic nuance were noted. In addition, the opinions of children in one fifth grade class were solicited, in order to gain a perspective on the affective responses of contemporary youth to the sets of recordings. Findings included the following: (1) The children on the historical recordings were more likely to switch between singing and speaking within the same song, while adults tended to remain in either a spoken or sung modality; (2) The children on the field recordings incorporated more rhythmic syncopation than adults of the same time period; (3) Instrumentation on the contemporary recordings utilized technological options (e.g. computerized musical sound effects), critically altering the sonic experience of the songs; (4) Recordings intended for use in schools simplified the rhythmic complexities found on field recordings; and (5) The vocal quality of the child performers in the series textbooks maintained a purity of tone quality that was not found on the earlier recordings. The modern-day children had a variety of opinions concerning the recordings, with some young students preferring the historical recordings, while others favored the contemporary versions. In this presentation, sample recordings will be played in order to highlight the similarities and differences between the song versions and the contemporary children’s comments on the recordings will be provided.