Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Leroy Anderson's setting of Old MacDonald Had a Farm has little in the way of documentation. It was written for and programmed by the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler, but it did not enjoy frequent hearings, so the setting was unknown outside of Boston. Conductors should feel free to feature animal sounds closer to home (for instance the sound of pigs in swine-rich Iowa or bison in Montana). To that end it is suggested that the members of the percussion section use their creativity to add humor and local color to this arrangement. This exclusive Southern band edition by Mark Rogers reintroduces Anderson’s enchanting work to new generations of audiences.