The ABC Song

Just wanted to have an online remembrance of this song. My brother and sister-in-law, Nathan and Mary, visited at Thanksgiving 2006. This visit resulted in the translation of Guess Family oral tradition, The ABC Song, to written score as well as discovery of the original music. We are all very excited to be a part of preserving this small part of musical history, and this part of our family heritage!The following was written by my brother, Nathan, soon after his visit. Thanks, Na, for letting me use your words!

I have found an interesting bit of information about a certain oral tradition that has been passed down through the Guess family. The way I understand it Dr. William Guess taught "The ABC Song" at a singing school, and passed it down through his family. The earliest I remember personally hearing it would have been my Granddaddy (Arley Guess). He and his siblings having it passed to them eventually from Dr. William Guess. Over the years of hearing the oral tradition the recent Guess family has had trouble remembering the lyrics and melody. My father, Charles A. Guess, went to the oldest person left who remembered it as it was taught, his aunt Lila (Arley’s sister). From Aunt Lila he memorized the words and melody and taught his children (my sister, brother and I).
I have always loved the song and have been looking for the "original version" for a long time. Never having found the "original version" my wife, being the musical Aficionado she is, assisted me with writing out the "The Guess Family ABC Song" and putting it down as sheet music, a rather daunting task as oral tradition can sometimes be very difficult to notate.
"The Schoolmaster" is doubtless the music from which sprang the oral tradition for the Guess family and is likely closely related to "The Alphabet Song" (best known as the nursery rhyme to teach children their alphabet) which was first copyrighted by Charles Bradlee, music publisher, in Boston, USA in 1835 "The Schoolmaster" was published by the same author in Boston in 1839.
There are some notable differences between the oral tradition known as "The Guess Family ABC Song" and "The Schoolmaster". The Guess family oral tradition is sung in a pentatonic scale, and the melody and harmony are different than what is written in "The Schoolmaster". The harmony of the oral tradition is almost completely found in the combination of the three parts of "The Schoolmaster" and varies only to keep a pentatonic harmony. It appears that either Dr. William Guess or someone in the line of passing it on had some skill, but not the training to perfectly reproduce the music. Therefore, what you have in the oral tradition is a beautiful pentatonic melody with a single harmony line.
Through this evolution it has changed from being very near the classic "The Alphabet Song" (sung to the same tune as the nursery rhyme "twinkle twinkle little star") to the oral tradition the guess family now has. Mary and I have decided that to lose the oral tradition of what was passed down through the Guess family would be a mistake, therefore Mary has written down "The Guess Family ABC Song, An Oral Tradition" to preserve what has passed through generations. I thought that "The Schoolmaster" should also be added to it as an addendum so we retain the original score.