The Little Brown Bulls

This setting for beginning wind band offers a pedagogically valuable introduction to part distribution and timbral balance. By transferring the melody across different sections of the ensemble—beginning in the upper woodwinds and subsequently shifting through various instrumental groupings—performers engage with multiple structural functions within the piece. Students are thus provided opportunities not only to perform melodic material but also to assume harmonic and bass roles, fostering an early awareness of ensemble texture, balance, and interdependence. Catalogued as Laws C16 in G. Malcolm Laws’ Native American Balladry (1950), “The Little Brown Bulls” is a 19th-century lumberjack song generally traced to Wisconsin. The “little brown bulls” of the title refer to oxen—teams of draft animals used to pull the heavy sleighs laden with logs through the winter camps. The ballad chronicles a legendary log-skidding contest; while sources disagree on the particulars, most agree the event likely took place during the winter of either 1872 or 1873, with a $25 wager at stake—roughly equivalent to a month’s pay for a lumberjack. The song celebrates the underdog victory of Bull Gordon’s small oxen over the favored team of “Scotsman” McCluskey, capturing the pride, rivalry, and humor of camp life. Across the border, the song was taken up enthusiastically in Canadian logging camps—especially in Ontario—where U.S. and Canadian shantyboys traded repertoire freely. Folklorist Dr. Edith Fowke’s landmark work on Ontario lumbering tradition notes that among the “fairly widespread songs” she recorded in the province was “The Little Brown Bulls,” confirming its currency in Ontario camps.