Sourwood Mountain is a folk song from the Appalachian Mountain region of the United States, an area rich in musical tradition. The settlers to the region were heavily Irish, Scottish, and English, and being set apart from neighboring regions geographically, they formed strong cultural conventions. As can be found in much folk music around the world, the tune is pentatonic - that is, it uses only five notes of the western scale: do, re, mi, sol, and la - and the text deals with issues of the common man. "Chickens are crowin' on Sourwood Mountain; Hey, ho, diddle dum day!; So many pretty girls you can't count 'em; Hey, ho, diddle dum day!"
Beginning string students who have mastered the D major scale will be able to play this arrangement, which limits itself to basic rhythmic and melodic patterns while offering interesting parts and independent voices.