A fun interactive children's song about a friend giving a dog to someone. It can be sung in Swedish or English with kids age 3-9. This means that music teachers in both schools and daycares can use it. It is easy and fun to sing. It can be used in biligual schools/daycares to teach a Swedish/English or just to expirience the fun of singing in a different language. This is a song that engages kids. As one sits in a circle and sing a stuffed dog is passed around. The one left holding the dog at the end of the song is put into the middle of the ring. The tempo can be changed as it is sung to make it more fun.

The singing of Dona nobis pacem is an annual holiday tradition at the Eastman School of Music. Students, faculty, and alumni gather in the Main Hall at the end of fall semester to hear music inspired by the holiday season, concluding with the traditional round as a send-off. No one knows who wrote this little gem, but it is commonly assumed to be from the eighteenth century. I wrote the Variations on Dona nobis pacem to play at a gathering of University of Rochester alumni in November of 2016. In creating a solo piano piece from vocal material, I introduce the tune alone, then its bass, which is similar to that of Bach\'s Goldberg Variations. Nine variations and a finale follow in a variety of styles that recall Classical and Romantic-period composers. -David Evan Thomas