Michael Drewes: Carl Orff Competition 2020 As little boy born weer

In my childhood I grew up bilingual, namely not only with High German but also with Low German, a fact that was very beneficial for my further language development.
For this year's competition, I chose the Low German folk song "As Buurlala geboren weer" ("When Burlala was born"), which I must have learned in the third or fourth grade of primary school in Bremen in 1954 or 1955. In the schools, Platt was also cultivated alongside High German, with songs, poems and stories. The Burlala-Lied deals in several verses with the life of a more or less typical North German boy. Buurlala refers to the word "Buur", in High German "Bauer", such as "Buur op Dörp" for "farmer in the village".
I got hold of the text and melody on the Internet, namely at http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/Lieder/asburlal.html

I had given myself little hope of even coming across the song, but, voilà, here it is. The melody, which consists only of singing voice and bass, is also available in MIDI format for download, and I converted it into written music with my notation software. Originally, the song was in 6/8 time, which seemed too complicated for children, so I converted it to 2/4 time and adapted the lyrics accordingly. Then the material was suspended in four-part harmony and entrusted to the string quintet as introduction and conclusion. Verse 1 appears for the singing voice a cappella (at A), verse 2 (at B) with rhythmic accompaniment, verse 3 (at C) with harmony expressed by recorder and xylophones, verse 4 (at D) as a two-part episode of the children's choir, also supported by recorder and xylophones, verse 5 (at E) also in two voices with the same accompaniment, but reinterpreted to minor due to the content, and the whole thing concludes with verse 6 (at F) - again in major - with all instruments involved.
In addition, I have added a translation, at least in the sense of its meaning, which I have adapted to the rhythm of the original text so that the song can also be sung in High German.
The piece is designed in such a way that it can do without the string quintet which supports the Orff musical instruments and introduces the harmonic structure of the song at the beginning.
Because the introduction seemed to me to be harmonically too unproductive, I have rearranged its repetition at the end according to my own taste without changing the melody.