Tag Archives: Folk song

The Titanic – Children’s Song

Context:

My informant, RW, is my mom. She grew up in Texas and attended YMCA camps most summers in her childhood in the 1970s. I have heard her sing this song to my brother and I at many points, but never knew exactly where she learned it. This piece was collected informally at home when I asked her to sing it again for me to record. I refer to myself as SW in the text.

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Main Text:

RW: “This was from the YMCA camp I believe. Or… I think it was YMCA camp… it was at GDRA in Texas, I think it was YMCA but… 

‘The Titanic never made it

And never more shall be

It was sad when that great ship

Went down to the bottom of the sea

It was sad, how sad!

It was sad, too bad!

It was sad when that great ship

Went down to the bottom of the…

Uncles and aunts!

Little bitty children lost their pants!

It was sad when that great ship 

Went down to the bottom of the sea’

And it’s all happy and peppy and you sing right along with ‘everybody died, yay!’ There was a lot more to that song, but that’s like the chorus.”

SW: “So you did that at YMCA camp, did it spread past there? Did everybody know it?”

RW: “All of my friends did!”

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Analysis:

This is a good example of the juxtaposition of tragic events in a joking context in folklore. While it’s not necessarily directly reckoning with the Titanic sinking since my mom learned it at YMCA camp in the 1970s, it is still an example of how children often have a morbid curiosity and like to make jokes about the things we would consider generally unfit for children to know about. In a way, it is also boundary exploration and learning how to express taboo topics in a way that is socially acceptable. By singing about the Titanic sinking, kids are learning how to navigate the unstable world of topics adults try to shield them from in their own unique and playful way.

Estonian ‘Regilaul’

Background: The informant is a 48-year-old woman who was born in Estonia and immigrated to the United States, and currently lives in California. She still participates in Estonian traditions by attending the “Estonian House” which is an Estonian community located in Los Angeles.

Context: The folklore was collected during a scheduled zoom meeting in which I interviewed two native Estonians who currently live in Los Angeles and who are close friends.

Main Piece:

Informant: “Estonia has a very strong tradition of ‘regilaul’, which is a song where there is a main singer that sings something meaningful and then at the very last word of that same… you know its like a continual song. The first singer gives an idea of what she sings and then the other singers catch up the last word and carry on the song. It is called ‘regilaul’ and it’s a very Estonian tradition, you can see lots of them on YouTube.”

Collector: “So is it improvised on the spot?”

Informant: “Yeah, many times yes. The most important thing is not the melody, the melody is always the same or repeating. Like it’s a very simple melody and usually like four or five notes or tones all together. But the most important thing in them is the words, not the melody or the rhythm. I don’t know if I’m saying it correctly, but its almost like a haiku. It came from the old times when at winter nights these women were sitting around and doing handcrafts and, you know, just to spend time when working.”

Interpretation: I have been to the Estonian House in Los Angeles countless times as I was growing up and have experienced Estonian folk culture for all of my life; however, I was never aware of this “regilaul” tradition. So, I went to YouTube and watched some videos about the topic and found that it is very similar to how described above. It is sang in groups of people where there is a few lines sang together, then one person will sing the next line and the whole group will pick up on the last word of the individual singer’s line and it goes around in a circle. It does not use many, if any, instruments and is almost like a poetic chant where there is monotonous singing, repetition, and parallelism heavily involved. I also found that “regilaul” is strictly passed down orally through tradition and is not written down like a poem or haiku, as referenced by the informant. However, it serves a very similar function to poetry by painting an image through words and also serves as a representation of unity where multiple people sing together to create more of a powerful, unifying chant then the melodic songs we here in the mainstream today.

For some examples of “regilaul” watch:

Per Spelmann

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Background:

My informant for this piece is an American of Scandinavian descent. He lived in Norway for a time during high school and learned the language while he was there. He also still keeps in contact with his host family from his time living there, and his son recently spent a year abroad there as well. he recalls this song fondly because “we used to sing [it] when our daughter was upset or crying, and it was the only thing that could get her to sleep.”

Context:

Per is a common older name in Norway, and Spelmann is a name too but it literally means “player.” In Norway, a classical or folk musician is called a spelmann. My informant learned the song living Norway in high school when he was learning folk dance, and when they were done dancing he’d “jump up and kick the hat off the stick!” To understand this song, it’s important to know that it is about a musician who had to trade his violin in order to feed his family. Here, he gets it back:

Main Piece

“Per Spellmann han hadde ei einaste ku, Per Spellmann han hadde ei einaste ku,

Per Spellmann (Player) had only one cow, (repeat)

Han bytte bort kua fekk fela igjen, han bytte bort kua fekk fela igjen,

He traded away the cow to get the fiddle back, (repeat)

Det gode, de gamle, fiolin, det fiolin, det fela mi!

The good, the old, violin, violin, that fiddle of mine, (repeat)

Per Spellmann han spelta aa fela hu laat, (repeat)

Per Spellmann played and the fiddle laughed

Saa gutterne dansa, aa jenterne graat, (repeat)

The boys danced and the girls cried.

Det gode, de gamle fiolin, det fiolin, det fela mi!”

Analysis:

This old Norwegian folk song tells us a great deal about the culture and beliefs of Norway’s people. Its basic concept–a man trading his violin to support his family and trading it back for his last cow–is not hard to understand, but it’s very valuable. It might seem that the man simply doesn’t love his family very much, but this isn’t the case. At first, he does trade away his instrument for them, showing how much he cares. But in the end, he trades his last possession of value–his only cow–to get his fiddle back. Although it’s sad for his family, the song shows that this culture values happiness over everything because life is nothing without it. This cultural value is still reflected in Norway’s present-day laws, which factor citizens’ happiness into other national measures of success, ensuring that the people are well taken care of.

Main Piece: Miss Susie

Miss Susie had a steamboat,

The steamboat had a bell,

Miss Susie went to heaven,

The steamboat went to…

Hello Operator,

Please dial Number 9,

And if you disconnect me,

I’ll cut off your…

Behind the ‘frigerator,

There was a piece of glass,

Miss Susie sat upon it,

And cut her little…

Ask me no more questions,

Tell me no more lies,

The boys are in the bathroom,

Pulling down their…

Flies are in the meadow,

The bees are in the park,

Miss Susie and her boyfriend are kissing

D A R K, D A R K, 

dark, dark dark 

Background: This is a folk song that has been circulating the playground since I was a kid, and now, the informant, my little sister, also knows this tune. When she sings it, I can always join in, as can my mom because she also remembers a similar version from her childhood. There is little variation between the three versions of the songs, but as the song has aged, so has the length of the song. 

Context: The informant sang this song to me when I asked her favorite nursery rhyme. This song is definitely more mature than Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, for instance, so I was not surprised that an older child chose it. She sang me this portion of the song and said that there was more, but she was uncertain of all the lyrics off the top of her head. I knew the words of the song up to this point, but my mom said that the version she knew stopped at “Pulling down their…Flies”. 

Thoughts: This is a folk song that has withstood the test of time and grown with age. I looked up the rest of the tune and there are many proceeding verses that are not appropriate for all ages. For example, some lyrics include: “I know I know my sister With the forty-acre bra.”, “I wish I had a boyfriend Who kissed me all the time!”, and “He made me wash his underwear So I kicked him out the door”. For the extended version of this song visit nurseryrhymes.org, Miss Susie Had a Steamboat (Hello Operator). I think this song is a testimony to how our music has become less censored than it was in prior generations. The kids have modified and added lyrics to the song that are more provocative and test the boundaries of childhood. 

Serrano and Cahuilla Dragonfly Song

Main Piece:

I: It’s called the Dragonfly Song, it’s like a lullaby kind of song– so you sing it, and like if your heart is good, and it’s like– you don’t have anger or resentment or like bad feelings, or revenge, or any of those things– but like basically if you have good intentions like a good heart and you sing it dragonflies will come to you and they’ll sit on you. And like it’s really neat to like see it happen, like– they’ll fly around you and then they’ll come fall on you. And, they’ve never like… landed on me because (indicates that she is referring to the good intentions) but like I’ve seen like them go to other people. And so it’s like a really neat– I think people do it with hummingbirds too, but like it’s– so, it’s a lullaby that repeats the 4 verses over again, but the lullaby verses are like “Ooshkana ooshkana oh oh, ooshkana oosh” (these lyrics are typed out phonetically). And it repeats in different variations four times and you have to sing it in verses of 4.

Background:

My informant is a good friend from high school. She is a part of the Cahuilla and Chippewa Indigenous Nations and explains that she learned this Dragonfly Song from a Serrano elder, though it was not the first time she had heard it. She believes that her mother might have sung this lullaby for her when she was a baby. She explains that her parents were actively involved in Indian Country, working with Native children in the community, and her father was the director of a foster care agency that was specifically for Native Youth but also worked with rehabilitating families. She says it was probably during one of their group sessions with the youth where Ernest Siva, the Serrano elder, was a guest and sang this song. This song is meaningful to her because of the symbolism of the dragonfly as a messenger from the spirit world.

Context:

This is a transcript of a conversation between my friend and me over the phone. I have talked to her a few times about my folklore class and explained the collection to her. She was happy to help and talk about some of her traditions.

Thoughts:

My friend and I have talked often about our respective traditions with each other, but there are so many that we have not talked about in detail. This is the first time I learned about the Dragonfly Song and thought it was beautiful. She explained to me that in Cahuilla culture, the dragonfly is thought to be a messenger from the spirit world, and thus, is the connection of the physical world to the spirit world. The need of having a good heart and good intentions in order to attract dragonflies when singing this song illustrates how the spirit world is regarded in Cahuilla culture: healing and nourishing. Its purpose as a lullaby also indicates the importance of children and the youth, as being able to sing this song and attract dragonflies (proof of having a good heart and good intentions) to soothe a child transfers the positive energy and intentions to them.

For more on the Dragonfly Song, see:

Siva, Ernest. Voices of the Flute: Songs of three Southern California Indian Nations. Ushkana Press, 2004.