Category Archives: Musical

“Vibora de la Mar”- Mexican Wedding Dance

  1. “Vibora de la Mar”- Mexican Wedding Dance

Context: CL is a Mexican American student at USC. Her parents are from Michoacan, Mexico and her family currently resides near Bakersfield, California.

Transcript: 

CL: Okay so this is a game played at a wedding. Okay there’s two different ones: The bride gets on a chair… I’m trying to remember if it’s the bride and the groom both get on a chair, and then they carry the bride’s veil, the groom carries the bride’s veil so that people grab each other’s hands and then they go around in circles. First, it’s the women that are at the party, and then after they’re done, it’s the men that go. I think they’re objective is to try to knock down the bride and the groom… 

HV: That’s so silly goofy *laughs*. To try to knock down who?

CL: The bride and the groom. 

HV: Oh they’re praying on their downfall?

CL: Yeah, pretty much. 

HV: Is it all the single people?

CL: Yeah maybe!

HV: Why do you think they’re trying to knock down the bride and the groom? Do you think there’s a significance behind that? 

CL: *quietly* let me look it up… 

HV: That’s not fair! What do YOU think it means?

CL: I think it’s just… it could be one of two things. It could be like “oh we’re celebrating the union of you guys”. Maybe the chairs symbolize… it’s the beginning of a new era, you guys are so happy right now but eventually, it’s just gonna be like any common thing, being married, and if you fall, it’s like you’re joining us, welcome back to the real world. 

HV: Is there music?

CL: Oh yeah! There’s a song! The song is called “La vibora de la mar”?

HV: Screaming, it has the same name? 

CL: uh, yeah. 

HV: How does it go? Sing it for us. 

CL: “A la vibora, vibora, de la mar, de la mar, por aquí pueden pasar, los de adelante corren mucho, los de atras se quedaran”. 

(To the snake, snake, of the sea, of the sea, you can pass through here, the ones in the front run a lot, the ones in the back stay behind). 

HV: What is the translation of “vibora de la mar”? 

CL: Ooooo, snake of the sea? I think it’s “vibora” because the people are holding hands and they’re going in a snake motion. I’ve mainly seen it with adults because it can get kind of aggressive so I don’t think that they want children to get trampled. I think it’s aggressive because they’re trying to knock down the bride and groom. If the men were to go first, since they tend to be a little more aggressive, then the women wouldn’t be able to go. Cause then what if the groom falls or the bride falls or someone gets hurt. 

My Interpretation: The significance of this tradition to me seems like it’s a way of testing the newlyweds’ bond. By physically trying to knock down the couple, who are now connected, literally through the bride’s veil, and figuratively through marriage, the community is giving them their first test of endurance in this new chapter of the life cycle. It’s also interesting to me how segregated the tradition is by gender because it demonstrates how separate men and women are in the culture and how their roles in marriage will also be separate and distinct. 

Hush little baby…

Content:

“Hush little baby, don’t say a word

Mama’s gonna buy you a mockingbird

And if that mockingbird won’t sing, 

Mama’s gonna buy you a diamond ring

And if that diamond ring turns to brass,

Mama’s gonna buy you a looking glass.

And if that looking glass gets broke,

Mama’s gonna buy you a mountain goat.”

Background: The informant, S, is a 21 year old who grew up in the southeast United States. Her mother often sang her this song to get her to fall asleep as a child. S’s mother and grandmother are from the southeast U.S., as well. 

Context: S asked her mother what the lyrics to the “mockingbird lullaby” she often sang to S were. S then typed the lyrics and sent them to me via email. 

Analysis: This song, which is sung to babies to fall asleep, is thought to be a regional lullaby for the Southeast United States. It was first collected in Virginia in 1918, and another version with different lyrics was found shortly after in North Carolina. S heard this song when she was living in Georgia. 

See also: For a published literary adaptation of this lullaby, see: Frazee, Marla. Hush, Little Baby: A Folk Song with Pictures. United States, Browndeer Press, 2003.

Down by the banks

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/29/21
Primary Language: English

The informant explained that this is a hand game or clapping game she used to play at summer camp in between activities with the other girls who were in her cabin. Her estimate for when people play it is ages 6-12. You learn it by playing and other children explain it to you. She also said that this game” slaps” and would totally play it today.

SD: The song is:

Down by the banks of the hanky panky

Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky 

With an eeps opps soda pops

Hey mister lilypad went kerplops

So, you sit in a circle with a group of three or more typically and each person has their right hand on top of the person to their right’s left hang. So your left hand is under someone’s right hand and your right is on top of someone’s left. Then while you’re singing the song, every word, there’s a beat on every word, where you slap your right hand onto the person to your left’s left hand and you go in a circle until the song runs out and on the last beat kerplop, the person who is hitting is trying to slap the person to their left’s right hand and that person is trying to avoid getting slapped. If you get your hand slapped, you’re out, or if you try to hit the person’s hand but you miss because they’ve moved their hand out of the way, you’re out. And that keeps going until there are two people left. Then the last two people lock right hands and pull back and forth on the beat of the lyrics and at the end whoever pulls the other person toward them wins.

Context: This piece was collected during an in person conversation.

Thoughts: I was surprised when hearing the informant’s version of this clapping game because I played the same game with different lyrics. This is a common game I played in PE and at recess, taught by other children. So it is passed on from child to child through their community. It’s also clear that it exists in multiplicity and variation given that I grew up on the other side of the country and played it the same way, albeit with different lyrics. There also seems to be an oppositional issue that comes to play in children’s folklore as there is a male vs. female aspect of this game that changes; she said she played it with only girls, while I played with both genders.

Circle — A High School Theater Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Bay Area, California
Performance Date: May 2nd, 2021
Primary Language: English
Language: N/A

Main Piece: 

Before every show we always had this thing called Circle, and the purpose of Circle was to kind of like, get you hyped up and get your nerves out, and kind of keep you from being shy or feeling stage fright by doing silly, silly things, and seeing people do silly things. And the whole tradition of Circle is that you chant, “Oooh, I feel so good like! I knew I would! Oooh I feel so good!” And you would just continually chant that while clapping to a certain beat until someone went into the circle and would be like, “Like [something now]”  and everyone would just mimic them no matter what it was. It could’ve been something that had been done every year before them; that’s like a very simple one, like “Like a chair now!” And you do a squat [laughing] and, y’know, you do a squat and then you continue the chant. Or, you could make one up every single time. I remember [a classmate] once went in the circle and went like “Like a parabola!” and literally did a backwards handstand and bent over backwards. And it was crazy, and people started doing it all the time after that even if he wasn’t at [the high school] anymore at the time. That was a fun one that, like, caught on. 

Background: 

My informant is one of my friends from high school, and was very involved in our school’s theater department. Circle was one of the most consistent rituals prior to every show, no matter if it was opening or closing night, and the chant from the piece was one of the most popular and well known. When I asked my informant what the tradition meant to him, he said it was about “being vulnerable and bonding with other people, especially if it’s your first show and you’re nervous.” Seeing people perform silly antics removed the fear of embarrassment and let everyone come together to prepare for a great performance while also feeling supported by those around you.

Context: 

This came up when my informant and I were trying to remember traditions that happened in our theater department during high school. While I was involved in a few shows, my friend had more experience than I did and was able to remind me of a ritual that the department participated in before every single play or musical show. 

Thoughts: 

In this ritual, we can observe that the purpose is to create an energetic atmosphere where the cast and crew could get excited for the show; in a way, this ritual is meant to bring good luck to them and alleviate tension. We can also observe that there’s an expectation for what to do during the chant, but not only that, there’s a myriad of variations to the chant that have been made up by people from past generations of the theater department. I also liked that my informant gave the example of “Like a parabola now!” because it shows that Circles functions not only as a stress reliever before a show, but an opportunity for a theater kid to leave a legacy behind, as seen by the fact that our past classmate’s variation is still performed even if he no longer goes to the school. Additionally, we see the multiplicity and variation in the different chants that are performed at each Circle, and know that some will die out and be replaced with others depending on how popular the chant becomes. 

Children’s Clapping Game: Lemonade, Crunchy Ice

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Scottsdale, AZ
Performance Date: February 11, 2021
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: 

“Lemonade 

Crunchy ice 

beat it once beat it twice 

turn around touch the ground 

kick your boyfriend out of town 

Freeze 

American cheese 

I think I’m gonna sneeze 

achoo woohoo”

Background:

The informant used to perform this song as part of clapping game in pre-school and elementary school in Arizona. She described it as an activity kids would do while lining up, such as when they were leaving the playground. She interpreted it as a distraction and time-passer, as well as something you got the joy of passing on/teaching. This was a regular activity for her and her classmates that those in her circle all knew. This was one of a few clapping games, rather than the only one they played.

Thoughts:

This recitation seems similar to other childhood clapping games such as “patty-cake”, but with different lyrics and rhythm. This game also seems more physically active and disruptive to the line than other similar games I’ve seen, with my informant demonstrating exaggerated hand movements not restricted to clapping. Presumably, this would be counter-productive to an organized line. This seems to be an example of children’s folklore responding in a disorderly way to the order imposed by adults, which is a concept explored by Jay Mechling. Children have little power, he says, and so one of the ways they squeeze some power into their grasp is through disorder. This piece of folklore seems to manifest that principle with physical disruption and nonsensical lyrics.