Category Archives: Musical

Bat Masterson – Brazilian Wild West Song and Game

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 20
Residence: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Performance Date: April 26, 2017
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

Informant:

Ricardo is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and currently lives there “for 75 percent of the year.”

Original Script:

No velho Oeste ele nasceu,
E entre bravos se criou,
Seu nome lenda se tornou,
Bat Masterson, Bat Masterson.

Sempre elegante e cordial,
Sempre o amigo mais leal,
Foi da justiça um defensor,
Bat Masterson, Bat Masterson.

Em toda canção contava,
Sua coragem e destemor,
Em toda canção falava,
Numa bengala e num grande amor.

É o mais famoso dos heróis,
Que o velho oeste conheceu,
Fez do seu nome uma canção,
Bat Masterson, Bat Masterson.

Seu nome lenda se tornou,
Bat Masterson, Bat Masterson.
Seu nome lenda se tornou,
Bat Masterson, Bat Masterson.

Translation:

In the old West he was born,
And among brave ones was created,
His legendary name became,
Bat Masterson, Bat Masterson.

Always elegant and friendly,
Always the most loyal friend,
Justice was a defender,
Bat Masterson, Bat Masterson.

In every song,
His courage and fearlessness,
In every song he spoke,
On a cane and a great love.

It is the most famous of the heroes,
That the old West knew,
Made his name a song,
Bat Masterson, Bat Masterson.

His legendary name became,
Bat Masterson, Bat Masterson.
His legendary name became,
Bat Masterson, Bat Masterson.

Context:

Ricardo: “It’s sang all the time by kids, like, in class or in, like, a break in school because there is hand game that goes with it, but I totally forget how the game goes (laughs). It’s just a fun little thing for young kids to do when they have nothing to do.”

My Thoughts:

I can relate to this song very strongly because when I was younger, I loved playing patty cake with my older sister. Singing games are a great way to pass time when you are a kid, and it is interesting to me that other cultures practice this as well.

Yellow Cow – The Brazilian Shut Up Song

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 20
Residence: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Performance Date: April 26, 2017
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

Informant:

Ricardo is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and currently lives there “for 75 percent of the year.”

Original Script:

A vaca amarela fez cocô na Ranela,

quem balar primeiro come bodo o cocô dela.

Summary:

Ricardo: “It’s about a yellow cow that, like, took a shit in a pan (laughs), and whoever speaks first or next has to eat all her shit.”

Context:

Ricardo: “It’s a song you sing whenever you want everyone else to be quiet.”

My Thoughts:

To me, the way Ricardo describes the song is extremely funny. It’s a song, so I thought it would be something that kids would sing when they want everyone around them to be quiet, but the fact that there are curse words in it makes me think otherwise. I am sort of confused about who would be the people singing this song.

Shave and a Haircut

Age: Second Graders
Occupation: students
Residence: los angeles
Performance Date: 02/29/17
Primary Language: English
Language: spanish

We all know that famous rhythm, door knock, pattern: “dah dah di dah di, dah dah”.  It is used all the time, everywhere.  It used to knock on a door, to get someone’s attention, and in the second grade classroom I taught at, it was used to get them to silence and focus.  

Turns out, this pattern has an interesting back story.  In morse code it punches out as: dash dot dot dash dot, dot dash.  Because morse code does not focus on letters but patterns and combinations, this certain rhythm actually means “attention.”  In war days, soldiers would execute this certain pattern to let a comrade know that they were of friends, not enemies, or that they had a prisoner.  When passing code all day it was considered humorous to tap out this “attention” pattern.

The popularity grew however after it was featured in many popular songs.  Artist’s like Joel Sayre, Dan Shapiro, Lester Lee, and Milton Berle all used this in their music and the catchiness spread.  Many musicians included this in reference to war time.  The height of its fame however came from the old song “Shave and a Haircut”– which is now the common name for the clap.  This song was placed in a commercial for Lucky Tiger Aftershave and it never was forgotten.

Interestingly enough, this pattern is heavily advised not to used because it gets translated in a much more negative form.  The connotation of this seven phrase knock is insulting and vulgar.  It contains the inference of cruel language and aggressive violence.

However, in the classroom, as in many American classrooms, this is used a common tactic to get the students to focus and look up at the teacher.  When the classroom got noisy a child came to me and said “Just do the clap!”  I proceeded to clap the five times in rhythm and the students followed by finishing off the last two and sitting quietly.  

Kolobok: The Little Round Bun

Nationality: American
Age: 26
Occupation: Student
Residence: Tumbridge, Vermont
Performance Date: 04/19/2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Russian

Main piece: Once upon a time there was an old man and an old housewife. The man demanded his wife to make him a bun from the flour box. And so, she swept out the bin and made some dough in the shape of a little round bun. She put in the oven for it to bake and then next to the window for it to cool. The bun jumped out the window and rolled along the road until he met with a Rabbit coming towards him. The Rabbit told him “I’m going to eat you little bun”, and in response the the bun sang him a song:

“I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin
And baked in the oven
And cooled on the sill.
I ran away from Grandpa,
I ran away from Grandma,
And I’ll run away from you, this minute I will!”

So the bun rolled away, until he saw a wolf coming at him. The wolf told him “I’m going to eat you little bun”, and so he sang again:

“I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin
And baked in the oven
And cooled on the sill.
I ran away from Grandpa,
I ran away from Grandma,
And I’ll run away from you, this minute I will!”

So the bun rolled away, until he met with a fox in front of him. The fox told him “I’m going to eat you little bun”, and so he sang to the fox:

“I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin
And baked in the oven
And cooled on the sill.
I ran away from Grandpa,
I ran away from Grandma,
And I’ll run away from you, this minute I will!”

The fox told him “Sing some more, please don’t stop! Hop onto my mouth so I can hear you better”. And so the bun jumped into the fox’s mouth and sang:

“I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin-

But before he could go on the fox closed his mouth and he gobbled up the little bun.

Background information about the piece by the informant: William Murawski is an American from Polish and Russian decent. His grandparents from Russia used to tell him tales and nursery rhymes from their hometown as a child. William is an aficionado of Russian folk tales and likes to tell preform them the same way as his grandparents performed them for him when he was a child.

Context on the performance: The tale is usually told to children. The song sang by the bun is told with a melody, which is why it is easy to remember verbatim.

Thoughts on piece: The seems more nonsensical than classic western European tales, as they usually have anthropomorphic animals, but rarely a simple object like a bun acting with human characteristics. The resolution of the story is also anti-climatic and dower, but it does provide children with a lesson, which is that one must not be overconfident on a victory like the bun did in the end, as well as the power of wit, as the fox showed. This shows that Russian folk tales are concerned with providing life lessons rather than having feel-good endings.

The Little Goat

Nationality: Mexcian
Age: 15
Occupation: Student
Residence: Mexico City
Performance Date: 03/16/2017
Primary Language: Spanish

Main Piece: Get out of the cave little goat. Get out of that place. Let’s go call the wolf, so that he gets the goat out of there.

The wolf doesn’t want to go for the goat and the goat doesn’t want to get out of there.

Get out of the cave little goat. Get out of that place. Let’s go call the stick, so that he beats the wolf.

The stick doesn’t want to beat the wolf, the wolf doesn’t want to go for the goat and the goat doesn’t want to get out of there.

Get out of the cave little goat. Get out of that place. Let’s go call the fire, so that he burns the stick.

The fire doesn’t want to burn the stick, the stick doesn’t want to beat the wolf, the wolf doesn’t want to go for the goat and the goat doesn’t want to get out of there.

Get out of the cave little goat. Get out of that place. Let’s go call the water, so that he wets the fire.

The water doesn’t want to wet the fire, the fire doesn’t want to burn the stick, the stick doesn’t want to beat the wolf, the wolf doesn’t want to go for the goat and the goat doesn’t want to get out of there.

Get out of the cave little goat. Get out of that place. Let’s go call the cow, so that she drinks the water.

The cow doesn’t want to drink the water, water doesn’t want to wet the fire, the fire doesn’t want to burn the stick, the stick doesn’t want to beat the wolf, the wolf doesn’t want to go for the goat and the goat doesn’t want to get out of there.

Get out of the cave little goat. Get out of that place. Let’s go call the farmer, so that he tames the cow.

The farmer wants to tame the cow, the cow wants to drink the water, water wants to wet the fire, the fire wants to burn the stick, the stick wants to beat the wolf, the wolf wants to go for the goat and the goat wants to get out of there.

And that’s how the little goat got out!

Background information about the piece by the informant: Daniela is a resident of Mexico City and this is a song that she remembers from her early childhood. She claims that her kindergarten used to make her and his classmates sing it.

Context on the piece: Although there are many variations to the song, it is popular for children in Mexico City. This type of song is popular in other countries and cultures. For example, Russia has “The Giant Turnip” about a turnip that doesn’t want to get out of the ground and the singers call on different characters to help it get out.

Thoughts on the piece: Despite it being used as a distraction for children, the song can show how individuals and cultures think of the idea of power. In this case, it is the human who is in power, as he is the one that makes a decision and gets every character to do their job in a chain reaction. This shows a high regard for humans in the culture, but there are versions of the song in where the chin gets to God and he makes everyone do his job. This would imply a more deist sensibility than this version of the song.