Category Archives: Musical

“Danish Birthday Song”

Nationality: Danish-American
Age: 65
Occupation: Retired Teacher
Residence: Richmond, CA
Performance Date: March 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

            The informant’s maternal ancestry hails from Denmark, and although she has never lived in Denmark she has visited the country several times for extended periods and has maintained a strong Danish cultural presence in her lifestyle, especially around the holidays. For example, she strings up miniature Danish flags around her Christmas tree each year and makes æbleskiver, traditional Danish pancakes in the shape of little round balls, Christmas morning. Furthermore, one of her most treasured family heirlooms is a set of silverware engraved with the family crest as well as an ornate “N” for Nielsen, her mother’s maiden name, and a recognizably Danish one at that. She also sings a Danish song when celebrating family birthdays, and she shared the lyrics as well as the role the song has played in her own life. As a child, she remembered learning the song as a birthday song, but as she grew older she learned the song’s first line comes from a Danish drinking song, perhaps one that was sung in celebration. As the informant sang the song, she was sitting in her dining room table drinking coffee out of a china tea set her mother brought from Denmark.

 

            The first part “han skal leve”. . .I’m not positive about what it means but I believe it’s loosely translated as “may he live” or “may he live well.” The “hurra!” is the Danish way to say “hooray!” and I never understood what the ” højt” was for. I just know everyone said “højt quite loudly (she laughs heartily).
When we are celebrating a female’s birthday, the “bravo” verse is changed to “brava” and we say “bravissima” instead of “bravissimo.”

 Han skal leve, han skal leve, han skal leve, højt hurra!
Bravo, bravo, bravo bravissimo
Bravo, bravo, bravissimo
Bravo bravissimo, bravo bravissimo
Bravo, bravo, bravissimo.

 

            The informant’s close ties with her Danish roots are quite evident; Danish traditions and practices have seeped into several different aspects of her life. The confusion as to whether the song was originally sung in birthday celebration or while drinking seems typical for a family practice that has been passed down through generations―it can become increasingly difficult to discern when and why a song was first introduced into the family. In all likelihood, the song served both purposes. After all, it is quite common to pair drinking with a birthday party or celebration, and it was perhaps only because of her young age that she first associated the song exclusively with birthdays.

            The “may he live well” translation bestows good fortune or good health, though perhaps both―the interpretation of “well” is ambiguous―on the celebrating individual, which is not atypical for birthday celebrations across most cultures. However, the informant’s Danish family allows the party guests to seize an opportunity for good luck as well. She and her family prepare a layered Danish cake, inside which are hidden dimes, and anyone who bites or finds a dime while eating their cake is granted good luck for the week. This practice shifts focus from solely the celebrating individual to the party-goers as well; it is a more collectively engaging and participatory experience.

Sardana (Dance)

Nationality: Spanish
Age: 35
Occupation: Spanish Professor
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2013
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

“There’s a dance that’s called Sardana, which is very very different than Flamingo, which is the typical dance people think about when they think about Spain. Um, it is a more, it’s more quiet, and you dance it as a group. So you kind of hold hands and make a circle similar to, I don’t know, maybe with the Greeks Sirtaki where the people are holding hands. Um there is a group leader that counts the steps as you’re dancing and he announces what comes next. There are three basic steps to the dance and you follow the song. It’s played with only three instruments, una grulla, which is a very different flute, a little drum, and then a variation of a flute, so it’s kind of two flutes with a little drum. What I like from that dance is um, no matter how good or bad you are, (of course there’s always professional groups that dance together) but whenever there is a celebration, everyone joins a big circle. So kind of the town gets to do something together at the same time which is also really really nice. And origins come from Middle Ages and have evolved, and again during Franco’s time they were forbidden, but after Franco died I think there has been a renewal of the tradition and a big effort by the Catalan government to get them back to the society. They’re brought into schools and kids are taught how to dance the Sardanas these days.”

This dance is simple, but very important for celebrating and bringing people together. As with the other cultural traditions of Cataluña that the informant mentioned, this one was also influenced by Franco’s strict rules. Despite these restrictions, it is obvious that the dance is valued because they are making such an effort to promote it and teach it to the new generation. Like the Castells, this ritual is a way for people to feel the unity of their town or region, because everyone is joined together. It is a treasured Spanish dance (though not the well known Flamingo), but the informant also relates it to a Greek dance, so she does not necessarily take ownership of it for Spain exclusively.

Persian Ditty/Folk Poem

Nationality: Persian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 1, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Farsi

Contextual Data: I asked my informant if there were any stories or songs that he learned when he was younger and he mentioned this one; he would sing this poem with his grandmother as he got ready for school in the morning. We met over coffee and he recited the poem in Farsi, then wrote it down both in Farsi and in the Romanization of the Farsi script, before reciting the English translation.

Farsi:

In Romanized Script:

Māmānī māmānī māmānī joon.
Chaī rā bezār rú fenjoon
Vakhtī kē chaī rā nooshīdan
Māmānī rā booshīdan
Mīran koodakestán
Shādān o khandán
Shādān o khandán

Translated to English:

Grandmother, grandmother, grandmother dear
Put the tea on the kettle
When I drink my tea,
And kiss my grandmother
I’ll go to school
With joy and laughter
With joy and laughter 

My informant learned this poem from his grandmother, and the two of them would sing it together as he was getting ready for school in the morning. He attached no particular significance to it — it was just a sort of sweet, daily ritual between him and his grandmother. But he has talked about it with his Iranian friends, who have all heard of it and speak of reciting it in similar contexts. He felt that people passed it on partially just because it’s easy to remember because of the rhyme scheme, but also because it is kind of a way to get kids excited about going to school.

But beyond this, it could speak to the possible importance of the grandmother as part of the family household and her role in caring for the children.  In general, though it’s just such a happy ditty — it’s something my informant clearly associates with fond memories and positive relationships, and something that allowed him to always start his day off on a joyful note, which could explain why he plans on passing it on to his own children. 

Boy Scout Birthday Dirge

Nationality: Indian
Age: 24
Occupation: Designer
Residence: New Jersey
Performance Date: March 22, 2013
Primary Language: English

Contextual Data: We had gone out to dinner to celebrate my Uncle’s birthday, and once we returned home, my family was talking and joking as we debated whether or not to put a candle on my Uncle’s cake and actually sing “Happy Birthday.” My brother then piped up and recounted this “Birthday Dirge” that he learned when he was younger. I asked him to sing it, and after, I asked him about when and where he heard it. He replied that he learned it at Boy Scout camp, when he was about fifteen years old — the counselors taught it to him: they would sing it in the morning in the mess hall as the campers were eating breakfast, whenever a camper was celebrating his birthday.

Happy Birthday (Clap or Thigh Slap)
Happy Birthday (Clap or Thigh Slap)
There is sorrow in the air,
People dying everywhere,
But Happy Birthday (Clap or Thigh Slap)
Happy Birthday (Clap or Thigh Slap)

The song is sung as a sort of chant, and my family did chuckle a bit after he recited it. My Uncle offered a sarcastic “thanks.”

My brother said that they all loved it at camp. He enjoyed sharing it with others because he found it funny. He did qualify it by saying that he had taught it to some of  his friends when he returned home, and not everyone reacted the same way. Some laughed, others found it inappropriate and random. (He mentioned that gender didn’t really play a part when it came to this — some girls found it hilarious and some guys found it idiotic and vice versa). I actually remembered my brother teaching it to me after he first returned from camp, and I shared it with my friends to similar reactions — some laughed, others dismissed it.

He mentioned that the song was never taken seriously or meant to be a sobering song — and to expand upon this, in some ways, this song does seem to be a bit of a practical joke that taps into this idea of a birthday as a liminal phase, as a person transitions from one year into the next. The song subverts the traditional expectation that a person be wished well and bidden good luck as they move into a new year of their life and that’s where the humor seems to come from. More than this, in American culture in particular, birthdays are thought of as a person’s “special day,” but this song seems to mock that idea through both the lyrics and the somber tone in which it is sung.

Beyond that, it’s so short and repetitive that it is really easy to remember: my informant still recollected it nine years after he first learned it. I imagine the context of learning it at Boy Scout camp also helped — it was a fun experience and one that he remembered fondly.

Mars

Nationality: A
  1.  “There’s a place on Mars, where the babies smoke cigars, and the men wear bikinis and the women drink martinis and every step you take is enough to kill a snake, when the snake is dead, put mustard on it’s head, when the mustard dries you put diamonds in it’s eyes, when the diamond breaks in 1948-Freeze (Chief.)”- Song collected from a 10-year-old girl who learned it on the playground from a friend. She said the last word could be either “freeze” or “chief,” “depending on what you felt like.”