[net.music.classical] Old Songs

robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (08/16/84)

References:

First a correction.  That should be:

  This is the symphony, that Schubert wrote and never.
  [Schubert 8th, first movement, contrasting theme.]


There are some other wonderful Music Mnemnonics for themes that I
find amusing, for example:

  What is this, what is this, is it Mozart?  Yes it is, yes it is,
  yes it is.  [Moz 40th symphony, beginning theme]


  Is this by Mozart?  No it's not, it is Bach! [WTC, first book,
  g-minor fugue subject.]


I was at a party in 1962, when two graduate students arrived in a
state of great excitement and announced that they had finally
succeeded in setting one of Bach's fugue subjects to words for the
first time ever.  The words, which fit perfectly:

  Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater, had a wife and couldn't keep her he.
  Put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept here very well.

  (Note: the first line above has a period after "he" because there is
  a short rest at that point in the music.)  [This is an organ fugue
  which I cannot identify, but the subject, all in notes of equal
  length (8th notes?) goes like this, normalized to C-major:]

  efgfefgfefgfefgfe <rest lasting for 11 notes>   agaefefdgfgdede


- Toby Robison (not Robinson!)
allegra!eosp1!robison
decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison

wolit@rabbit.UUCP (Jan Wolitzky) (08/16/84)

Regarding Tony Robison's piece on musical mnemonics:

The New York City Public School system, back in the 1930s or
thereabouts, used to teach these mnemonic devices to their students as
part of their music appreciation program (this was back when the NYC
school system used to teach things).  The technique seems to have
worked quite well;  my in-laws can reel off title and composer (and
mnemonic!) of scores (pun intended) of the more "well-known" classical
pieces.  I'd love to collect any of these that anyone out in net-land
may know.  Mail them to me, and I'll post the collection if and when
it gets large enough.

Meanwhile, other samples that come to mind:

	Morning is dawning,
	And Peer Gynt is yawning;
	That's Peer Gynt by Grieg,
	The Norwiegian composer.

(Only in New York does "morning" rhyme with "dawning"!)

Or, from the same piece:

	In the Hall of the Mountain King,
	Mountain King, Mountain King,
	In the Hall of the Mountain King,
	From Peer Gynt Suite by Grieg.

How about:

	Ei-ne Klei-ne Nachtmusik das ist.
	Writ-ten by Herr Mozart, not by Liszt.

You get the idea.

Jan Wolitzky, AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ, ...rabbit!wolit

jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) (08/17/84)

Re: Words to the G minor fugue in Bach's WTC, book I.

Gee, I always thought it was:

"My socks are filthy. And I don't give a damn!"

					Jeff Winslow

paul@wjvax.UUCP (Paul Summers) (08/20/84)

<Help! The line eater is after me!>

Sung to the recuring theme of Haydn's "Surprise Symphony":

	Papa Haydn's dead and gone,
	But his mem'ry lingers on.

			Paul Summers
			(...ios!wjvax!paul)
-- 

			Paul Summers
			(...ios!wjvax!paul)

jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) (08/21/84)

There's a little more to that "Surprise Symphony" bit - sung to the
  consequent of the theme, I think.

      Papa Haydn's dead and gone,
      But his mem'ry lingers on.
      When he had to take a p**s,
   (sung much faster:)
      He wrote jumpy tunes like this!

                                    ain't it profound?
      					Jeff Winslow