I was interested in this comment that Fergie made in her post of 12 Mar 04 - 08:18 AM:


"My grand father had me sing the first line, then he would reply in answer with the second line. He said that was how he learned it when he was a child, he was born in the heart of Dublin city in about 1890. He died in 1974 (Ar dheis Dé go raibh a ainm)."

-snip-

My question is this: Is this the same as the "call & response" pattern? If not, what is that pattern called? And is this (or was this) a common singing pattern in UK folk songs?

-snip-

Also, Fergie wrote "You seldom see street skipping in Dublin anymore, and you hear precious little of "the haunting childrens rhymes, that once were part of Dublin in the rare ould times"."

-snip-

For what it's worth, I concur with the observation that girls don't do "street skipping" (in the USA it's called "jumping rope") much anymore at least in the African American neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and surrounding communities. And when they do group junp rope, the girls turning the ropes on either end and the other girls waiting for their turn to jump seldom chant any rhymes. [I mention "girls" because mostly this is a girl activity]. Girls may count the number of jumps the girl in the middle successfully does, and I've heard girls sing the "Leave the kettle boiling/leave no spaces" rhyme that a teacher taught them. But that's it when it comes to chanting jump rope rhymes.

I think part of the blame for this is having electric dryers means not having any clotheslines that could be "borrowed" for the purpose of jumping rope. Also, it's easier to do handclapping cheers because you don't need anything but your hands or footstomping cheers (dance style cheerleader cheers)because you don't need anything but your feet and your hands.

But even at schools (like the one where I substitute teach) which supply jump ropes for recess, the girls don't chant while they jump rope. As a matter of fact, they don't do handclaps or foot stomping cheers during recess either. I think that girls only chant rhymes and do handclap and foot stomping routines in the comfort of their own setting with a small select group of friends because they're concerned about other people "talking about them" (insulting them).

And that's such a shame.