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GUEST,EuGene Origins: Sarasponda (child's/Girl Scout song) (33) RE: Origins: Sarasponda (child's/Girl Scout song) 18 Dec 18


Years ago when I was in church camp, the song leader (a lady named Iris Bell) had us singing the "Oh, Nickodemo" song as a round. It was apparently a bunch of nonsense words strung together but we had a blast singing it.

Anyhoo, it went like this (lyrics may have been spelled differently):

Quick quack quannie onnie monnie monnie doshnick,
Quick quack quo,
quick quack quo.
Quick quack quannie onnie monnie monnie doshnick,
Quick quack quo,
quick quack quo.
Oh, Nickodemo, oh jolly-olly-ahmo,
Oh, Nickodemo, oh jolly-olly-oompa-oompa-oompa

Some of the pronunciations:

The words "quannie onnie monnie monnie" rhymed with the name Bonnie
The "doshnick" rhymed with the exclamation "Gosh Nick"
The j in jolly is not the usual j but a "zh" like in "measure"

Here is a rough sketch of the tune
The tune for the two long lines is exactly the same as the opening line in Rosemary Clooney's "This Ole House", such as:

    G     Bb   Eb      Eb    Eb     Eb      Eb  Eb
"This   old house   once knew   my    children,"
"Quick quack quannie onnie monnie monnie doshnick,"

Then the next two lines are,

   G    Bb   A
"Quick quack quo,"
   G    Bb   Eb
"Quick quack quo."

The above lines are repeated, then the song moves to the refrain:

[up one octave]
Eb Eb Eb Eb C Eb   D    C   Bb G
Oh, Nick o demo, oh jolly-olly-ahmo,

Bb C    Bb Bb F    Bb   C    D   Eb Eb Eb Eb Eb Eb <--Eb's octave down
Oh, Nick o dem o, oh jolly-olly-oompa-oompa-oompa

Although I show all of the notes as of the same duration and have some notes covering a 2-syllable word, play them and you will get a good idea how the song was sung.

EuGene


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