Lyr Add: Vreneli - new verses. head vs chest

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vreneli - new verses. head vs chest
From: leeneia
Date: 06 Jan 20 - 11:24 AM

How about singing the song with my new verses are your local singalong? I reject all copyright.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vreneli - new verses. head vs chest
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Jan 20 - 09:27 PM

Hi, Leeneia - yes, the "V" is pronounced as "F" in Schweizerdeutsch, just like in Hochdeutsch.

A couple of years ago, I spent a "Botanische Woche" in Zermatt, looking for wildflowers in the Alps with a group of Swiss people. I went with a group of 6 Californians as interpreter, although I wasn't really needed because all the people in the group spoke English. Most of the time, the Swiss people spoke Hochdeutsch with a pronounced accent, but they were easy for me to understand. They sometimes lapsed into a stronger dialect they called Schweizerdeutsch - but I think they did it just for fun and to show off a bit, and not as a normal practice. I was able to read newspapers and watch Swiss television and do business in stores with no problem in understanding.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vreneli - new verses. head vs chest
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 05 Jan 20 - 06:06 PM

Read somewhere that Vreneli is a Swiss-German diminutive of Verena. I don't know if that info is help or hindrance.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vreneli - new verses. head vs chest
From: leeneia
Date: 05 Jan 20 - 04:06 PM

There's a website called

behindthename.com

which says that Vreneli is a diminuative for the name Verena. Makes sense to me. Though why the Swiss decided the woman on the coin was named Verena is beyond me.

The li ending is the Swiss equivalent of the German lein, meaning little. Remember Schwanli (little bear) and Barli (little bear) in the book Heidi? They were goats.

I wonder if the Swiss pronounce their V like our F, the way the Germans do. Should we be singing it Freneli?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vreneli - new verses. head vs chest
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Jan 20 - 10:34 PM

Interesting. There is a Swiss 20-franc coin called a "Vreneli," minted between 1897 and 1935, and again from 1947-49.
The origin of the name "Vreneli" is unclear, so what's the deal?

-Joe-

Subject: Lyr Add: Vreneli - new verses. head vs chest
From: leeneia
Date: 04 Jan 20 - 05:35 PM

When I went to camp as a kid, I learned a song called "Vreneli." I only learned one verse.

Man: Oh Vreneli, my pretty one, pray tell me where's your home?
Girl: My home it stands
in Switzerland
'tis made of wood and stone. [repeat last 3 lines]
Man: Yo ho ho
Girl: Tra la la la [repeat this 7.5 times]

You can hear the tune here, but in Japanese, I guess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnatPcflK1w

(I hope it's all there. I didn't listen to the whole thing.)

It's occurred to me that this camp song, like 'Barnacle Bill', relies on the difference between chest tone and head tones for humor. And it's also a good way to teach those two ways of singing. The man of course, sings with deep, powerful chest tones and Vreneli replies with sweet, clear head tones. It's news to a lot of people that one person can do both parts.

There are a couple of stupid parody verses floating around, but I decided to write my own new verses. Stupid, but not quite as stupid.

2. Oh, Vreneli, what fruit is that that hangs from yonder trees?
The trees in rows
produce the holes
we put in fine Swiss cheese (repeat)
Yo ho ho etc

3. Oh Vreneli, what birds are those that flit on yonder rocks?
Oh those, kind sir
are cuckoo-birds
that live in cuckoo clocks (repeat)
Yo ho ho etc

I still remember my niece, seven years old, being amazed and then laughing as heard me sing this for the first time. I'm sure she had never heard anything like it before. It's a great song for a long car ride.