Lyr Req/Add: The Whiz Fish Song

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: The Whiz Fish Song
From: GUEST,D. Bone
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 11:45 PM

Wow, what a stream of wonderful takes on a song that was sung at Camp Pemigewassett! My dad is 93 and I'm trying to make a CD of people singing some old songs (Pemi, Beta Theta Pi, Ohio State, 30's dance music) for him to go down memory lane. He still loves to sing!! Does anyone know of recordings of any of the Pemi songs? ( If not it would be great if the boys would make one!)

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: The Whiz Fish Song
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 11:10 AM

Here is my version of the lyrics my grandfather used to sing. The current ones posted don't really fit in with the tempo/tune/melody of the song, but these fit in perfectly. So either my lyrics are wrong or my melody is wrong :p

On the swaying limb of a rubber tree, ten thousand miles away
On the banks of the Hula river in far off Uruguay
There sits a nervous monkey, his eyes in fear and gleam
His tail is hanging gently into a lipid stream

And every 90 minutes, he flips it through the air
With a South American whizfish dangling helpless there
But the bite of the angry whizfish is hard on the tender tail
and as he sits there fishing you can hear this monkey wail:

"Oh shades of Isaak Walton is that another bite?
If I didn't feel so hungry, I'd quit this job tonight
But I love those roasted whizfish, though it's bite drives me insane
and I do so wish to catch that fish that I manage to stand the pain"

Now one fine day a jummafish with a jaw 6 feet by 9
Chanced to paddle nearby; take hold of the monkeys line
He started down the river, quite unconcernedly
Until the monkey screamed and chattered and clung to that rubber tree

The tree stretched like a garter, a dozen miles or so
Until the fish let go and the monkey flew like an arrow from a bow
Now they say he's still a-flyin and if you care to try
You can hear him softly sobbing as he whistles through the sky:

"Oh shades of Isaak Walton is that another bite?
If I didn't feel so hungry, I'd quit this job tonight
But I love those roasted whizfish, though it's bite drives me insane
and I do so wish to catch that fish that I manage to stand the pain"

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: The Whiz Fish Song
From: GUEST,dbls
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 08:58 PM

It's amazing what you'll find on the internet. I found this thread, then discovered that I'd added a post myself six years ago, which I'd completely forgotten.

I was just visiting with my sisters and we went through the song (which, as we learned it, had a different melody for the chorus), but I'd love to hear the mp3s that are mentioned above, especially if there's any accompaniment, so I can tweak some of the chords.

Any luck?

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: The Whiz Fish Song
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 01:11 AM

According to WorldCat.org, The British Library has sheet music described thus:

MONKEY MURMURS. THE WHIZZ-FISH SONG. Op. 24
Words, E. Littleton Fox. Music, Porter Steele.
New York: Brooks & Denton, 1901.

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: The Whiz Fish Song
From: GUEST,LaieLad
Date: 04 Feb 11 - 03:34 PM

My uncle used to sing this as his Paradestuck (showpiece) around the campfire every summer at our family reunions in Arizona. I wish I had a recording but, alas, he has passed on, and none of his kids remembers it. I have the tune in my head, though.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Whiz Fish Song
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Mar 18 - 08:45 PM

dear sir, my grandfather taught me this song at a young age, later i beacame a musician. i play this song for the children and know allthe words, Michael Taylor, Boulder co.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Whiz Fish Song
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Mar 18 - 08:47 PM

dear sir, Michael Taylor here, [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Whiz Fish Song
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Sep 19 - 06:31 PM

As to the author of the lyrics, I did some GOOGLE fishing
and I came up with

E. (Edward) Lyttleton Fox,
a prominent New York attorney
and Yale alumnus.

Anybody want to go fishing a little more for this fellow?
Think he printed some things in the
Yale student rag.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Whiz Fish Song
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Sep 19 - 06:48 PM

OMGosh   OMGosh      OMGosh    !!

I just caught me a Whizz-Fish! And on the Internet too!!

Here's the source:

Yale Melodies: A Collection of the Latest Songs used by the Yale University Glee Club, composed, compiled, and edited by Thomas G.[Griffin] Shepard, Musical Director of the Club since 1873, assisted by James W. Reynolds, President of the Club of 1903. New Haven, Conn.: Thomas G. Shepard, Publisher, 1903. Copyright, 1903, by Thomas G. Shepard.

"The Whizz-Fish (Monkey Murmurs)", words by Lyttleton Fox 1902, music by Porter Steel 1902, appears on pages 66 - 69.

Google Books says that the original, before
being reproduced as a digital file, belonged
-- not to Yale University,
but to the University of Michigan.

---

https://books.google.com/books?id=zDEzAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA66#v=onepage&q&f=false

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Whiz Fish Song
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 15 Sep 19 - 12:50 PM

The post will not print out the lyrics.
I attempted to listen to the two midi files at this forum
for the tune.
Because I'm at a public computer,
I had too much trouble hearing Barbara's midi version,
and I could neither modify the volume nor use earbuds/headphones.

So I don't know about Barbara's version of the song melody;
if I can use headphones in the future,
then I can hear that file eventually.

What I have checked is this:
That Yale University Glee Club collection from 1903,
referenced in the post before this one,
is a vocal-piano musical score.
The lyrics are embedded in the score,
not printed out separately.

So when you pull up that digital copy online
and look at "The Whizz-Fish,"
both words and music are available to you.
And this is what the score shows:

The verses, outside of that chorus,
are a single melodic line.
The accompaniment to that melody for the verses
is written out for piano in the grand-staff,
treble clef and bass clef;
it is the sort of simple oom-pah accompaniment
that mimics a guitar,
and most likely can be actually played on the guitar.

When you get to the chorus, the accompaniment drops out completely,
and what appears is
a four-part (TTBB) men's chorus a cappella,
in which the melody seems to be sung by
the lower tenor line,
while the higher tenor line has a barbershop descant.

Now, how does Joe Offer's transcription from SongFest,
converted to midi file,
compare with the Glee Club Collection melody?

As follows:
The midi melody transcribed by Joe Offer
is actually the part of the melody,
in the Yale University Glee Club music,
that shows up with these words:

Just every nineteen minutes he jerks it thro' the air,
With a South American whizz-fish a-flopping helpless there ...

and in the later verse it shows up with these words:

The tree stretch'd like a garter, a dozen miles or so,
Till the fish let go, and the monkey flew like an arrow from a bow ...


In the Glee Club music score,
the beginning of each of the two verses --
the first sixteen bars, pretty much --
the words are set
to a melody that is DIFFERENT
from what is in Joe Offer's SongFest transcription.

The melody in the chorus, however,
is recognizably the same.

---

https://books.google.com/books?id=zDEzAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA66#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxb4KdP79NA

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Whiz Fish Song
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Nov 19 - 03:36 PM

Many thanks to Joe Offer,
who added the blue clicky links that
were too advanced for me to create.
I apologize for the clumsiness of my attempt
to analyze the tune.

Can't get the headphones to work with the MIDI file
on this public computer, and so
I have not finished my homework assignment here.
This is what I am trying to do:

Compare the musical score, online at books dot google dot com
(see previous links)
in the Yale Melodies for the Yale University Glee Club,

with the two MIDI files here at the Mudcat,
links to which are provided at the top of the page.


The following is my quick-and-dirty conclusion/opinion.

Musically and in terms of the melody, the song structure is
ABC.

The chorus --
"O! Shades of Isaak Walton" etc. --
is the C part, as it happens.
Pretty much everyone recognizes the chorus,
be it in words or in the tune.

The disagreements center around the two verses.
As I hear it,
each individual stanza, of which there are two,

is long enough to have an AB structure, in two parts.
The melody changes entirely from the A part to the B part.

I believe that the SongFest editor printed
the B melody without the A melody!

The A melody may appear in that other MIDI file.

In which case,
no wonder nobody can agree on the tune...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Whiz Fish Song
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 14 Nov 19 - 05:49 PM

Oh dearie dearie me ...

Barbara's MIDI file sounds to me like

"O! Shades of Isaak Walton! Was that another bite? ... "

as regards the Whiz-Fish sheet music from Yale.
Barbara's MIDI files sounds nothing like
the melody printed out for the opening four lines of each stanza.

We seem to have MIDI files
of bits and pieces of this tune,
and not the whole of the piece.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Whiz Fish Song
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 14 Nov 19 - 05:54 PM

Sorry to make redundant posts, but
I am trying to get my finger
on the pulse of this creature.

Barbara's Whiz-Fish MIDI is part C.

Joe Offer's transcription MIDI of the
SongFest book version, is melody parts B and C.

And neither MIDI file has got the
Part A melody which is documented in
Yale Melodies
on page 66 and concludes in the first half of page 67.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Whiz Fish Song
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 14 Nov 19 - 06:07 PM

... but Tim Seston's YouTube video,
link provided above by Joe Offer (blue clicky),
has the entire melody sung
the way the Yale Melodies book prints it out:
parts A, B, and C, for both stanzas and the chorus.

(Seston needs help with the chords, to my ear,
in Part B of the verses, however.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Whiz Fish Song
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Nov 19 - 04:01 PM

Turns up that since this thread was begun,
lo! those many years ago,
this song has turned up in a children's songbook
published by Mel Bay Publications, dated 2016.
Editor is Alex Usher,
and one cover illustration shows
a cheery-looking photogenic motherly female
posing with an autoharp.

No credits to Author nor Composer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Whiz Fish Song
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Dec 19 - 07:55 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Whiz Fish Song
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Aug 20 - 09:59 PM

Would anybody struggling with the pandemic lockdown
care to distract themselves
by messing about with this song?
It's a piece of work in many senses of the word!