Lyr Add: The Violin Farm (Richard Stilgoe)

Subject: Lyr Add: The Violin Farm (Richard Stilgoe)
From: Monologue John
Date: 07 Mar 23 - 03:43 AM

VIOLIN FARM
(Richard Stilgoe)

A sycamore tree cannot mimic the lark -
A sycamore's tree's unaccompanied bark
Is silent until the tree's finally felled,
Seasoned and shaped and then lovingly held
Beneath a Korean or Hungarian chin.
For sycamore's what makes a great violin.

A sheep cannot sing - the song of a sheep
Would shatter a goblet or rouse you from sleep.
But the guts of a sheep, when the sheep's passed away
Can be twisted and tightened and tuned to an `A'.
So what started off filling up a sheep's middle
Ends up as strings on the sycamore fiddle.

A horse cannot play you a musical scale
But if you sneak up and you shorten his tail
The hairs, when attached to a suitable rod,
Can play the sheep's guts like the song of a God.
The rest of the horse, if it's under the weather
Is boiled up to glue the whole thing together.

So if you should pass by a meadow or lea
Where a sheep is grazes next to a sycamore tree,
And yonder a horse canters, tail in the air -
You'll know the true meaning beneath what lies there.
You can say to the kids, with a wave of your arm,
"What you see over there is a violin farm". ©

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Violin Farm (Richard Stilgoe)
From: leeneia
Date: 12 Mar 23 - 12:46 PM

Thanks, John. I'm sending this to a friend who plays cello. Her husband plays violin.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Violin Farm (Richard Stilgoe)
From: Newport Boy
Date: 16 Mar 23 - 11:07 AM

Nice - my violinist friend enjoyed it.

What Richard Stilgoe probably didn't know when he wrote it was that the combination of sycamore trees and horses is unlikely. According to Blue Cross:

"Atypical myopathy (in horses) is a highly fatal muscle disease, thought to be caused by caused by the ingestion of hypoglycin A, a toxin contained in seeds from the sycamore tree (Acer pseudoplatanus)." In America, the Box Elder also causes the same.

Phil

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Violin Farm (Richard Stilgoe)
From: GUEST,open mike
Date: 18 Mar 23 - 04:33 PM

so glad i happened across this thread...
i am finding lots of Sir Richard Stilgoe material...
and learning that he crafted the lyrics to
several wonderful musicals...
as well as many videos on odd jobs
and many more...
songs and poems
including a comical look at christmas, angels, wise men and more.
thankd for bringing him to my attention!

here are but a few of mhy discoveries today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQLVbRi-gqM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKQArwnf4V4
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1541421502993021

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Violin Farm (Richard Stilgoe)
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Mar 23 - 06:10 PM

Sycamore is actually the European Maple (Acer pseudoplatanus). This is a English tonewood example.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Violin Farm (Richard Stilgoe)
From: GUEST,Peter Cripps
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 09:38 AM

Great!