Unexpected use of CW tune

Subject: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: Rex
Date: 28 Jun 00 - 07:19 PM

I was attending the wedding of a friend this weekend. It was an old time sort of wedding in an 1870's church out in Bayou Salado (South Park). Another friend was playing old time banjo for the ceremony and I couldn't help but join in on the fiddle. At the end of the ceremony my banjo playing friend told me we would play "Marching Through Georgia" as the wedding party exited. I was sure I heard that wrong as the groom is somewhat Conferate in his leanings. But sure enough to my astonishment, that's the tune that came out of the banjo and I joined in. I asked him about it after the wedding. It is a New Mexico tradition started in the the 1870's (like the church). The folks in that area apparantly liked the sound of the tune they heard during the "War of Northern Aggression" (ahem)(as my friend puts it). It quickly became a traditional wedding tune with the name: "Marcho de las Novios" (the March of the Newlyweds). Ya coulda knocked me over with a feather. So now I have another form or use of this popular tune.

Rex

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: Helen
Date: 28 Jun 00 - 07:32 PM

Hi Rex,

It's a great tune - I can imagine it as a wedding song, now that you mention it, but I would never have thought of it like that before.

In Oz we have a song called "The Golden Gullies of the Palmer" with the same tune. It's a gold mining song, and it's quite possible that some of the American goldminers who came here in the Australian goldrush (late 1800's) brought the song with them and then new words were put to it.

I started a thread about a year ago on links between Oz and US tunes/songs - I'll see if I can find it.

Helen

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: Helen
Date: 28 Jun 00 - 07:43 PM

Okay, here is the link to the thread I mentioned about Marching Through Georgia.

Click here

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.CFM?threadID=4241

Helen

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: Áine
Date: 28 Jun 00 - 07:45 PM

Well, it just shows to go ya that music is the tie that binds, and it's wonderful to hear that a tune from such a horrible and disruptive period of our history is being used to unite folks in love! Thanks for letting us all in on the good news, Rex.

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Jun 00 - 08:36 PM

There's a kids song to the tune, popular in Scotland - "Hurrah, hurrah, they're goona hang my pa", and then going through the rest of the family. Maybe Joe Offer should try it with that Bible class there's a thread about

It always strikes me as interesting how the same tuine can put different words through different people's heads. One person hears "Lilliburlero", and thinks "BBC World Service", and another hears "Slitter slaughter, holy water, scatter the papishes all through the town."

Or you're hearing "Maryland my Maryland" or "Oh Christmas Tree", and I'm hearing "The Red Flag". Or "My Country Tis of Thee" becomes "God Save the Queen."

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 06:34 AM

G'day all,

I'll use this thread (rather than Helen's older one from 1998) to comment that the Australian/American sharing extends to what is probably our second best known song Click go the Shears, since this is also directly based on another of Henry Clay Work's songs Ring the Bell Watchman, written to celebrate the ringing of the bells to announce the end of the American Civil War.

Many Americans came to Australia in the Gold Rush era (including Minstrel bands, gaining gold with much less sweat) and their music became well known. Intriguingly, we have our own version of The Gum Tree Canoe which any Australian automatically presumes refers to a canoe made of a eucalyptus tree. In fact, it originally described one made from the Mississipi River Gum - but it naturalised very comfortably here!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 07:39 AM

My wife tells me (she's the religious one in our family) that recently she was at church, and a new hymn was introduced by the Praise Band..

Once they started up she had real problems singing along because the tune was "Crystal Chandeliers"..

She said the it was so incongruous it was all she could do not to laugh..

Nothing wrong with the tune... just in that setting it was weird.

Cheers

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: The Walrus at work
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 09:02 AM

On the subject of different words for the same tune, I recall many years ago attending a "Rememberance Sunday" service (nearest Sunday to Nov 11th), at which one or two of the parishoners nearly had fits. One of the hymns chosen was "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken" to the tune "Austria"; Unfortunately "Austria" is also the tune to "Deutcherleid" (have I spelt that properly?) aka "Deutchland Uber Alles" - Not the best choice for that particular day.

Regards

Walrus

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 09:51 AM

Our school hymn was "Courage Brother Do Not Stumble" - sung to the same tune - "Deutschland Uber Alles"...

Cheers

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: Kim C
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 10:27 AM

I love Marching Through Georgia although we have to be careful about where we play it here in Tennessee! :) It's a great tune and I just love the way the melody moves. I actually did get to play it this last weekend.... I was at one of our local historic sites and we had employed a real-live ambrotypist for the day. Some of the gentlemen decided to have their image made in their Federal uniforms, so while Mister and I were waiting in line, we played Marching Through Georgia. 'Course, these same guys came back later in their Confederate uniforms for another photo. (In case some of y'all don't know any reenactors, many of them have uniforms for both sides.)

Here's a really unexpected use of a CW tune ---- another Henry Clay Work song, no less. I was walking the mall at lunchtime one day, and the little kiddie-animal-ride thing played "Kingdom Coming." (I am not making this up.)

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: Frankham
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 10:36 AM

Kingdom Coming was also used as the themesong for the early radio broadcast of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy adapted by Ray Noble who slowed it down and turned it into Broadway 2/4 time.

We play Marching THrough Georgia in our program for Georgia schoolkids on the Civil War. Never had a problem with it.

Frank

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: sian, west wales
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 11:32 AM

I've had the experience of the Austria tune in chapel on Rememberance Sunday too. Very weird.

The political party of which I am a member held a competitive choral competition for local branches a few years back (for a bit of pre-election light entertainment) and our group sang Courage Brother. Brought the house down as the words were particularly apt for foot-weary campaigners (I think the Welsh words were a translation of the English)

And I always thought it odd that the Welsh version of Seven Drunken Nights is sung to a corruption of Baa Baa Black Sheep. Honest.

Sian

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: Amergin
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 02:27 PM

Always thought Goddamn Dutch would make a good hymn...

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: Kim C
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 04:10 PM

Hey now, those goddam Dutch are my ancestors! :)

KFC

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: Rex
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 05:25 PM

Helen, thank 'e for the down under version. Now I've learned another version of the ol' Marching song. I like to play the tune at Civil War camps and rile up the rebel camps. Besides it's a fun tune. I was sawing on the fiddle at a small museum a couple years ago and there was a Confederate encampment doing their drills and such. So I started that tune and right away two fellows in butternut come over and I thought, here we go! But they sat down and just listened to me play it. When I got done they said how they liked my playing. So then I was asking them about their camp and they invited me over to meet the seargent. So I was asked to play a tune for him and cut into the same thing. Well he started a fuming and rolling his eyes and grabbing at his revolver. There's the right response! So then I cut into Bonnie Blue Flag and we commenced to visiting. If ever my teasing really gets a confederate riled up, I just go into The Unreconstructed Rebel. I sing that with conviction.

Rex

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: Banjer
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 06:15 AM

I have heard from fairly reliable sources that former President Carter, thw Georgia peanut farmer, was taking part in a dedication of some monument (not the one at Andersonville) and the attending band not knowing any better played Marching Through Georgia as he entered the area. The story has it that one of his staff quickly went to the band and gave them a short history lesson! I can just picture the look on his face!!

Subject: RE: Unexpected use of CW tune
From: L R Mole
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 09:52 AM

Maryland, my Maryland for Tannenbaum, hey? I recall hearing as a kid, "O Holy Cross, O, Holy Cross/They're e-e-eating applesauce/They eat it morning,noon and night/They even eat it when they're tight/O Holy Cross,etc. I'm a State U. grad, m'self. Though who didn't learn the "Spirits" words to "Cheer, cheer, for Old Notre Dame"? (Or, (dot,dot,dot High).