Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 16 Oct 10 - 06:11 AM

Hi Joe,

thanks for suggesting a tempo header, which is useful for those who create a MIDI convesion. My own preference would be Q:180, in alla-breve feeling.

I must confess that I'm not good at ABC and essentially copied Ceto's lines; I was very proud to add that extra vertical at the end ;-)

Thanks also for mentioning the concertina.net/tunes_convert.html, which I didn't know before and tried out immediately. Very handy and quick!

Grishka

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: GUEST,MSL
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 05:22 PM

I am astounded to find this. Both its longevity and how many people have been touched by this song.

I am particularly thankful to the 2003 post about a child's Colonial rattle and the years later reference to that post.

Here is a reference from the web: Under the Ralph Willard Tower Antique Show:'An oil on canvas framed portrait...of a child holding a silver rattle with coral and bells. This childhood artifact of the 18th century usually consisted of a sterling silver tubular body terminating in a whistle...a small polished piece of red or orange coral for teething would be fixed at the end opposite the whistle... They were well known in Colonial America.'

The Worcester Art Museum has a portrait of a child (2nd portrait)with a similar rattle by Joseph Badger and they also have references to similar silver and gold rattles at Yale and in New York. They apparently were made both here and in England.

An Article in Antique Digest on line called "Magic Bells" refers to the magic protective quality of coral.

And this:"From earliest times coral has been used as an amulet to protect children from childish diseases and teething troubles. In Mediterranean lands a string of tiny coral branches or beads is still kept on a child's cradle or placed about its neck immediately after its birth. If worn throughout childhood, coral was believed to have power to make the girl beautiful; it preserved her youth and beauty until as a mother she sacrificed her beads for her children."also from the web.

So I had an Oh My moment similar to one of your members who concluded that coral bells "are" lily of the valley. It is a metaphor. The protection of the garden walk by flower amulets would be best understood by children using one of their familiar toys.

"Choral Bells" works metaphorically as well but I think the association with the nursery is stronger. It is possible that it is a play on words protected by no early written versions.

I too have had this in my head for decades. As I grew up I was puzzled by the reference to a different flower in the sentence but I feel comfortable now that this is not an issue of identifying flowers correctly.

I think it is entirely possible that these rattles were actually called 'Coral Bells' and if that were true I think all could rest this case.(without a date!) It would be wonderful to find a nursery reference of Coral Bells as the proper name for the rattle and not just descriptive.

When I was growing up in Connecticut, mother had a bed (15'x 15')of what she referred to as Colonial Lily of the Valley. She told me that she and my father had dug the starter plants for it from a Colonial bed near what is now Colchester. She always had a bouquet, 10" across, in a bowl when they were in bloom. She dug some for me and I have them in my kitchen garden where they have been happily spreading in moist soil and filtered light, protecting us (as I have now learned) from evil spirits.

Here's to the next decade(s)of celebrating "Coral Bells"!
Thank you all. MSL

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: SharonA
Date: 10 Jun 11 - 09:58 PM

Logging in to say hello and to refresh this thread! I have a gig tomorrow to play campfire songs for 9-year-old girls and, never having done it before, I have been surfing the 'net for songs remembered from my own 9-year-old-ness. Count on good ol' Mudcat to have a thread about "White Coral Bells"! It's been a pleasure to read through it and learn so much about the song (and the plant) (and the rattle)!

I come down on the side of those who feel that "white coral bells upon a slender stalk" is simply a poetic description of the Lily-of-the-Valley blooms. The blooms are white, they're delicate like coral (not coral-pink in color, since they're white!), and they look like bells. I don't believe that any reference to a second plant variety (Heuchera) was intended, and I would suggest resisting the urge to over-analyze the song in a way that would include this second plant in it. After all, the blooms of the Heuchera plant mentioned in this thread don't resemble little bells that one would wish to hear being rung by fairies... but the blooms of the Lily-of-the-Valley plant do! Therefore, this being a very short song/poem, I believe that the author was "staying on topic" by discussing only ONE plant variety.

I'm intrigued by the sub-topic of the colonial-era baby's rattle! I had no idea that coral was used for teething tots back then. I wonder if people soaked the coral in cold water to make it more soothing for baby, just as some of today's teething toys are meant to be refrigerated for baby's comfort.

I love Animaterra's poison-ivy parody of WCB! I will teach it to the kids tomorrow. Thanks, Allison!

Sharon
(not lurking much these days, but still coming to Mudcat for information about music as needed!)

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 03:25 PM

Sorry I have no info on "White Coral Bells." But I was interested in your mention of the song "Drifting." As a child, I also played that song from a John Thompson piano book.

The words as I remember them are: Light is our bark, brothers. Rest on your oars. Fair are the winds and the tide. Past the gray hills and the green wooded shores, o'er the calm river we glide.

It has more lyrics (at least four more lines), but those are all I remember.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: GUEST,Girl Scout camp, Minnesota
Date: 20 Oct 12 - 03:02 PM

Who are these, swinging along the road
With a pack on their back, a song in their heart, to ease the load
It's been 50 years or more since they walked in through that door,
But they're coming along as happy and strong as ever they came before
They are guides all guides and in unexpected places
You'll meet their friendly faces and a friendly, happy smile,
And there's not much danger of finding you're a stranger
For commissioner or ranger they are guides, all guides.

Who are these, living in fresh air
With the shimmering sun, the pattering rain and mud everywhere
They will dine beneath the boughs and their leader always vows that they're never afraid of butterflies and hardly ever of bear!
They are Guides all guides...etc.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 01:46 PM

Here's to the next decade(s)of celebrating "Coral Bells"!

indeed.
I was pretty surprised when I opened this thread to find that the OP was mine! [my OP hadn't included "choral"] This amazing collaboration of scholarship and musicianship on the Mudcat forum represent the very best of sharing.
Thanks for the many historical, geographical, botanical, and musical insights.

keep on pickin'
dennis

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: GUEST,CallieIsSpooky
Date: 11 Nov 12 - 10:55 AM

I just wanted to say thank you to the person who posted the lyrics to Cloud Ships, I've been searching all over! My kids' favorite lullaby at night, only I could not remember most of the lyrics.

Subject: RE: Cloud Ships
From: GUEST,Kathleen Moors
Date: 11 Sep 13 - 01:59 PM

When I was a wee girl, I did a clapping game with my friends to the song, Cloud Ships...does anyone have memory of that?

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 11 Sep 13 - 03:29 PM

Not the tune, but the tradition, is alive in Belgium and quite a ot of France as a family good-will May-day gift. Researching Muguet links the symbolism to the Maypole through the norse goddess Eostre. Another descent leads to a Russian folksong made famous in the 1960s, which isn't structurally anywhere close to this tune.
What might be within reach is the nursery rhyme associated with the gift, in standard French 18th Century form, but with words which may well be far older, is here. It has a vague parallel to the American version, which makes me think it might be worth looking in either Canadian or Arcadian traditions for a halfway house.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: GUEST,josi
Date: 26 Feb 14 - 02:07 PM

Sang as a Girl Scout in Connectut during 1950's as a round.
1. White coral bells upon s slender stalk.
2. Lilies of the valley deck my garden walk.
3. Oh don't you wish that you could hear them ring.
4. That will only happen when the fairies sing.

Heuchera is called coral bells and comes in white variety. Lily of the valley is a different species.

I think the lyrics clearly have origin in an English speaking country. Melody origin could be different.

One of my favorite songs from childhood.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 12 May 14 - 06:08 PM

I learned this song as a lullaby in the late 60's / early 70's, but the words were a bit different.

White coral bells upon a slender stalk
Lillies of the Valley deck my garden wall
Don't you wish that we
Could hear those bells a ringin'?
That happens only when the faries sing.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: GUEST,Stafford M. Hall
Date: 23 Apr 16 - 07:24 PM

I'm 92 years of age and my wife learned this song in Girl Scouts in the 1935 era. I still play it on my Electric Keyboard in 2016. It sure is a very beautiful tune.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: GUEST,DrWord
Date: 23 Apr 16 - 11:07 PM

Hey Stafford! Good to read your post ~ and glad you're playing your keyboard AND posting to Mudcat. The thread title caught my eye ~ then opened it to find I was the OP. Re-read a lot of the thread ~ great contributions, rather typical of the wonderful tradition of this forum. Keep playing and keep posting. I'll be humming the melody for a while now…
keep on pickin'
dennis

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: leeneia
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 11:35 PM

I am going to contribute some technical stuff.

1. It is an error to start thinking about heuchera and go bumbling off into the realm of the coral bells plant. The song is about lily of the valley.

So why coral bells? In the olden days, jewelry was carved from the pure white stone of coral reefs. I've seen it (I hope antique) for sale in Florida, and it is amazing how radiantly white a matte stone can be. The song is comparing the small white blooms of the lily of the valley to this coral jewelry.

I believe it is now illegal to produce this.

2. When I learned this song at the age of 10, I thought it was really ugly, and when it came time so sing songs in the 4H, I hoped it would be skipped. Fortunately, it usually was.

Decades would pass before I learned what the problem was. The problem was the long I in "white." It is a diphthong, which moves from ah to ee. If you have a number of untrained singers and some are singing ah while others are singing ee, the music seems out of tune. Thus my impression that "White Coral Bells" starts out really sour.

If it was "soft coral bells" or "sweet coral bells", it would come out better. I learned all about diphthongs from a person with a PhD in choral conducting, who was hired to coach our church choir for some big Christmas concerts. What she said made sense, and the way I dealt with it was to stand in front of a good singer and do exactly what she did when singing diphthongs. That way we blended.

Just for fun, I made a MIDI of the song and played it as a round. It's actually quite pretty.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 27 Apr 16 - 04:27 AM

The song is comparing the small white blooms of the lily of the valley to this coral jewelry.

That makes very good sense, leeneia! Now the question arises whether this points us to the USA, perhaps to Florida in particular? Were there other places where lyricists could assume such jewelry to be known?

(I remember the time when coral necklaces were fashionable in Europe, imported, of course, and always red or pink. I found them horrible, firmly associated to "maiden aunts without any understanding of little boys - and vice versa".)

Subject: RE: Origins: White Coral Bells/White Choral Bells
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 27 Apr 16 - 10:04 AM

Hello, Grishka. I'm pretty sure that white coral jewelry was widespread. If you google "coral jewelry image" you will find necklaces in soft orange (coral-colored)and white.