Folklore in music: Rainbows

Subject: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: CapriUni
Date: 02 Jul 02 - 05:58 PM

At the opening of The Muppet Movie Kermit the frog sang:

"Why are there so many songs about rainbows?"

And that got me wondering: Just how many songs are there about rainbows, and are they as deeply ingrained in our common culture as the song suggests? There was only one song that popped into my head, and that was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and although it is a powerful song, it didn't strike me as all that many. So I did a search of the Digitrad, and came up with this list of "Rainbow" songs.

2 are gospel "Cousins" of each other: Sowing on the Mountain and Sinner, You'd Better Get Ready, that mention the rainbow as the sign from God to Noah, and another, Mule on the Mount, is a chain-gang song, which has the enigmatic line "I got a rainbow wrapped and tied around my shoulder". But most of them seem to be modern (latter half of the 20th Century, and written by singer-songwriters, rather than Anon.).

So here's my question: when did the rainbow get to be the symbol of the realm of personal happiness and dreams, as is suggested by "The Rainbow Song" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"? And can we trace its evolution as such through song?

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jul 02 - 06:06 PM

It's a very ancient symbol.

See Genesis in the Bible. God and Noah had a chat about them.

Red and yellow and pink and green. Purple and orange and blue....

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: masato sakurai
Date: 02 Jul 02 - 07:57 PM

This may help:

Spirit Rain's Rainbow Symbolism, Myths and Stories

The Levy (Click here) lists 42 songs, by putting "rainbow" into the search box.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: CapriUni
Date: 02 Jul 02 - 08:25 PM

See Genesis in the Bible. God and Noah had a chat about them.

Yes, Guest... But the rainbow meant something a little bit different to Noah than it did to Kermit the Frog and Dorothy (in the Wizard of Oz), didn't it?

I'm interested in how it got from Point A, that you cite, to Point B...

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: allie kiwi
Date: 02 Jul 02 - 10:26 PM

I also find it interesting that 'blue bird' features in a couple of them ('Over the Rainbow', and 'I'm always chasing Rainbows'). I guess when you are singing pensively about rainbows bringing happiness, that goes along with blue birds of happiness?

Allie

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: masato sakurai
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 12:36 AM

Not always a happy song, as BITTER WITHY, where "rainbow" is referred to as "a bridge with the beams of the sun".

~Masato

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 12:40 AM

What is it with blue birds anyway? Why are they happier than say, a greenfinch or a corncrake?

Be careful when searching for 'Rainbow' songs that you haven't just pulled every version of 'Captain Ward and the Rainbow' that has ever been written.

Today's useless information - the Greek Goddess of the rainbow was Iris.

LTS

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: JennieG
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 01:31 AM

Wasn't it Al Jolson who sang "there's a rainbow round my shoulder, and a sky of blue above...." I don't think the song mentions blue birds, so perhaps the sky of blue is a metaphor for optimism. I think this song came out of the Great Depression?
Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: allie kiwi
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 02:09 AM

Well the play 'The Blue Bird' comes from prior to the great Depression - written in 1908 - or was that just the English version? I found the following about the play, but wonder - did the popular mythology about Blue Birds exist prior to the paly, or stem from it? (Maurice Maeterlinck won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1911)

The Blue Bird

A play for children by Maurice Maeterlinck, published as L'Oiseau bleu in 1908. In a fairy-tale-like setting, Tyltyl and Mytyl, the son and daughter of a poor woodcutter, are sent out by the Fairy Bérylune to search the world for the Blue Bird of Happiness.

The children visit the Land of Memory, the Palace of Night, and the Kingdom of the Future (where they meet the soul of their as yet unborn little brother, who will not survive). The children have a magic diamond that enables them to communicate with inanimate objects and animals. Only when Tyltyl and Mytyl return home do they discover that the Blue Bird has been in their bird cage all along. Tyltyl gives the bird to a neighbor child who has been ill; the bird flies away. True happiness, the children learn, is usually found close to home. It comes from making the journey, not from reaching the destination; from seeking and not from finding; and from acting unselfishly, without thought of reward.

Allie

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: allie kiwi
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 02:12 AM

A link to the info on Maeterlinck - Click

Allie

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: rich-joy
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 07:31 AM

I've just refreshed the thread requesting the lyrics to Gale Garnett's PRISM SONG.

Well, it's only a SLIGHT thread drift - same colours!!!!!!!

Cheers! R-J

PS

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: rich-joy
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 07:31 AM

I've just refreshed the thread requesting the lyrics to Gale Garnett's PRISM SONG.

Well, it's only a SLIGHT thread drift - same colours!!!!!!!

Cheers! R-J

PS

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 07:38 AM

"Bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover"
"I've never admitted it before, but my cousin is the blue bird of happiness" (The chief Blue Meanie at the end of the cartoon Yellow Submarine)

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: rich-joy
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 07:39 AM

As I was about to say, when I was stymied by the Mudcat Orc :

J. E. CIRLOT in "A Dictionary of Symbols", 1962, says that : " ... and there are a great many cultures where the Bridge symbolises the link between what can be perceived and what is beyond perception. Even when it lacks this mystic sense, the Bridge is always symbolic of a transition from one state to another - of change or the desire for change ... The Rainbow being a natural bridge symbol, denoting the union of heaven and earth [ and yin and yang ]and the link between God and Man ... "

And who was that amazing boy-child who sang that "Rainbow On the River" song around Wartime England???

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 07:40 AM

Your cousin voiced a Blue Meanie???

That is very cool

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 07:50 AM

Guest: no, the entire quote was from the film. The all-time baddie of the film admitted to being related to the blue bird.

Nigel

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 07:57 AM

Couldn't help myself, "The Rainbow Connection" (Why are there so many songs...) is Here Nigel

Subject: RE: Folklore in music: Rainbows
From: CapriUni
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 08:15 AM

What is it with blue birds anyway? Why are they happier than say, a greenfinch or a corncrake?

I seem to remember a Native American story read to me (or maybe I read it to myself) way back in elementary school (that is, before I was interested in sources, and scholarly discipline) that if my memory serves honestly went something like this:

When the Great Creator first made all the birds, they were plain white-grey, and no color... I forget the bit about how the other birds got their colors... But when it came to the bluebird, it flew up into the sky and the blue color stuck to its back, which was wet (I think because he was newly made). Then, he flew down into a puddle of clay, and got the red smeared on his breast. So to this day, the Bluebird is seen as a symbol for the union of heaven and earth.

Very apropriate association with the rainbow, then, I think...

I just had a thought: In Christian Europe, the rainbow is primarily seen as an omen-cum-promise from God, and a rather grim promise it is at that:

"Won't be flood, but fire, next time."

The first link that Masato gave above gives world-wide ancient to new age symbolism of the rainbow, where it is seen as a bridge between this world and the Gods, notably in the ancient Greek and Norse mythology. Nothing about the symbolism according to the various Algonquin or Iroquois-speaking natiions that met the first settlers when they came to the American continent, but I wonder if the rainbow-as-bridge is a common motif in their myths, as well. If so, that could be one of the reasons the rainbow came to be associated with personal happiness in the American culture (and could also be where it gets its association with the bluebird...

Of course, this could be completely out in left field... haven't had coffee yet...