Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth

Subject: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Haruo
Date: 18 Jun 04 - 08:48 PM

Anyone know the tune(s) to which "The Green Hills of Earth" will be sung? I see a link to a lyrics page that says "Music by Jacob Sommers" but no music on the page nor a link to same.

(This is the song made famous by Rhysling the blind bard of the spaceways in Heinlein's story of the same name. There have been numerous mentions of the song on the Mudcat, but so far I haven't found a reference to the tune.)

Haruo

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: GUEST,Allan.S
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 10:36 AM

Is this the song that the verses appear in a Science Fiction story published in the 1940's called " The Green Hills Of Earth" I dont remember the Author Isamoff? A.Merrit?? The first Line was " I pray for one last landing on the land/Plannet??? that gave me birth"

It was on a Science fiction play on the Radio. Oscar Brand sang the song The tune was Acres of Clams
Hope this helps   Allan

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: GUEST,Allan S.
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 10:40 AM

Sorry I missed the last part of the question where you gave the author. I wrote to the radio station in New York and had an answer from Brand. HOpe this helps.
Allan

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Susan of DT
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 10:46 AM

(dick greenhaus here)
Sings well to "The last Revel" or "We loop in the purple sunset"---similar mood and scansion.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Haruo
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 11:30 AM

Thanks, both of you.

How about the Jacob Sommer (not Sommers, I misspelt it the first time) tune? I think GeorgeSeto supplied the link to the page where this composition was mentioned. Anybody know of Mr. Sommer?

Haruo

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 04:03 PM

I know Jacob; he's an SF fan and filker from the Boston, MA area who I see occasionally when I get up to Boston cons or the Northeast filk convention.

He does have a decent setting, written recently. However, for a tune I'd recommend this MIDI: Green Hills of Earth (Bernstein). This setting was written by long-time Michigan fan and filker Mark Bernstein sometime back in the 80's (at least) and is the most recognized version in the SF and filk community.

-- Gary

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Peace
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 04:20 PM

The author of the sci-fi book was Robert Heinlein. It contains a short story by the same name--great story. I have the book somewhere, and I give it a read every few years.

Bruce M

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Peace
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 04:29 PM

Sorry, Haruo--I didn't see your mention of the book. Excuse me, please.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Haruo
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 05:09 PM

Thanks Gary and Brucie. Odd that both Allan and Brucie couldn't see where I credited Heinlein with the book. The poem, however, predates the book and is not by Heinlein. Somewhere in the archives is the correct attribution; will post it later if nobody beats me to it.

Still interested in getting hold of the Sommer setting.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Amos
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 05:26 PM

Haruo:

I would really like to see this!! I have always beleived the song to be HEinlein's invention.


A

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Peace
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 05:51 PM

Yeah, me too.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Joe_F
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 06:59 PM

Allan: I remember that radio program too. (It seems to have been well done, because I have run into other people who remember it, tho it must have been broadcast about 1949.) The tune used, as I remember it, began like "Acres of Clams" (= "Rosin the Beau") but ended differently.

The story "The Green Hills of Earth" first appeared in _The Saturday Evening Post_ in 1947. It was anthologized in Heinlein's book of the same name, which appeared in 1951.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: GUEST,allan S.
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 08:49 PM

Go up to the upper right corner "Lyrics And Knowledge Search" and type in "The Green hills of earth" A long thread is there
Allan

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Haruo
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 11:22 PM

This is the message of George's with the link I mentioned.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Haruo
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 11:25 PM

And this is the place where the attribution is noted. Though it sounds like maybe Heinlein (Bradbury??) wrote the poem, taking only the title from the credited source.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: DonMeixner
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 11:28 PM

The line Green Hills of Earth was attributed to an Elizabethan (I think) poet inside the cove of an addition of Heinlein's anthology of the same name. The rest of the song or poem is all heinlein's

   The poem, along with High Flight, was recited in a tribute to Shuttle Columbia's crew.

I have re read this story countless times since I first got the signet paperback in 1964. I just read it again, out loud as poems should be read, and I am still moved by the words. I know it has been recorded as a song and there are many FILKERS who sing it. But the scope of the poem is really all it needs to be.

   Heinlein's character "Noisy" Rhysling is obvious to me at least to be a Woody Guthrie type character. And in very few pages a story is told gives a complete character and leaves a remarkable little bit of verse. A great intro to Heinlein.

Don

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Flash Company
Date: 20 Jun 04 - 11:14 AM

I remember the song being quoted in Heinlien, the story was of a blind singer who tackled a nuclear drive malfunction with his bare hands as I recall.
However, I also remember hearing it sung in a radio play (BBC).
The play was 'Journey into Space' produced by Charles Chilton, about a voyage to Mars which went wrong.

FC

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: GUEST,Anne Croucher
Date: 20 Jun 04 - 09:56 PM

I put the words to the tune 'Aboukir'- my first finding a tune to fit words effort, some time in the 60's I found the Heinlien story and Cool Green Hills fits the tune

Weep not my boys for those who fell
They did not flinch nor fear
They stood their ground like Englishmen
And died at Aboukir.

I pray for one last landing on
The globe that gave me birth
Let me feast my eyes on the fleecy skies
And the cool green hills of Earth.

I believe the song in the story was acompanied on a concertina, and so was 'Aboukir'when I first heard it. I think that I have the words right - if not blame the 40 years since I read them. I used to have a perfect memory - could steal anybody's song on one hearing but the little grey cells can sometimes fail me

The singer was blind because he went in and rescued a group of cadets from an engine room accident and could not resist looking over the sheild into the reactor core, if I remember right.

I am almost looking forward to when my memory does get really bad and I can read all the books I like again and not know the endings - and not be able to work out who done it by chapter three.

Anne

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: DonMeixner
Date: 20 Jun 04 - 10:38 PM

Noisy Rhysling was deadheading home from Venus to Earth on a passenger ship under the distressed Spacemans clause. In transit the reactor went critcal and killed the engineer. Rhysling who was a blind ballad singer and accordion player was riding in the engine room took over the situation and shut down the reactor, exposing himself to a fatal dose of radiation in the process. As he was working the reactor he recited into the recording log the definitive verses of The Green Hills of Earth.

    Now I would like to point out that this is all a piece of future fiction. It is a neat story and I reread it often but it is Science Fiction. As I reread this thread I am fascinated by the people who respond, myself included, in ways sounding like this stiry is gospel and Noisy Rhysling is a real character. Such was the skill of Robert Heinlein I guess.

Don

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 21 Jun 04 - 09:13 AM

Noisy Rhysling *is* real. It's not HIS fault Heinlein had a habit of writing history several hundred years in advance and in an alternate universe.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Haruo
Date: 21 Jun 04 - 05:58 PM

Amen.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: GUEST,Guest, ET
Date: 22 Jun 04 - 02:10 PM

A number of years ago, the Chicago Semi-Pro Musica (okay, a buncha science fiction fans including author Phyllis Eisenstein) turned themselves into the 'Great Noreascon One-Shot Chorale' for a guest appearance. The director's husband, also Mark (little grey cell lapse here) composed 4part harmony for Green Hills of Earth - with Bob Heinlein's permission (so you know this was a while back).
Yes, I still have it. Hmmm, a research project.

Mark also composed music for some really deathless ditties...including one from India on "The Passing of Queen Victoria", composed as an exercise in doing everything "wrong"...phrasing, accents, high notes, etc.
Of course, what can you do with words like "dust to dust, and ashes to ashes, into her tomb the Great Queen dashes"?

Subject: BS: Bob Heinlein's permission
From: Haruo
Date: 22 Jun 04 - 09:53 PM

Speaking of Bob Heinlein's permission ... I once got his permission (and that of his agent, who I believe had the strange name "Lurton Blassingame?) to translate Stranger in a Strange Land (then one of my favorite books) into Esperanto, on condition that I first translate Podkayne of Mars. Neither translation has yet progressed beyond the first chapter.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 22 Jun 04 - 09:57 PM

ET - Your "Mark" may well be the Mark Bernstein I mentioned above. Certainly the "4-part haromony" sounds right. Mark's from Michigan, but he's close friends with the Chicago fan community. And your description of the "really deathless ditties" also sounds very much like the Mark Bernstein I know...

-- Gary

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: GUEST,X Minus One
Date: 19 Mar 07 - 09:54 PM

Glad there's a thread on this. I just uploaded the July 7, 1955 broadcast of "The Green Hills of Earth" from a radio program called "X Minus One." There's at least one other version out there, but this one is pretty good, in my opinion.

I was wondering if anyone knows who the performer is who plays Rhysling in this show. Also, I was wondering if any of the tunes performed in this have basis in actual folk music (existing melodies).

You can access the broadcast at the link below:

http://www.moment.net/~michael/GreenHills.mp3

I'm not sure how my bandwidth will stand up, but you're welcome to download this program. These old radio programs are for sale all over the internet, so there's no copyright infringement. I suggest you right-click and "Save as" to your hard drive, so you can listen to it at your leisure. The recording is 24kbs (good but not great), and the file size is 4,855 kb. I'll keep this on my webspace as long as I don't need the space, but if someone else has lots of space, perhaps you could do a backup mirror upload and post the link on this thread.

Enjoy.

PS - Wikipedia has an entry about "The Green Hills of Earth"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Hills_of_Earth

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: GUEST,Janine
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 09:20 AM

FC, Jouney into Space - The Red Planet, originally broadcast in the 50's on BBC. Andrew Faulds, Alfie Bass and David Kossof starred in it. My Dad heard it on the radio as a boy and bought the tapes a while ago. The words - apart from the last stanza about 'landing .. etc' - are hard to make out. The dialogue seems to suggest it was original written for the paly. Interesting.
Jan

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: beardedbruce
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 09:39 AM

"
The Green Hills of Earth

"The Green Hills of Earth" is a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. One of his Future History stories, it originally appeared in The Saturday Evening Post (February 8, 1947) and was collected in The Green Hills of Earth (and subsequently The Past Through Tomorrow).


Plot
This is the poignant story of "Noisy" Rhysling, the blind space-going songwriter whose poetic skills rival Rudyard Kipling's. Heinlein (himself a retired naval officer) spins a yarn about a radiation-blinded spaceship engineer crisscrossing the solar system writing and singing some of the best lyrics in science fiction. In a fine display of writing skill, the spaceship and crew feel as real to the reader as a contemporary tramp steamer.

Heinlein credited the title of the song to the short story "Shambleau" by C. L. Moore (first published in 1933). In the story Moore's character, a spacefaring smuggler named Northwest Smith hums the tune of "The Green Hills of Earth".


The Songs
Heinlein wrote several fragments and one full stanza for the song.

— the harsh bright soil of Luna —
— Out ride the sons of Terra; Far drives the thundering jet —
— Saturn's rainbow rings —
— the frozen night of Titan —
We pray for one last landing; On the globe that gave us birth; Let us rest our eyes on the fleecy skies; And the cool, green hills of Earth.
The fragments have been filled out and additional stanzas added by the filk community. The song's meter allows it to be sung to a number of popular tunes including: Amazing Grace, The House of the Rising Sun, The Rising of the Moon/Wearing of the Green, Ode to Joy, Clementine, Semper Paratus (march), and The Marine Corps Hymn. The most popular tune used at conventions is the theme from Gilligan's Island.

The story features several other partial songs and a number of titles attributed to Rhysling. These are:

The Grand Canal (10 lines)
Jet Song (14 lines)
Since the Pusher Met My Cousin (title only)
That Red-Headed Venusburg Gal (title only)
Keep Your Pants On, Skipper (title only)
A Space Suit Built for Two (title only)
The last four are described as sexually-explicit songs excluded from the official edition of Rhysling's works — which might be a hint of Heinlein's own position at the time, facing editors' and pubishers' censoring of such material in his stories and books.


References in Other Heinlein Works
Both the song "The Green Hills of Earth" and the character of Rhysling are mentioned in the novel Time Enough for Love. At an early point in the novel, Lazarus Long bemoans the fact that he cannot "pray for one last landing" because the "Green Hills of Earth" have deteriorated and the planet is uninhabitable. Later, Lazarus tells the story of a very blind accordion player who temporarily takes residence in a bordello that he owned on Mars almost two thousand years ago. Although Heinlein readers can easily recognize the character, Lazarus himself does not "recall his right name, if he had one."

The song "The Green Hills of Earth" is referenced thrice in Farmer in the Sky as a piece that Bill Lermer plays on his own accordion. Later in that same novel, Lermer is trying to identify a quote ("I have lived and worked with men") and guesses that it was written by Rhysling or Kipling.

Joe-Jim Gregory, the two-headed mutant in Universe, are both fond of "Rhysling, the blind singer of the spaceways." This reference to the character appeared six years before Heinlein actually published "The Green Hills of Earth."


Adaptations
The story was adapted for the Dimension X radio series (episode 10). It also appeared on the 1955-07-07 broadcast of the NBC Radio Network program X Minus One and CBS Radio Workshop. The song "The Green Hills of Earth" which appears in the story was also used in the British radio series, Journey into Space.

The 1951-1952 television series Out There (episode aired December 2, 1951) had a loosely-adapted version of the story (Rhysling is on a mission to the asteroids with a crew which includes a beautiful blonde biologist) which starred singer John Raitt.


Real Life
Heinlein revealed in the liner notes to the Leonard Nimoy-read album "The Green Hills of Earth," that he partially based Rhysling's unique abilities on a blind machinist he worked with at the Philadelphia Naval Yards during World War II. He never identified him beyond the name "Tony." Heinlein was amazed that Tony had a perfect safety record and a production record equal to sighted machinists, and could identify all his co-workers solely on the sound of their footsteps and other aural clues, without need of them speaking to him first. Tony also occasionally played the accordian and sang for the assembled shop.
In real-life space travel, references to Rhysling and "the green hills of Earth" were made by astronauts in the Apollo program.
Rhysling has been given another kind of recognition: the speculative fiction poetry Rhysling Award. "

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: beardedbruce
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 10:01 AM

The Green Hills of Earth

Let the sweet fresh breezes heal me
As they rove around the girth
Of our lovely mother planet
Of the cool, green hills of Earth.

We've tried each spinning space mote
And reckoned its true worth:
Take us back again to the homes of men
On the cool, green hills of Earth.

The arching sky is calling
Spacemen back to their trade.
ALL HANDS! STAND BY! FREE FALLING!
And the lights below us fade.

Out ride the sons of Terra,
Far drives the thundering jet,
Up leaps a race of Earthmen,
Out, far, and onward yet ---

We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the fleecy skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.


Robert A. Heinlein

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 03:19 PM

Amazing!

"Let soft rains fall!"

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: GUEST,melinda
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 03:48 PM

What a beautiful song. I remember reading the story, many years ago, but had forgotten it.

May we all have one last landing...

melinda from Albany

P.S. I would probably throw up if I heard anyone sing this to something trite like "Gilligan's Island."

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 03:58 PM

I hesitate to disagree with Melinda, but if you can suspend your disbelief and pretend that you never heard the tune before, slow it down it works. I've heard it done.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: EBarnacle
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 05:46 PM

A quibble: Heinlein's Future History series is the rubric for most of his tales. Many of his books have a time scale inside, showing the way the characters relate to each other in time.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: GUEST,Julia
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 08:14 PM

Nobody has mentioned the song from Paul Winter's beautiful Missa Gaia/Earth Mass The Blue Green Hills of Earth, apparently based on the song above
For the Earth, Forever Turning
    words and music by Kim Oler

    For the earth, forever turning;
    For the skies, for all the seas;
    For our lives, for all we cherish,
    Sing we our joyful song of peace.

    For the mountains, hills, and pastures;
    In their silent majesty;
    For the stars, for all the heavens,
    Sing we our joyful song of peace.

    For the sun, for rain and thunder,
    For the seasons' harmony;
    For our lives, for all creation,
    Sing we our joyful praise to Thee.

    For the world we raise our voices,
    For the home that gives us birth;
    In our joy, we sing, returning,
    Home to our blue-green hills of earth.
-------------------------------

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Hills_of_Earth

The song was echoed on Paul Winter's 1982 album Missa Gaia/Earth Mass, in which Susan Osborn sang the lead on The Blue Green Hills of Earth. The connection was suggested to him by astronaut Rusty Schweickart, who walked in space on the Apollo 9 mission, inspired by Schweickart's view of Earth from orbit.

from http://uua.org/ga/ga00/275.html

The Blue Green Hills of Earth was Paul Winter's adaptation of words from a poem in a Ray Bradbury story and set to music by Kim Olen It made it into the new UU Hymnbook as "For the Earth Forever Turning, " in a somewhat altered arrangement. Here is the original setting, with the words as they are in Singing the Living Tradition. Sing along.

Of the twenty or so performances of The Missa Gaia I performed with the Consort across the country, no two were the same. Aside from the improvised parts we added new pieces highlighting the "latest news." Tonight, we include several other pieces associated with the Winter Consort's ecological themes: A Song for the Earth, which follows the circulatory system of the earth the water cycle; Harmony, which sings of the balance and harmony of nature; and as a finale, Common Ground, the celebrated Winter Consort theme song that sums up the whole idea of all nature communing in one great song and dance.

In peace, Jim Scott June 2000

NOTE: For further information on Jim Scott's music and touring call or write:

Jim Scott P.O. Box 4025, Shrewsbury, MA 01545 [phone]
E-mail. Jimscott2u@aolcom Website: www.Jimscottsongs.com

cheers- Julia

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Joe_F
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 08:49 PM

Guest X-1: Never thought I'd hear that again. Thanks very much.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: Peace
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 09:06 PM

BB, fantastic. I love that story and read it every now and then. Another I love from the book is "The Long Watch." Jaysus, when Heinlein nailed it, he sure nailed it good.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 29 Mar 07 - 04:19 PM

I just listened to "The Green Hills of Earth". The musical credit for Melody and voice was given to Tom Glazer at the end of the episode.

Don

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: johnross
Date: 30 Mar 07 - 01:38 PM

The musical setting for "Green Hills" on the X Minus One dramatization is "Down in the Willow Garden" aka "Rose Connolly".

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Green Hills of Earth
From: GUEST,Sam A. Robrin
Date: 21 Jan 13 - 07:16 PM

This is probably going to be one of those "Aren't you sorry you asked?" answers, but "Green Hills of Earth" can be sung to any of the following songs, and they each and all can be sung to one another:

Amazing Grace
Mickey Mouse Club Theme Song
Stairway to Heaven
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG2lTB-UVvs
House of the Rising Sun
Yankee Doodle
Pop Goes the Weasel
Peaceful Easy Feeling
I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing
Yellow Rose of Texas
Ghost Riders of the Sky
Rocky Top
Lion Sleeps Tonight
Tangled Up in Blue
Whiter Shade of Pale
Light My Fire
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Jingle Bells
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Greensleeves
Jolly Old St. Nicholas
The First Noel
O Tannenbaum
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
I'll Be Home for Christmas
The Holly and the Ivy
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
In-a-Gadda-da-Vida
Marines' Hymn
Wabash Cannonball
America the Beautiful
The Internationale
Onward Christian Soldiers
Ode to Joy
Mack the Knife
A Hundred Bottles of Beer
Clementine
La Cucaracha
Semper Paratus
The Wearing of the Green
        (The Rising of the Moon)
The Itsy-Bitsy Spider
I've Been Working on the Railroad
Sympathy for the Devil
Rollin' Down to Old Maui
Acres of Clams
Bread and Roses
Sink the Bismarck
Forest Green (UK "Little Town of Bethlehem")
Tomorrow Belongs to Me
The Girl I Left Behind Me
The Wabash Cannonball
MacNamara's Band
Theme from "Leave It to Beaver"
Advance, Australia Fair
The Marseillaise (with tweaking)
Hernando's Hideaway

Poems that apply:

Jabberwocky
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Little Miss Muffet
Jack and Jill
Doctor Foster went to Gloucester
Little Jack Horner
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Anything by Emily Dickinson


The original THE BALLAD OF GILLIGAN'S ISLAND:

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.

The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.

The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The minnow would be lost, the minnow would be lost.

The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle
With Gilligan, The Skipper too, Here on Gilligans Isle.


So this is the tale of the castways,
They're here for a long, long time,
They'll have to make the best of things,
It's an uphill climb.

The first mate and the Skipper too,
Will do their very best,
To make the others comfortable,
In the tropic island nest.

No phone, no lights no motor cars,
Not a single luxury,
Like Robinson Crusoe,
As primative as can be.

So join us here each week my freinds,
You're sure to get a smile,
From seven stranded castways,
Here on "Gilligan's Isle."