Lyr Req: ...Funeral For My Hen...

Subject: Lyr Req: ...Funeral For My Hen...
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jul 04 - 02:59 PM

Request from a friend. Can anyone help? - Alice

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Grandfather used to sing a song with the the words (all that I can remember).
Would you know this song
 
I'll hae a funeral a funeral for my hen a funeral for ladies and gentle men
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...Funeral For My Hen...
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Jul 04 - 01:53 PM

...the click that refreshes...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...Funeral For My Hen...
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jul 04 - 02:35 PM

Sounds like it is related to related to My Bonnie Wee Hen.

And also this, found on a web site of Some Old Scottish Street Poetry:

Once ah had a wee broon hen
It had a wee broon tail
Ah sent it fur an ounce o' snuff
It never came back again
Noo it's deed and in its grave
Mony a year ago
God bless ma wee hen
It never came back again

Ah had a funeral
Fur ma wee hen
Ah had a funeral
Fur ladies and gentlemen
Ladies and gentlemen
Count to ten
God bless ma wee hen
It never came back again.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE WEE BROUN TAPPIT HEN
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 03 Jul 04 - 03:35 PM

The Roud Folk Song Index lists this at number 9054, and cites a further example, in Emily Lyle, Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads and Songs II (1996) pp.110-111:

THE WEE BROUN TAPPIT HEN

(from Jennie Rotheram, Kilbirnie, Ayrshire)

As I gade by yon wee house
And by yon smiddie en
Out thare cam to me gau bye
A wee broun tappit hen

Out thare cam a wee hen
Seikand for its meit
I lifted up a muckle stane
And dang her aff her feit

An dang her aff her feit
And she never spak a word
And ilka egg the wee hen laid
It micht a bein a bird

It micht a bene a bird
And they soud a lat her be
For ilka day sho laid twa eggs
And sum days thrie

I'se bid baith lords and gentilmen
To meet at the Bogend
Ise bid baith lords and gentilmen
To bury my wee hen

To burie my wee hen
For they soud a lat her be
For ilka day sho laid twa eggs
And sum days thrie

Alake! my bonnie nyne lams
Was smurit ameng the snaw
For them that killit my wie hen
Ise try them at the law

Ise try them at the law
For they soud a lat her be
For ilka day sho laid twa eggs
And sum days thrie


End-note: "I heard Jennie Rotheram, alias Rottledam, alias Rattledam, sing this with a clear and coarse pipe to a child." The text was noted by Andrew Sloan, presumably a little after 1826.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...Funeral For My Hen...
From: Alice
Date: 03 Jul 04 - 08:00 PM

Much appreciated.
Thank you.

Alice Flynn in Montana

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...Funeral For My Hen...
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 04 Jul 04 - 07:26 PM

Ira Glass did a great piece on NPR about a lady who claimed that hens have distinct personalities.   Check the NPR archives.

Bottom line---he visited her, found their personalities quite limited--much fun in betweeen. He has, however, given up eating fowl. Reminds to much of his interviewee, as he stated.

RIP poor old hen.   You have escaped being a McDonald's Nugget.


Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...Funeral For My Hen...
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 04 Jul 04 - 07:58 PM

Reminds him too much of his interview is the sentence was supposed to read. I must proof read more.

Bill Hah

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...Funeral For My Hen...
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 05 Jul 04 - 07:18 PM

Do you suppose, anyone, that this little bit of doggeral we used to play "on the black notes" of our family organ could have come from the version above (and ilka day sho laid twa eggs, and sum days thrie)? Tune starts on the highest note of the group of three black notes- with your right hand,work your way down the scale(one note for each word or syllable,playing the bass note (the lefthand note of the group of two keys with the left hand, alternately between each key played with the right hand). Does this make sense?!!! Here 'tis:

Grand-ma had an old grey hen, she
Laid be-hind the door;
And ev-ry day she laid three eggs-
On Sun-day she laid four!
On Sun-day she laid four.

And, when you get to, On Sun-day she laid four, cross your right hand over your left and play the three notes below the bass, left to right, that line and the repeat line. Very satisfying. But I never dreamed that it had any antecedants! I think that is the very first tune I ever played on the keyboard.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...Funeral For My Hen...
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 05:10 PM

Sorry- At beginning of the third line, "And ev-ry day she..." go back with right hand (finger!)to the beginning- the third or highest black note- THEN cross over to the left or lower 3-group notes for, "And Sun-day she..." etc.

I apologize if I labor uselessly on a child's keyboard trick which everybody already knows. I hope I haven't killed your thread, Alice! But, in thinking about this- there are quite a few tricky games like this, that we kids used on the black notes. Did any of you ever roll your knuckles (right hand, usually) left to right over the three-note group, striking the first-encountered of the pair of two notes, Pom-pom., then repeat the knuckle-again, accenting it with the higher note of the pair- repeat the action with the knuckle-roll to the right, accentuating each roll with the Pom-pom on the lower two-note "group," finally finishing with, left to right playing all the five keys, "Ta-ra-la-la-LA-LA-LA?" More childhood foolishness I guess.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...Funeral For My Hen...
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 08:57 PM

And maybe this old song worked its way into "Cluck Old Hen."

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...Funeral For My Hen...
From: Alice
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 09:27 PM

Yes, we played the knuckle rolling game on the black keys, too, Jean. I think the game you describe with the hen song is one we sang Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater.