What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?

Subject: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 11:03 PM

In the song The Happy Wanderer, the words "Valderi, Valdera" are in the chorus. What do those words mean or are they just nonsense words?

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 01:04 AM

Val-De-Ri, Val-De-Ra has no meaning. Just sounded good to the German lyricist.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: AKS
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 03:29 AM

Well, exactly, it means 'whack-fol-da-dee-doo-dah-doodah' or perhaps (in Finnish) 'huh-hei-ja-hilipatipippaa' ;-)

AKS

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 03:30 AM

the German transliteration usually is 'falleri, fallera', seldom 'faleri, falera'.

Q may be right about it having no meaning at all, but I have a long shot guess:

'Vale' or 'Valete' is the Latin for 'so long' in the sense of goodbye. In a song about wandering it could be a German rendering of the Latin for Goodbye.

What speaks against this guess is that 'falleri, fallera' comes in a lot of German songs that are not about wandering.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Turlough
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 12:11 PM

Hm, interesting, Wolfgang. In Dutch, "falderi faldera" is most common, although you could also write "valderi valdera" in some Dutch accents where there is almost no difference between the "f" and the "v" sounds (for example the Amsterdam accent). I always thought that these words were directly borrowed from German, but it seems they aren't.

T.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 12:16 PM

Abnd I always thought it was German for Hey Nonny Nonny No

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Nerd
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 12:18 PM

In english we have folderol and also "wack folthedol folthedidoday," so I suspect this is just old Germanic nonsense!

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 03:17 AM

Valleri, vallera - like falala fala fala in ye olde English madrigals.
An onomatopoetic filler; sometimes joined with a yell of glee: Juchheissa, juchheirassa, juchheirassassa as in the song: Auf der Lüneburger Heide (on Luneburg Heather) where the chorus goes: Valleri, vallera, und juchheirassa ...

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 03:21 AM

Re: falala - What I had precisely in mind is "Now is the month of maying", by Thomas Morley. One od my favoutite pieces.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: pavane
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 04:48 AM

Wasn't that George Martin's first hit?

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Joybell
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 09:14 PM

There's Weggis Song that has Hol di ri di a Hol di ri ah (or however you spell it) all through it. They taught it to us at school. We were told it was fake yodelling. I'd rather REALLY yodel except I've tried and I can't. Joy

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 09:40 PM

Yo-del-lay ee hoo,
Yo-del-lay ee haw
??
Doesn't sound quite right.

Of course it's a clandestine Irish song- (Eamon de) Valeree, Valera!

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 02:41 AM

Holleridihi-a-ho, holleriaho (germ. i = engl. ee). Nothing to do with yodelling or engl. to holler; just another onomatopoetic filler.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: MaineDog
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 11:26 AM

In my limited experience "wack" seems to have to do with sexual activity, and so appears more often in bawdy ballads.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 11:47 AM

isn't wald wood - I always figured they were woodland folks in lederhosen and yodelling like heidi as the song Germans goes.
Udo Linderburg?

or

there could be a missing m


valderma - a skin cream that was around at the time

no thats rubbish - they were making a joyful noise cos it was the 1950's and Billy Cotton was in his hey day, I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts etc.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 02:06 PM

Why not Tweedledee, Tweedledum.

I love to go a-wandering
With a flatfoot floogie and a floy floy

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 05:11 PM

when I was small, my mother would quote that, and I thougt she said "flatfoot floozie", which gives a different slant on it....'street walker's disese'...

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 06:18 PM

This embarrassing explanation is:

F.F.F. is a tune, originally written and performed by Slim & Slam (Slim
Gaillard and Slam Stewart) that got very popular in the 40's. A floogie is a
lady of easy virtue -- the floy is V.D. Not an elegant lyric, but succinct at
any rate.

Slam Stewart, who died only a couple of years ago, was a very active bass
player in the late swing and early bebop period. He would improvise double
bass solos arco, and sing along with himself an octave higher: in-tune,
musical as all get-out (catch him on 'Dizzy Atmosphere', with Parker and
Gillespie). It was a great sound -- like St. Colombe and one of his daughters,
all in one.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 07:12 PM

Wi' a ri-do-a-dum, wi' a ri-do-a-day
And a wee bird cam tae ma apron.

Just another version!

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Joybell
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 07:43 PM

My mother did sing "Flat Foot Floozie", Bill. It was 20 years before I heard it sung any other way. It sings rather better that way anyway, I reckon. Joy

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 08:02 PM

Slim and Slam (Gaillard and Stewart) would be amused by JTT's explanation. They took language apart and put it together again in nonsensical ways to create a jive language with nonsense text. Gaillard called it 'vout.'
Someone else thought it meant a female cop (flat foot) who liked to play around.
These interpretations were all after the fact. (A word, ain't it? it gotta have meaning!). Now valderi ---

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 17 Sep 04 - 04:07 AM

Derek Brimstone used to say it was about a hooker with a social disease and fallen arches.....

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST,Baz
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 02:26 PM

For your information: Falderi, Faldera (this is the right pronunciatio) doesn't mean anything. I'm from Belgium and I speak fluent Dutch and German

Baz

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From:
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 03:52 PM

Thanks, Baz. Nice to have confirmation.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 03:57 PM

All of the the common American versions have 'valderi, valdera'; this is the version that was sung by Bing Crosby and others when the song became a hit in 1954. 'Valeri, valdera' also is sung by American Scouts. Happy Wanderer

The Happy Wanderer

I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.

Chorus:
Val-deri,Val-dera,
Val-deri,
Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Val-deri,Val-dera.
My knapsack on my back.

I love to wander by the stream
That dances in the sun,
So joyously it calls to me,
"Come! Join my happy song!"

I wave my hat to all I meet,
And they wave back to me,
And blackbirds call so loud and sweet
From ev'ry green wood tree.

High overhead, the skylarks wing,
They never rest at home
But just like me, they love to sing,
As o'er the world we roam.

Oh, may I go a-wandering
Until the day I die!
Oh, may I always laugh and sing,
Beneath God's clear blue sky!

The old German melody was slightly revised by Henri René and English words were written by Antonia Ridge.
Frank Weir lyrics (also 1954) differ in a word or two; he also used the Henri René arrangement.
In verse two, 'joyously' sometimes appears as 'joyfully.' Anyone have the René - Ridge sheet music?

The DT version differs from the published texts in that in the third verse, a 'bluebird calls,' but in both the Ridge and Weir lyrics, 'blackbirds call.' The 'bluebird' is someone's preference or a mis-hearing.

See the Bing Crosby lyrics here (scroll down): Crosby lyrics

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: sian, west wales
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 04:03 PM

From www.llangollen.com:

"Pigtailed Angelsâ€쳌 is how Dylan Thomas described the Children's Choir from Obernkirchen in Germany when they won the Children’s Choirs Competition in 1953. As its 'own choice' item they sang a then unknown German folk song which later became known and popular the world over as ‘The Happy Wanderer’. Fame enabled them to make international tours singing in concerts to raise funds for an orphanage in Germany.

The Obernkirchen Children’s Choir under their Conductor Edith Môller returned to Llangollen in 196O the principal attraction of the Sunday Evening Concert.


siân

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 04:41 PM

"Der Fröhliche Wanderer" is a composed song." and was well-known in Europe before the Obernkirchen Childrens Choir brought it to attention in the UK and America. Froehlicher Wanderer

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 04:42 PM

Oops! Froehliche

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 19 Apr 05 - 02:48 AM

Not Oops, Q!
Indefinite: Fröhlicher Wanderer
Definite: Der fröhliche Wanderer. This is the correct title; we use the article here.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Flash Company
Date: 19 Apr 05 - 10:13 AM

I was taught German at school, which was unusual so soon after WW2, we had another german song with 'Hop-sa-sa, Ta-ra-ra-ra' in the refrain.

FC

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST,Bill the Collie
Date: 20 Apr 05 - 01:11 AM

With me deerstalker hat
And me fal-the -diddle-dee
I was the lover of Lady Chatterlee



says it all I think.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 20 Apr 05 - 02:46 AM

FC - Hussassa, tirallala: from a German hunter song (a hunter blew his horn ...).

Tiralla = an onomatopoetic filler like Falleri, Fallera (or Valleri; both characters are used in German for the unvoiced labiodental).

Hussa(ssa): A hunters cry, where ssa means go on!
Another composition with ssa is: Hopsa(ssa), used in dancing songs, where hop is the English hop! (imperative)

Where did you learn German? UK or USA?

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Flash Company
Date: 20 Apr 05 - 10:24 AM

Hi Wilfried, UK but have to admit I've forgotten most of it now, pity really, I was quite good at it at school. I think, from memory, that 'Hunting Song' sounds about right, Something about 'Ich habe grosse hunden' springs to mind.

FC

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST,I have that programme!
Date: 16 May 05 - 04:43 AM

Whilst researching The Obernkirchen Children's Choir for an Ebay listing, I came across Sian's reference to the concert in Llangollen (Llandudno?) in 1960, which is precisely the item I will be offering for auction shortly! I have the original 78 somewhere, must dig it out and play it again!

Peter

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Flash Company
Date: 16 May 05 - 07:54 AM

GUEST... Llangollen is a fair way from Llandudno, and hosts an International Music Eistedfodd( Hope I spelt it right!) in July every year.
I haven't been for a long time now, must make the effort before I get too old!

FC

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: Kaleea
Date: 17 May 05 - 12:02 AM

I was mentioning this thread to a buddy of mine who is orig from Germany & even older than me! He recalls singing "falleri, fallera" as a kid 70some years ago. He suggested that when someone "flipped" the "R" in "falleri, fallera" and it was sung that way, & someone continued the mispronunciation a step further especially when brought to America. Incorrect pronounciation is quite common in America--especially in the "midwest" where I come from.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST,Miriam
Date: 17 May 05 - 12:22 AM

In the recording I heard in the 50's the refrain went:

Falderi, faldera,
Faldera, faldera ha ha ha ha ha

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 05 - 01:21 PM

Perhaps this thread and 39537, Happy Wanderer, should be united. Although this one seems to be chasing its tail.
Happy Wanderer

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST,Joe Offer
Date: 17 May 05 - 05:31 PM

Somewhere, I picked up the the habit of singing that "ha-ha-ha-ha-ha" as a stage laugh. I wonder if that's a standard way of singing it, or just a perverted aberration I picked up in some alley.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST, Ebbie
Date: 17 May 05 - 11:13 PM

Well, I guess my own (private) interpretation of valdera, valderi is incorrect. I always assumed (as suggested also by weelittledrummer/BIG Al- are you identical twins? *G*)that it devolved in an adulterated form from 'wald', as in 'I love to go hiking through the forest' but if the Deutsche amongst us say No Way, No Way it is.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST,Rusty Dobro
Date: 18 May 05 - 03:39 PM

At the Eels Foot in Eastbridge on Thursday nights, it's sung as a comic song: 'adulteree adultera!'

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST,JR
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 03:11 PM

Valdera is a town or region in Tuscany. (See Porta Valdera.) No idea where Valderi comes from or why. Reminds me of a quote from a WWI British fighter pilot, something from a letter to his wife about singing a song with a chorus of "Skiboo, skiboo!" He mentioned he had no idea what it meant, but it was great for shouting loudly when drunk out of your mind.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 12:59 PM

I doesn't mean anything, it's like rama lama ding dong or give peace a chance.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST,Mark 42
Date: 07 Oct 08 - 03:11 PM

Yippee-i-o-ki-ay

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 07 Oct 08 - 03:39 PM

And Yiddish has na-na-na-na-nanay and yam-tari-tari-tums.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 08 Oct 08 - 01:55 PM

Actually, it's "Valdeera", which is an anagram of De Valera, so obviously there is a strong Irish link.Also, ha-ha three times means three ditches, meant for keeping deer out of country houses.So everything is not as simple as one might suppose.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST,Cassandra
Date: 26 Nov 10 - 04:36 AM

You're all wrong....not surprising in this half0educated age. Val-de_Ra means "to seek the valley (Vale) of the Sun God (Ra)", Valderi means that this valley (Vale) may be found in Rhode Island (RI)--not the Rhode Island that is one of the original 13 Colonies which became the nucleus of the United States but the actual Island of Rhodes where the Colossus of Rhodes (one of original Seven Wonders of the World)once stood. Now, the Colossus was, of course, a statue of the Greek God "Helios" (aka "The Sun" aka "RA"). All of this is in the Hidden Texts of the Sons of the Illuminati Volume 23 Chapter 19.

But naturally none of you people read books anymore.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 26 Nov 10 - 11:45 AM

Wow, Cassandra, that's amazing!

We do read books, though. At least some of us.

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 26 Nov 10 - 01:08 PM

It is short for Latin "valde rideo, valde rarus!", which translates "LOL, very good!".

Subject: RE: What Does Valderi, Valdera Mean?
From: gnu
Date: 26 Nov 10 - 01:32 PM

Thanks Grishka. You illuminating input is greatly appreciated.

Here in Canucikstan, any word close conjures up this.