Yesterday I passed a mother with her toddler on the street, she was singing a popular children's song for her kid. It is called "Stiefeli muess stärbe" and pretty much every Kindergarten kid here (Switzerland) will know it.
Turns out that song is referring to Michael Stifel and his failed end of the world prophecy from 1533. I was pretty much baffled that a folk song can make 500 years and remain popular in in its form. So I investigated, turns out some of the other popular children songs here are very old, "Oh du lieber Augustin" refers to Marx Augustin 1643-1685 and "Maikäfer flieg" is a song about the 30 years war.
Now I know all those songs by heart, my mum sung them to me when I was little and they are still known by everyone around here. So, how long do songs last? Are there any popular old folk or children songs in your Country/Language that did survive the times.
I think its the fact that they are nursery rhymes. Easy to remember songs that parents sings to kids each night. Once the kids grow up they already know the songs and carry on the tradition.
Cooper Wright
oh also that ring around the rosy one is paired with a childrens game so that game is probably what kept it going rather than parents singing the song
This tune is about Marx Augustin a known musician and drunk from Vienna and commemorates a legendary drinking spree gone horribly wrong back in 1679. He woke up in a pest mass grave, between corpses. youtube.com/watch?v=8PdAwGx7bJE
>people will never tell the tale of you binge drinking for 300+ years
Ethan Gutierrez
seems to have a similar melody to wheels on the bus
Hey op thanks more making thus thread. As i have become curious as to the history behind music theory.
As well as comparative music theory.
Like why did we settle on letters for music notation? I know middle eastrn rythms and western rythms are notated differently, but why? I know the origin behind the alphabet, but the origins musical notation is still a mystery, and even how we started thinking musically as well as differences in how cultures think differently when it comes to music.
Julian Reyes
You now why every fucker still remembers the big mac theme song. Or that when ever you ask someone to recite the alphabet and its almost always in a singy songy fashion?
Some concept. Things are easier to remember when put to song, ideas can be put into your head easier when theres more "pattern" to it. Real important in cultures that dont have a form of writing.
Sebastian Cook
Bump
Christopher Gray
>write one real catchy sing along >become immortal for the centuries to come the power of music...
Jordan Howard
What the fuck, I heard this somewhere, fuck this songs travel to Argentina . i can swear I heard it here with other lyrics
Nathan Scott
>Like why did we settle on letters for music notation? We did? look canal
Ethan Morgan
The Star Spangled Banner was plagiarized, the music was from an English drinking song.
>He woke up in a pest mass grave, between corpses. he never left the bar?
Sebastian James
>drinking song Thats actually a good quality for a national anthem. In that regard the US did a lot of things right, national holiday is in the summer, so you can BBQ, get drunk and praise the republic.
Austin Nguyen
"Wir lagen vor Madagaskar" which was very popular when I was in Kindergarten, was orginally a marching song of the german navy.
Christian Turner
They had a pest epidemic in Vienna that year, Augustin went on the binge, pass out in the street, and stiff drunk as he was the corpse collectors that found him thought he was just another dead body deposed on the streets. They took his money and his coat as they did not see him having much use for it now, and threw him into a mass grave pit. Only reason he survived is that the did not close the pit that day, but just dust it with lime because they expected some more bodies. Augustin then started yelling and playing his bag pipes until he got rescued. Apparently the song is from himself about his adventures and he performed it at pubs to support his drinking habit.
Virtually everyone in German speaking Europe will know the song to this day and can sing it since age 3. Thats bigger than the Beatles.
Justin Thomas
>Like why did we settle on letters for music notation? In general we didn't. A lot of the world uses solfege syllables (do re mi = C D E) instead of letters.
The letters were probably just arbitrary names given to scale degrees for easy reference, a lot like... solfege syllables.
>I know middle eastrn rythms and western rythms are notated differently, but why? What exactly are you referring to? Like marks for recitation of the Bible and the Quran? I think most of the Near East adopted Western music notation with only a few modifications.
>History of music notation Our music notation comes mainly from the notation used mainly descends from the notation used to write Gregorian chants, which is descended from systems developed for recitation of the bible.
Pic is an example of the Hebrew version of these marks.
Juan Phillips
>Our music notation comes mainly from the notation used mainly descends from the notation used to write Gregorian chants Holy proof reading batman.
Our music notation mainly descends from the notation used to write Gregorian chants*******************************
Here's an example of the Arabic version.
Jayden Fisher
Western music is deeply tied to Christian tradition, which is why it's so distinct from other musical forms from around the world. Those monks didn't get out much, you know. A lot of music notation actually come from how our bodies work. For example, the original dots used to show notes were called "neumes", meaning breath, and which basically meant, "breath out here, at this pitch." I've also read that the way beat and rythym is notated is somehow connected to the human heartbeat. As for the names of notes, they simply served as a good way of memorizing the separate pitches. I'm not sure why we settled on fa, so, la, ti, do, etc. however. The Guidonian Hand was a popular way of keeping them ordered on the fly, and allowed medieval musicians to sight sing rather easily.
Christian Kelly
Dutch has a few. Some date to as early as the 16th century while others are from the 18th century or later.
One is about an 18th century cleaning lady/prostitute with alcoholism. Another about the French during the Napoleonic wars.
Parker Peterson
can you find yt versions of it?
Owen Gonzalez
some english nursery rhymes are supposedly about the bubonic plague
Anthony Collins
Not of those two though I was able to find another one about privateering.
i don't know much about music. Do you guys have favorite playlists for medieval and early modern music? Like music for common people, not sacral music or court music. Like what common people would have sung in the pubs at the time.
Hudson Flores
I've heard the melody before, different lyrics, theres a dutch version over here
David Mitchell
Most of those epic myths and legends you read from ages past were actually sung along with music. Pay attention and you realize that the words used to tell the tale are very rhythmic & repetitive to jog one's memory.
It's also why epic storytellers would invoke gods of memory and music to remember the story properly.
>It is first known to have appeared on a broadside in 1656 as "The Miller and the King's Daughter." At least 21 English variants exist under several names, including "Minnorie" or "Binnorie", "The Cruel Sister", "The Wind and Rain", "Dreadful Wind and Rain", "Two Sisters", "The Bonny Swans" and the "Bonnie Bows of London".
>The theme of this ballad was common in many northern European languages.[2] There are 125 different variants known in Swedish alone. Its general Scandinavian classification is TSB A 38; and it is (among others) known as Den talende strængelek or De to sostre (DgF 95) in Danish, Horpu ríma (CCF 136) in Faroese, Hörpu kvæði (IFkv 13) in Icelandic, Dei tvo systar in Norwegian, and De två systrarna (SMB 13) in Swedish. It has also spread further south; for example, as Gosli iz človeškega telesa izdajo umor (A Fiddle Made from a Human Body Reveals a Murder) in Slovenian.
So let me ask again. Do you guys have favorite playlists for medieval and early modern music? Like music for common people, not sacral music or court music. Like what common people would have sung in the taverns at the time. All languages welcome.
Furthermore, are there any songs or musical pieces that almost anyone would recognize in a given century? For example, would everyone in the 17th century recognize Greensleeves? Are there similar ones for previous centuries?
Richard Thompson's "1000 Years of Popular Music" is worth watching. It starts with "Sumer Is Icumen In" and ends with Britney Spears. youtube.com/watch?v=DDZdU-snqTs
