Strange Place to Hear "Sweet Affliction"
Tim Reynolds
John Bealle
excerpted air was popularized as a piano piece under the title
"Rousseau's Dream." It has been linked--some say as a source--for the
folksong "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." So the tune is accessible by several
routes outside the context of the Sacred Harp.
I have had this same ice-cream-truck type experience hearing the Suzuki
strings version of "Aunt Rhody," where the phrasing is more like that in
the Sacred Harp than any Rhody version I've heard.
So I would guess the Rhody/Rousseau lineage is the source of the ice
cream tune.
Tim Reynolds wrote:
>
> Last Saturday I was loading up after a day at the Habitat for
> Humanity site in Nashville. Suddenly I heard music playing and realized
> that I recognized the tune as coming from /The Sacred Harp/. After a
> while I realized that it was "Sweet Affliction" (145b). I suspect I had
> trouble figuring out what it was because it was the first time I had
> heard a Sacred Harp tune being played by an */ice cream truck!/* I
janice bridges
Interesting! Thanks!
:=)
----------------------------------------
> Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:07:55 -0400
> From: jbe...@spsp.net
> CC: fasola-di...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: [fasola-discussions] Re: Strange Place to Hear "Sweet Affliction"
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Gabriel Kastelle
-- in West Philadelphia!!
I was so amazed to hear the ice cream trucks playing the tune, and
with the wonderful double-"quack!" at the ending, that once when I
heard one in the distance, I ran for recording gear and captured it--
roughly seven or ten years ago...
Rousseau's real-life music career has another Asian-evangelical twist
which helped create the most popular current Chinese music publishing
language, the so-called "simplified notation" [[ jian-pu or some such
... ]]. No joke! Stranger than fiction...
:-)
-- Gabriel Kastelle
New London, CT
Will Fitzgerald
did find this statement on an LDS discussion board, apropos of ice
cream trucks playing hymns:
"Many are cold, but few are frozen."
Wade Kotter
Never thought I'd hear that bit of LDS humor on this list. Or, since we're talking about ice cream trucks, maybe it should be LDS "Good Humor." Anyway, this phrase is derived from a statement in the LDS "Doctrine and Covenants" which reads "Many are called, but few are chosen." More on topic, our current LDS hymnal uses a variant of SWEET AFFLICTION (titled GREENVILLE) as a setting for John Fawcett's "Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing." I must admit that whenever I hear it sung in church, I can't help but think of Aunt Rhody. Interestingly, this doesn't happen when I sing SWEET AFFLICTION in the Hollow Square.
Wade Kotter
Ogden, UT
--- On Wed, 9/24/08, Will Fitzgerald <will.fi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> From: Will Fitzgerald <will.fi...@gmail.com>
> Subject: [fasola-discussions] Re: Strange Place to Hear "Sweet Affliction"
janice bridges
> Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:45:18 -0700
> From: wadek...@yahoo.com
> Subject: [fasola-discussions] Re: Strange Place to Hear "Sweet Affliction"
Wade Kotter
Wade
--- On Wed, 9/24/08, janice bridges <bridg...@hotmail.com> wrote:
It's a quote also from Matthew 22:14 in the NT
> Anyway, this phrase is derived from a statement in the LDS
amity
janice bridges
NT = New Testament
________________________________
> From: amit...@peoplepc.com
> To: bridg...@hotmail.com; wadek...@yahoo.com; fasola-di...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: [fasola-discussions] Re: Strange Place to Hear "Sweet Affliction"
>
> The phrase "many are called, few are chosen" is also from the Bible. See Matthew 20:16, and also Matthew 22:14.
> Or did I miss something here?
> Terre
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: janice bridges
> To: wadek...@yahoo.com ; Fasola Discussions
> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 1:48 PM
> Subject: [fasola-discussions] Re: Strange Place to Hear "Sweet Affliction"
>
> It's a quote also from Matthew 22:14 in the NT
>
>> Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:45:18 -0700
>> From: wadek...@yahoo.com
>> Subject: [fasola-discussions] Re: Strange Place to Hear "Sweet Affliction"
>> To: fasola-di...@googlegroups.com
>>
>>
>> Will et al:
>>
>> Never thought I'd hear that bit of LDS humor on this list. Or, since we're talking about ice cream trucks, maybe it should be LDS "Good Humor." Anyway, this phrase is derived from a statement in the LDS "Doctrine and Covenants" which reads "Many are called, but few are chosen." More on topic, our current LDS hymnal uses a variant of SWEET AFFLICTION (titled GREENVILLE) as a setting for John Fawcett's "Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing." I must admit that whenever I hear it sung in church, I can't help but think of Aunt Rhody. Interestingly, this doesn't happen when I sing SWEET AFFLICTION in the Hollow Square.
>>
>> Wade Kotter
>> Ogden, UT
>>
>>
>>> From: Will Fitzgerald
>>> Subject: [fasola-discussions] Re: Strange Place to Hear "Sweet Affliction"
>>> To: "Fasola Discussions"
>>> Date: Wednesday, September 24, 2008, 11:10 AM
>>> I was looking on the web for an audio file; I didn't
>>> find one, but I
>>> did find this statement on an LDS discussion board, apropos
>>> of ice
>>> cream trucks playing hymns:
>>>
>>> "Many are cold, but few are frozen."
>>
>>
>>
>>
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nielg
years ago,
I thought. "Hey, that sounds just like "Go Tell Aunt Rhody". They both
have the same meter."
What "Sweet Affliction" sounds like is "Allouette". I remember that
from Grade School.
Nate Zweig
Ft Wayne,IN
>
> - Show quoted text -
Kathryn Eastburn
John Martin
the Rousseau less so. The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica said in its
J.-J. Rousseau entry
His first opera, Les Muses galantes, privately prepared at the house
of La Popeliniere, attracted very little attention; but Le Devin du
village, given at Fontainebleau in 1752, and at the Academie in 1753,
achieved a great and well-deserved success. Though very unequal, and
exceedingly simple both in style and construction, it contains some
charming melodies, and is written throughout in the most refined
taste. His Pygmalion (1775) is a melodrama without singing. Some
posthumous fragments of another opera, Daphnis et Chloe, were printed
in 1780; and in 1781 appeared Les Consolations des miseres de ma vie,
a collection of about one hundred songs and other fugitive pieces of
very unequal merit. The popular air known as "Rousseau's Dream" is not
contained in this collection, and cannot be traced back farther than
J. B. Cramer's celebrated "Variations."
Other sources say that Cramer's air is derived, though not literally
quoted, from an air in "Le Devin du village" (English version "The
Cunning-man," translated and staged by by Dr. Charles Burney in
1766). There is a new (2008) recording on ArkivMusik by Cantus
Firmus, Andreas Reize cond., of "Le Devin" so one could judge for
oneself.
--John Martin
On Sep 23, 11:07 pm, John Bealle <jbea...@spsp.net> wrote:
> Sweet Affliction comes from an opera by Jean Jacques Rousseau, and the
> excerpted air was popularized as a piano piece under the title
> "Rousseau's Dream." It has been linked--some say as a source--for the
> folksong "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." So the tune is accessible by several
> routes outside the context of the Sacred Harp.
>
> I have had this same ice-cream-truck type experience hearing the Suzuki
> strings version of "Aunt Rhody," where the phrasing is more like that in
> the Sacred Harp than any Rhody version I've heard.
>
> So I would guess the Rhody/Rousseau lineage is the source of the ice
> cream tune.
>
Wade Kotter
http://a-babe.plala.jp/~jun-t/mp3/Le_Devin_du_village_Pantomime01.mp3
Wade
--- On Thu, 9/25/08, John Martin
Wade Kotter
Based on a careful examination of printed sources, Murl L. Sickbert, Jr. has made a very convincing argument for the derivation of the group of tunes including ROUSSEAU'S DREAM, GREENVILLE and SWEET AFFLICTION from a Gavotte in the instrumental pantomime of Rouseau's "Le Devin du Village." Here's the reference:
Sickbert, Murl L., Jr. 1999. Go Tell Aunt Rhody She's Rousseau's Dream. Pp. 125-150 in "Vistas of American Music: Essays and Compositions in Honor of William K. Kearns," eds. Susan L Porter & John Michael Graziano. Warren, MI: Harmonie Park Press.
Wade
John Plunkett
Wade Kotter
Wade
--- On Thu, 9/25/08, Wade Kotter <wadek...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> From: Wade Kotter <wadek...@yahoo.com>
> Subject: [fasola-discussions] Re: Strange Place to Hear "Sweet Affliction"
Wade Kotter
THE BIRMAN HYMN appears on p. 279 in the 1911 James book. Here's the footnote:
"The best information we can gain is that W. W. Parks composed the above tune in 1850. In connection with M. H. Thomas he composed 'A Home in Heaven.' See page 411. We have been unable to find out anything about either Parks or Thomas. The were both members of the Southern Musical Convention in 1846 when it was first founded up to the beginning of the war. Since that time we have been unable to get further data concerning them. Neither have we been able to find out anything about the hymn. The tune has been published all along since 1850 in the 'Sacred Harp'."
Not much help, I'm afraid.
And, since John mentioned it, does anyone care to comment on the possible Hindoo origin of HAPPY LAND?
Wade
da...@thirdculture.com
> the possible
> Hindoo origin of HAPPY LAND?
>
Speculative? Humorous? Serious?
I can't tell so I'll just share what I know.
This song is Ma's favorite in Ingals Wilder's Little House books.
It appears almost once in every book.
For instance, in one book Pa helps his family into the carriage to go to church
on Sunday. He starts to sing a song about taking a "Sunday drive".
Ma is shocked, that her husband would even mention "Sunday pleasure drive".
(Remember, even the violin observes the Sabbath & never plays secular songs on
that day.)
Then she starts to sing Happy Land.
(I think this is also the episode where they encounter that odd contraption
called "A Hymnal" for the first time.)
Then the family rides the train for the first time, I think from Missouri to De
Smet South Dakoto. The "Little Town" is actually an extension of urban culture,
traveling thousands of miles over the rails.
The first thing they hear when they get off the train, is the men unloading the
baggage, who sing a satirical version of Ma's "crisis-coping song":
There is a boarding house,
Not far away
Where they serve ham and eggs
Three times a day.
It's possible that this wasn't really a "boarding house";
LIW just changed the words to make it suitable for juvenile readers.
This time Ma is so shocked that the men around her fall silent.
Again, this degree of shock suggests that the satirical version was not really
about a "boarding" house.
>
> THE BIRMAN HYMN
I don't have the 1911 James book, but is this a pentatonic song?
If it really comes from Burma, it needs to be pentatonic.
The well-known song "I have decided to follow Jesus" comes from the Garo tribe
of Assam, India.
Apparently, this was not a solo decision-for-faith.
Rather, the Garo tribal elders had a meeting, and the entire tribe decided to
convert.
The song has a steady rhythm that probably reflects the subsequent tribal dance
celebrating the new religion. It is pentatonic.
It's interesting that:
(1) the English translation transforms the song into a "personal decision for
Christ", and it is mostly sung in Born-Again type churches.
(2) the infant-baptism-type churches, who could use this ethnographic data as
part of their arguments against Born-Again theology, have never tried to
restore the original words.
David
Elder Stephen Conte
> There is a boarding house,
> Not far away
> Where they serve ham and eggs
> Three times a day.
>
> It's possible that this wasn't really a "boarding house";
> LIW just changed the words to make it suitable for juvenile readers.
> This time Ma is so shocked that the men around her fall silent.
> Again, this degree of shock suggests that the satirical version was not
> really about a "boarding" house.
Even without a "bawdy house" parody, Ma's shock is not surprising for a
dignified lady in those high Victorian times. Indeed, I shocked a prayer
meeting gathering (and embarrassed myself) about 20 years ago when I
remarked that "Oh Happy Day" was parodied in the drinking song "How Dry I
Am". Some folks don't get out much.
The same parody - with shock - also occurs in "Work of Art" by Sinclair
Lewis (1934), including a chorus:
"'There is a boarding house
Not far away,
Where they have ham and eggs
Three times a day.
"'Oh how the boarders yell
When they hear that dinner-bell,
See how they run like--thunder,
Three times a day.'
"All the boarders laughed like anything when Horace hesitated and winked
at them, and put in 'thunder' instead of the naughty word. So did
Myron--after looking at Miss Absolom, to see if she smiled, which she
always did. But Mother Weagle invariably fretted (fifty-two Saturday
evenings a year), 'Now I don't think that's real nice! I'm sure you don't
get ham and eggs three times a day here!'"
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601301.txt
Ever,
Stephen Conte
jsn
verses, even in this day and age. We've gotten to where we just depart the
square and - oh, I don't know, help get dinner ready.
Sheila
Wade Kotter
I pressed the send button a little too soon. Reading further in the Grove Music Online article, I found the following:
"There is no exact word for the various tonalities or modes in Burmese music. They are generally referred to as tones (athan). But the manner in which they are used strongly suggests that Burmese musicians recognize unique qualities for each of them, something that might not occur if each was merely a transposition of the other at another pitch. Each of these athan in Burmese music uses all the seven pitches but emphasizes five of them as basic pitches of the mode; the other two are regarded as secondary."
Later, the article indicates that these secondary notes often have "the character and quality of passing notes, suspensions or appoggiaturas."
The article lists eight athan, each represented by a different series of five primary pitches. So to singers used to the many pentatonic tunes in American folk music and The Sacred Harp, a Burmese tune might well "sound" pentatonic, even though it might technically be based on a heptatonic scale.
Wade Kotter
Ogden, UT
--- On Wed, 10/1/08, Wade Kotter <wadek...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> From: Wade Kotter <wadek...@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [fasola-discussions] Re: The Birman Hymn
> To: da...@thirdculture.com
> Cc: fasola-di...@googlegroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2008, 1:44 PM
> David et al.:
>
> I don't have THE BIRMAN HYMN in front of me, so I
> can't comment on whether or not the tune is pentatonic.
> I'll check it at home this afternoon. But I am
> interested in your source for the idea that a tune from
> Burma must be pentatonic. I just consulted both Grove Music
> Online and the Gale Encyclopedia of World Music, and both
> indicate that the traditional music of Burma is based on a
> seven pitch series, that is, a heptatonic scale. And the
> musical examples they give seem to make full use of this
> seven note serious. Here's what the Grove article says
> about the Burmese seven note series in relation to the
> Western diatonic series:
>
> "Compared with the Western diatonic series, the
> seven-note Burmese series usually has somewhat lower seventh
> and third degrees, as well as a raised fourth, giving an
> impression of an equidistant tuning."
>
> Wade Kotter
> Ogden, UT
>
> --- On Tue, 9/30/08, da...@thirdculture.com
Wade Kotter
I don't have THE BIRMAN HYMN in front of me, so I can't comment on whether or not the tune is pentatonic. I'll check it at home this afternoon. But I am interested in your source for the idea that a tune from Burma must be pentatonic. I just consulted both Grove Music Online and the Gale Encyclopedia of World Music, and both indicate that the traditional music of Burma is based on a seven pitch series, that is, a heptatonic scale. And the musical examples they give seem to make full use of this seven note serious. Here's what the Grove article says about the Burmese seven note series in relation to the Western diatonic series:
"Compared with the Western diatonic series, the seven-note Burmese series usually has somewhat lower seventh and third degrees, as well as a raised fourth, giving an impression of an equidistant tuning."
Wade Kotter
Ogden, UT
--- On Tue, 9/30/08, da...@thirdculture.com <da...@thirdculture.com> wrote:
da...@thirdculture.com
>
> Reading further in the Grove
> Music Online article,
> I found the following:
Thanks for correcting my assumption that Burmese tunes are necessarily
pentatonic.
The Protestant missionary movement is generally said to start with William
Carey's trip to India in 1793. It would be interesting to know the date of the
first hymntune to migrate from the "mission field" to the hymnals of the
sending country.
Also, there is the *impression* that certain hymntunes come from the mission
field. For example the tune for "Jesus Loves Me" is variously said to have been
named "China" because it is a Chinese tune, because being pentatonic it "sounds
Chinese", and/or because it was particularly loved by Chinese Christians.
David Olson
Wade Kotter
Wade