Lyrics aren't always intelligible...
... and I don't mean just punk songs with screaming lead singers or hip-hop artists and with obscure terms that I don't quite get.
I'll sometimes think of a song and somehow get the lyrics a little wrong--they're misremembered enough that I can't find the original song!
We've talked about mondegreens before, but this isn't quite one of those (a mondegreen is where you mishear and misremember a lyric in another form).
This is the case when I can remember perfectly well (nearly), but still can't find it.
Here are three songs that I heard at different times and places. I'll tell you what I recall--can you figure out what the songs really are?
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| The Christmas Goat, a symbol of the holiday in Scandinavia. |
1. I remember hearing a beautiful a capella song in a Christmas concert where the lyrics were something like: Yule, Yule, Yule. The problem is that the song wasn't in English, but in a Scandinavian language. From just this fragment of description, can you find the original song? (A link to a YouTube recording of it would be nice.) What's the actual title?
2. When I was visiting a German biergarten last fall, about every fifteen minutes the band would play a short song and EVERYONE would sing the chorus together. But I couldn't quite get one word in the chorus. It's just Eins, zwei... sofa?? I know "eins" and "zwei" but what's "sofa" got to do with it? Can you find what the lyrics REALLY are? (Mostly, what's the deal with"sofa"?)
3. At another concert in the middle of summer I heard a lovely fa-la-la-la song with an unusual lyric in the middle--it was something like running in and out delights thee. As a runner, I noticed that line and remembered it, but I can't figure what song it is! Can you figure out what song this is from?
Extra credit: When was that song first published, and what was the title of the songbook?
Hope you enjoy these small Challenges. They're not that hard to find, but will require a bit of search technique. Be sure to tell us HOW you found each of these songs, and what SearchResearch skill you used!
Let us know in the comments section.
Search on!
Anne and I are getting a double dose of search research today we just did last week's challenge and saw this week's appear as we were answering. So for question 1; here is a link to a youtube video of the song we think it is - JUl, jul,stralande yul (Christmas, Christmas, Brilliant Christmas) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLaz2siWaF4 To find we did a search for scandinavian christmas song a capella juhl - I thought Christmas was spelled Juhl but google corrected it for me. Hopefully it is the right song.
ReplyDelete2) This question for me was easy. My mom was raised in Germany and I have heard this expression forever Ein, zwei zufa! I think zufa not sure of the spelling because I never saw the written version only heard it said many many times. It would definitely be said at a beer garden because it essentially means one two drink up. I think that zufa is Bavarian dialect and not high (proper, correct) German but will check with some of my german friends on that. Anne and I will be back with more on Q)2 and Q)3.
Q2 continued - so looked and zuf is actually spelled zuffa or more accurately g'suffa which means chug, gulp or guzzle. This word is definitely not part of proper german and is definitely dialect from the Bavarian area esp. the Munich area. My mom used this term all the time (didn't everyones?)whenever I was drinking anything.And whenever we visited German friends the men would start singing drinking songs and this was one of them.
ReplyDeleteQ3) well hopefully this is the correct answer. This it is Come away, sweet love by Thomas Greaves. Info about the song which was originally done as a madrigal can be found here - http://www3.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Come_away,_sweet_love_(Thomas_Greaves)This took us a few tries to find but once I did this search - running in and out delights thee fa la la. Had to scroll through results this was the 7th. Earlier searches only brought us back to Christmas carols with fa la la. Tried this search unsuccessfully - running in and out delights thee lyrics As well as this search fa-la-la-la song running in and out lyrics Found this about Thomas Greaves who was an English classical composer - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Greaves_(musician)This entry gave us the answer to the extra credit- "He published in London in 1604 Songes of sundrie kinds.[1] It contained four madrigals;[2] three of them, 'Come away, sweet love,' 'Lady, the melting crystal of thine eyes,' and 'Sweet nymphs,' were republished in the nineteenth century (1843 and 1857), with pianoforte accompaniment by G. W. Budd.[3]"
ReplyDeleteHello everyone
ReplyDeleteFor Q1, searched [Scandinavian yule carol]
O Yule Full of Gladness: Christmas in Scandinavia
"Jul, the Scandinavian Christmas holiday, is celebrated throughout December and traditionally until St. Knut’s Day on January 13." Did you try Gravlax (salmon which has been cured in sugar, salt, and dill)?
From the songs listed, I think you want from Sweden: Jul, jul, strålande jul (Christmas, Christmas, glorious Christmas) is by Gustaf Nordqvist
YouTube Video: Malmö Akademiska Kör - Jul Jul Strålande Jul.
Wikipedia:Jul Jul Strålande Jul From there: "An English interpretation with the title "Wonderful Peace" is made by Norman Luboff" that I searched also on YouTube.
"PEACE, PEACE, WONDERFUL PEACE" Comment says: "The exact translation is "Christmas, christmas, bright shiny Christmas."
For Q3: [fa la la la "running in and out delights thee"]
YouTube Video: Come Away Sweet Love - Thomas Greaves Lyrics in the video description
Then [Come Away Sweet Love - Thomas Greaves] there is a Wikipedia article about composer Thomas that mention the answer to the Extra Credit
"He published in London in 1604...It contained four madrigals... Visited Wikipedia article in Italian and there is a link to "Madrigale" that has too an English version not linked in the article of the composer.
Madrigal is a secular vocal music composition of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras
[Songs of Sundrie Kindes] Not new information from this.
Great Challenge, fantastic new and interesting knowledge and traditions (Scandinavian Christmas's traditions now in our side of the world was also awesome) and also beautiful songs!
1 - Jul, Jul, Strålande Jul - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ccMfR1TsBU
ReplyDeleteprocess - searched 'yule yule yule scandinavian', discovered that the word is 'jol' or 'jul' depending on language and when I didn't find hits for 'jol' I searched 'scandinavian christmas acapella jul' and this song popped up.
2 The lyric is 'eins, zwei, g'suffa' or 'one, two, drink up' - https://www.oktoberfest-songs.com/hofbrauhaus-lied-lyrics.html
process - faffed around on translate for a bit but then honestly just searched 'eins zwei drinking song' and plenty of results came up
3. Thomas Greaves, Come Away, Sweet Love - published in 'Songs of sundrie kinds' in 1604. Sheet music: http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/images/b/b3/094.pdf
process - took me a moment and a search ('fa la la old song') to remember the type of song that does that sort of thing - madrigals. Then it was just a search 'madrigal running in and out' and paying attention to the search results - about halfway down the first page I got a result that lead to a page where I could ctrl+f to find the phrase again, go through to the sheet music to check, and here we go.
a bit off/on topic…
ReplyDeletefound these songs, but didn't recognize the languages… images were a tad foreign too…
tried to search, but there was some sort of geezer-blocker filter being applied?? G’suffa on… no goat on scene
(adult lyrics)
schlechter Typ
die antwoord
Gävle Goat — the movie
ReplyDeleteKilling Gävle
Gävlebockens
[ˈjɛːvlɛbɔkːɛn]
1. I got help here from a Danish speaker (my wife) who got it right away. Even though it is Swedish
ReplyDeleteJul, Jul, Strålande Jul
YT has it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ccMfR1TsBU This song is probably the most Christmasy song in all of Sweden
2. https://tischreservierung-oktoberfest.de/en/blog/german-drinking-song-ein-prosit/
“Oans, zwoa, drei, G'suffa!” meaning “one, two, three, drink!”. You must sing this song, and drink after each song.
or: https://www.disboards.com/threads/whats-the-word-phrase-and-biergarten.2498155/
Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, der Gemütlichkeit
Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, der Gemütlichkeit
Eins, zwei, drei g'suffa!
Zicke, zacke, zicke, zacke, hoi, hoi, hoi,
Zicke, zacke, zicke, zacke, hoi, hoi, hoi,
Prosit!
3. [lyric "delights thee" right off it finds
http://www0.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Come_away,_sweet_love_(Thomas_Greaves)
LAst line's the winner!
Come Away Sweet Love
Come away, sweet love, and play thee,
lest grief and care betray thee,
Fa la la.
Leave off this sad lamenting
and take thy heart's contenting.
The nymphs to sport invite thee,
and running in and out delights thee.
Fa la la
Published 1604 in the songbook: Songes of sundrie kinds; first, aires to be sung to the lute and base violl; next, songes of sadnesse for the viols and voyce; lastly madrigalles for five voyces.
Good change of pace in this CHallenge.. j
3: Tomas Greaves and Thomas Campion were English contemporaries, give or take. Mr Campion is my Champion for Jolly phrasing in the same spirit as Mr Greaves.
ReplyDeleteMr Greaves:
The nymphs to sport invite thee,
and running in and out delights thee.
Mr Campion:
I care not for these Ladies / That must be wooed snd Prayed: / Give me kind Amaryllis, / The wanton country maid.
This is the reason I grow out Amaryllis bulbs for fab huge flowers all December and January til March on my dining table. We call them all Mary Ellis !
Cheers all. Do enjoy the 16.5 minutes of action in the Supper Bowl; Yes, somebody studied this.
jon tU
I got the same answers as everyone else, and found each of them using Google's wildcard operator, which confirms my suspicion that it exists mostly so people can find half-remembered songs and quotes. ;-)
ReplyDelete