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God save the female?

Admittedly, queen comes from an Old English word for female, but.


#29219 05/16/01 01:25 PM
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MaxQ asked : American national hymn sung to the tune of "God save the (insert sex of monarch here)"?

Yes, indeedy.
"America"

"My country 'tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty,
of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring."

To sing it properly you have to sort of elongate the "every" and "freedom."
Every once in awhile there is a populist movement to change the National Anthem from "The Star Spangled Banner" to "America" as it is easier to sing!
Both the tunes for "God Save the .." and "The Star Spangled Banner" are English in origin.
"The Star Spangled Banner" melody being an old English drinking song, I believe!
Then, there are those in favor of "America the Beautiful" as our national anthem - with both melody and lyric American in origin, and not requiring a large vocal range to sing.
"America The Beautiful"

"O, beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountains majesty,
Above the fruited plains,
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea."

Since I'm dredging these lyrics up from memory please correct if I've made mistakes. Thanks.


#29220 05/16/01 01:37 PM
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i think Sparteye was referring to songs which can change lyrics,
not different songs with the same tune. it's more a poetry problem (rhythm) than a music one (tune).
so "House of the Rising Sun" and "O little town of Bethlehem" can both fit their first lines into 10 beats (and so on), hence the interchangeability.
"La bamba" and "Twist and shout" are the same tune, a pretty common thing in music that used to be a matter of respect but is now called nicking.
what was that song about a lemon tree that used the Police tune of "Wrapped around your finger"?
and what was it that Shakespeare said about there being nothing new under the sun?


#29221 05/16/01 02:45 PM
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william asks: what was it that Shakespeare said about there being nothing new under the sun?

Would that have been Shakespeare Ecclesiastes?

And I remembered the words to that other song to the tune of God Save the (insert sex here).

God save our Auntie Jean,
Long may she sell ice(d) cream,
And candy balls.



#29222 05/16/01 03:01 PM
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i think Sparteye was referring to songs which can change lyrics,not different songs with the same tune

Yes, dear, I know ... but MaxQ asked and as he has been so kind as to answer many of my questions, I thought it only fair ... or is that yet another tangent?

Oh, by the way, didn't Huey Newton win a law suit because someone stole the melody for "I want a new drug" (title?) then speed it up a bit and use it as background for a movie?


#29223 05/16/01 03:23 PM
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Would that have been Shakespeare Ecclesiastes

must have been. sorry about that.


#29224 05/16/01 03:31 PM
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Twinkle twinkle
The original words began, "Ah, vous dirai-je, maman". You will from time to time hear on classical music stations a solo piano piece by Mozart, a very clever set of variations on Ah vous dirai-je Maman.


#29225 05/16/01 03:39 PM
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Mix 'n Match Hymns
Nearly every hymnbook will show, usually at the top of the page, an abbreviation of the metre of the hymn, e.g., CM, LM, SM, LMD, etc. (which stand for, respectively, common metre, long metre, short metre, long metre doubled). These are standard arrangements with a certain number of lines and a certain number of syllables per line. So if you get tired of singing The Church's One Foundation to the usual tune, known as Aurelia, you look for another tune with the same metre and it will probably fit. Many hymnals have an index with all the tunes sorted by metre to make it easier to find an alternate tune. There are, of course, some hymns which have been sung to different tunes for eons, so there may be two or more versions in a hymnbook. For instance, Jesus Lover of My Soul, a Victorian favorite, is sung to 3 different tunes.


#29226 05/16/01 04:07 PM
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Rejoice the Lord is King is another one of those, in the "Catholic Book of Worship", with one arrangement considerably peppier than the other.


#29227 05/16/01 04:08 PM
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I'd like to buy the world a CokeŽ and keep it company."

My Reader's Digest songbook, which had an arrangement of that song, mentioned that it was one of the most successful advertising campaingns in history and it did not include the name of the product in the song. Interesting, eh?


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