tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post3693050826734729764..comments2024-01-22T18:22:29.391-08:00Comments on hedera's corner: Let Men Their Songs Employhederahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01696592301686568456noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-62447532974155708432009-12-30T10:08:10.937-08:002009-12-30T10:08:10.937-08:00Hi, boggart, long time no hear! I'm not sure ...Hi, boggart, long time no hear! I'm not sure what we did was "caroling" in your definition, since we got together ahead of time and rehearsed a list of songs, and went to some considerable effort to make sure we had all the vocal parts covered for every gig! I think it's been at least 10 years since a bunch of our neighbors poured out of a party onto the street and went around the 'hood singing carols, with everyone singing soprano except for maybe 3 people who knew the harmony! Still, the people who stopped to listen to us seemed to like us.<br /><br /> Our last gig was at the Oakland Zoo, and there was one little girl in a stroller, maybe somewhere between 10 and 15 months, who I swear was beating time with us, more or less accurately! (Get that kid an audition as soon as she can stand up!)hederahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01696592301686568456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-19008871672174494702009-12-30T09:45:26.109-08:002009-12-30T09:45:26.109-08:00Ahhh, caroling - I honesty thought it had died out...Ahhh, caroling - I honesty thought it had died out. I remember my family and the neighbors getting together more or less on the spur of the moment and going through the neighborhood caroling. Now and then a family would down what they were doing, throw on coats and jackets and join us. There was usually snow underfoot, although not much as this was just outside D.C. The sky was clear, and the stars brilliant. Somewhere along the line one of the adults would point out a constellation or two.<br /><br />When we lived in Hawaii, no snow, I'd take the girl scout troop caroling. We'd go to the hospital during visiting hours and carol in the corridors. The new parents in the maternity ward always came out and looked at the girls in a somewhat besotted fashion. Since then, which is a fair bit of time ago, there seems to be no caroling.<br /><br />It wasn't a religious activity nor commercially secular. It was just plain fun. The, mostly, untrained voices at the very least carried the joy of the season. Television and the mall isn't a real replacement.Boggartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-43312974725418299022009-12-18T18:28:16.020-08:002009-12-18T18:28:16.020-08:00Oh, that's great - I've never sung it in G...Oh, that's great - I've never sung it in German as far as I can remember, so I didn't know the real original text, just the English translation. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Es_ist_ein_Ros_entsprungen" rel="nofollow">A little reference in Wikipedia</a> (I really must donate something to Wikipedia, I use it ALL the time) reveals that the "standard" English text, "She bore to men a savior", was written by Theodore Baker, an American musicologist, in 1894. <br /><br />There is a second English text in which verse 2 reads, "Through God's great great love and might, The Blessed Babe she bare us, In a cold, cold winter's night." This was written at an unknown date by Catherine Winkworth, an English translator who died in 1878. It may be more politically correct (a lot of Victorian women were feminists, then called "bluestockings"), but I'm afraid I think Mr. Baker's version is better poetry...hederahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01696592301686568456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-13798586397951623832009-12-18T18:18:25.718-08:002009-12-18T18:18:25.718-08:00No, it isn't - sorry - it's "hat Sie ...No, it isn't - sorry - it's "hat Sie ein kind geboren," or something like that - even more gender neutral. (My Oxford Carol Book is in Medford and I'm in Templeton, or I'd look it up. I might anyway if it wasn't such a long way to the front of this house.)Aunt Stanburyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16426109401028665557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-44287465004750600652009-12-18T18:15:34.478-08:002009-12-18T18:15:34.478-08:00Anyway, in "Lo How a Rose" isn't the...Anyway, in "Lo How a Rose" isn't the German phrase "hat uns ein kind geboren" or words to that effect? Apparently the politically correct change is closer to the original.Aunt Stanburyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16426109401028665557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-18817372582926429772009-12-18T17:23:26.619-08:002009-12-18T17:23:26.619-08:00Chopping up the language to suit contemporary egal...Chopping up the language to suit contemporary egalitarian sensibilities was one of Laurie's soapboxes. He hated changing words for such reasons and accordingly made rather a pain in the patootie of himself in choir rehearsals.<br /><br />I see his point, and yours. I also wonder how many little girls have heard or sung "...goodwill to men" and the like and wondered if God loved them, too.<br /><br />Aunt StanburyAunt Stanburyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16426109401028665557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-62304462154542351602009-12-17T06:19:55.955-08:002009-12-17T06:19:55.955-08:00Do you remember that great scene in Darling, the S...Do you remember that great scene in Darling, the Sixties British flick that starred Laurence Harvey and Julie Christie? In their first seduction scene, her character says: "Suppose it took three" -- "how do you mean?" -- "to make a baby" -- "Charming!"<br /><br />In Japan, on city streets, you still see women following their men by five steps on the sidewalk. No explaining the Japanese--they're not just another race, but another species!Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-88765812121860983512009-12-16T09:41:20.199-08:002009-12-16T09:41:20.199-08:00Oh, sometimes I rant on things that have no soluti...Oh, sometimes I rant on things that have no solution, like this. That's what blogs are for. <br /><br />I'm interested in the theory that the structure of our language controls the way we view the world. One of the references on Wikipedia, which I didn't follow up at the time, was entitled, <i>On the creation of "She" in Japanese</i>. What does the lack of a pronoun reference to women say about Japanese? I tried reading Benjamin Whorf at one time, unfortunately, the man can't write...<br /><br />If you've read <i>Ringworld</i>, you may remember that <i>hir</i> was not gender neutral; Niven invented it to describe the third sex in a 3-gender species!hederahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01696592301686568456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-51322188083508417172009-12-16T08:08:15.907-08:002009-12-16T08:08:15.907-08:00This is a curious rant, with no apparent solution....This is a curious rant, with no apparent solution. Do you mean we should invent a new word, like Niven's hir? <br /><br />The conundrum is that there is no such thing as a neuter--we're all either one thing or the other. I had a friend years ago who used to raise the issue--not wholly tongue-in-cheek--of a so-called "sex code 3" for transsexuals and the like. <br /><br />I always liked "pudenda".Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.com