Humor, Fun, and Novelty in Song

WHILE THE PRIVATE STUDIO TEACHER faces challenges in that the teacher is often isolated from colleagues and from expensive resources typically available at a school of music, there are advantages to managing one's own studio. Those of us who teach at schools of music are most often bound by curriculum mandates. We must teach a certain number of songs in foreign languages, or we must prepare students for the school's upcoming performance of the chorus, an opera, or a musical. But in the private studio, the teacher gets to choose! And what an advantage this can be. Those of you who have spent some time with me know that love to laugh, so it is not hard to imagine that often assign humorous or novelty songs to singers. While am not able to do that quite as often as I'd like to in my university studio due to the need to meet curriculum requirements, find that the use of these songs in my home studio greatly adds to my popularity as a teacher, particularly as today's students, right or wrong, often are looking for immediate gratification. Furthermore, my private studio caters to the avocational singer, and these singers seem to be more often concerned with choosing songs that are accessible. And to my English speaking students, humorous songs in English are easy to access. This article will explore some humorous songs for use in the private studio. These songs, just like any comedic performance, take many forms: intended, unintended, silly, novel, parody, subtle, broad, urbane, bawdy, witty, satirical, slapstick, or dry. Indeed, just about any song can be performed in a humorous way. Songs that were written to be serious can become humorous when the singer adds props, facial nuances, or other nonmusical features. Some songs become humorous as time passes and connotation of the words used changes significantly. Others are funny due to mondegreens: misinterpretation of the words of a song. Links to performances of many of the songs are included in the notes sections of this article and on line at www.nats.org. NOVELTY AND SILLY SONGS My father was never a singer, but when was very young we would go for rides in the car and he would sing the only two songs he knew: Ham and Eggs1 and Mairzy Doats.2 Ham and Eggs is a scouting song that have never programmed on a concert, and would not recommend doing so. Several years ago, however, did have a student sing Mairzy at a New England NATS conference about fun and humor in song. Mairzy is a perfect example of the composer's purposeful creation of a mondegreen. A mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase of a song in a way that yields an unexpected meaning: Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy becomes Mairzy Doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey. I Like Bananas (Because They Have No Bones) is a silly song from the thirties.3 Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight? is even sillier, but sold many records in the sixties.4 And who can forget Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Walt Disney's Mary Poppins?5 These songs may appeal to your youngest students, but even some of the adults retain a silly streak that they need to explore from time to time. NORTH AMERICAN FOLKSONGS The United States and Canada have a rich heritage of humorous folksongs. The November/December 2009 issue of Journal of Singing brought you a wonderfully detailed report of Canada's fictional Sweet Songstress of Saskatchewan, Sarah Binks, the creation of Paul Gerhardt Hiebert (1892-1987), professor and poet. Contributor Jane Liebel told us about A Sarah Binks Songbook, a collection of six hilarious songs for an adult soprano with a flair for acting. American Folksongs: 35 Arrangements for Voice and Piano, concert arrangements by Bryan Stanley and Richard Walters, published by Hal Leonard, is rich with folksongs that are humorous. …

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