Date:    Tue, 17 Mar 1998 22:19:27 -0600
<br>From:    Mike Salovesh  t20mxs1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CORN.CSO.NIU.EDU 
<br>Subject: Re: children's rhymes
<br>
<br>Duane Campbell wrote:
<br>
<br>  Ring Around the Rosey is commonly sung as so - so - me - la - so - me, but
<br>  that's not the only thing this riff is used for. Johnnie's got a
<br>  girlfriend.  I know where you're going. I was surprised to hear small
<br>  children in Germany and France using the same ditty for their own purposes.
<br>  Anyone have an idea of its provinance?
<br> 
<br>  Duane Campbell  dcamp[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]epix.net
<br>  http://www.epix.net/~dcamp/
<br>
<br> I have no direct answer.  There was a song that used that element, but it
<br>clearly was a musical quotation, not the original source.
<br>
<br>I refer to a World War II song about a U.S. pilot in the Pacific.   The "so -
<br>so - me - la - so - me"  phrase was adapted to the words "Johnny got a Zero",
<br>meaning the Japanese fighter plane.  Not a great song, but quite popular for
<br>its message.  The song begins with kids teasing Johnny for bad test results
<br>back in school -- and ends with triumphant affirmation of military success.
<br>
<br>Oh, God, now that damned tune will stick in my head all night.  "Johnny got a
<br>Zero, he got another Zero, Johnny got a Zero, today!"  And me a pacifist in the
<br>first place.  Sticking it in the heads of some other old-timers out there is
<br>all I can do to pay you back for bringing it up at all.
<br>
<br>Now for my own dialect inquiry:  Duane says "so - me - la".  Back in grade
<br>school, I'm pretty sure I was taught to spell the scale "do - re - mi - fa -
<br>sol - la - ti - do", except for a couple of holdout music teachers who insisted
<br>that the 7th should be "si", not "ti".  (The "l" in "sol" for the 5th was
<br>pronounced by all.)  Without sending me back to the school of solfaggio, or to
<br>shapenote singers, does anyone recall hearing other variants in these words for
<br>the musical scale?  (I'm asking for words used in English more or less within
<br>living human memory.)
<br>
<br>--  mike
<br>salovesh
<br> salovesh[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]niu.edu 
<br>     anthropology department
<br>     northern illinois
<br>university                                                        PEACE !!!
<br>