The Earworm Thread

[Cockney Sparrow]

Not quite an earworm, but the same hymn (with Ledger's descant) is a favourite on the EMI (ok, Warner) CD "Procession with Carols for Advent Sunday" from Kings. We went to a few Carnival Band concerts around Christmas time, and got some CDs, but I don't recall that track.

[kernelbogey]

Not quite an earworm, but the same hymn (with Ledger's descant) is a favourite on the EMI (ok, Warner) CD "Procession with Carols for Advent Sunday" from Kings. We went to a few Carnival Band concerts around Christmas time, and got some CDs, but I don't recall that track.

Aah, well it's given me a taste of the Carnival Band so I may try and hear them live. On R3 Breakfast in past years we have heard their recording of The Holly and the Ivy in (IIRC) a Cornish carol version: also with Maddy Prior's extraordinary soprano voice.

[cloughie]

Aah, well it's given me a taste of the Carnival Band so I may try and hear them live. On R3 Breakfast in past years we have heard their recording of The Holly and the Ivy in (IIRC) a Cornish carol version: also with Maddy Prior's extraordinary soprano voice.

Following a busy Advent Carols have provided a series of residual earworms since Christmas Eve. Now, kb, some clarification - The Holly and the Ivy is not itself a Cornish carol but the St Day (Sans day) Carol is! There is however a Camborne version of the Holly and … researched by our folk choir MD. A different tune and different words. The well-known H & I was sourced by Cecil Sharp in Chipping Campden in 1909!
The latest carol to catch my ear was played by Petroc on Boxing Day. It was ‘As shepherds watched their fleecy care’ written by Joseph Key in the late C18th, from Warwickshire but very much inthe same vein as many of the Cornich carols I have had the joy in singing recently - and lodged as firmly in my lugholes!

Maddy’s contributions and influences on my Christmas choices is appreciated as Gaudete is a strong favourite in my repertoire!

[cloughie]

Feliz Navidad. A contender (in an admittedly strong field) for most annoying Christmas song ever. If you don't know it, I urge, no implore you, not to seek it out; for it is insidiously infectious and once heard will need a strong course of willpower to erase.

I own up to enjoying Boney M singing this!

[kernelbogey]

Following a busy Advent Carols have provided a series of residual earworms since Christmas Eve. Now, kb, some clarification - The Holly and the Ivy is not itself a Cornish carol but the St Day (Sans day) Carol is! There is however a Camborne version of the Holly and … researched by our folk choir MD. A different tune and different words. The well-known H & I was sourced by Cecil Sharp in Chipping Campden in 1909!
The latest carol to catch my ear was played by Petroc on Boxing Day. It was ‘As shepherds watched their fleecy care’ written by Joseph Key in the late C18th, from Warwickshire but very much inthe same vein as many of the Cornich carols I have had the joy in singing recently - and lodged as firmly in my lugholes!

Maddy’s contributions and influences on my Christmas choices is appreciated as Gaudete is a strong favourite in my repertoire!

So IDNRC - it was the Sans Day Carol recorded by Maddy and TCB that I was half-recalling! Thanks for clarification Cloughie.

[cloughie]

So IDNRC - it was the Sans Day Carol recorded by Maddy and TCB that I was half-recalling! Thanks for clarification Cloughie.

Yes but on checking via Spotify there recordings of both carols by Maddy’s TCB. Both sound pretty good!

This is another version, this time by Maddy with Steeleye Span - this is closer to the Camborne version which our folk choir sing.

https://open.spotify.com/track/2OPWQN14QOZdRAHZin1Yjr?si=2zcsAMTUR36yVZ0burhaIw

it was originally the B side of the Gaudete hit single!

[gradus]

Too much Bernstein lately, I can't get the closing bars of Mahler 2 (the real Ely performance) out of my head with LB's astonishing conducting.

[kernelbogey]

Yes but on checking via Spotify there recordings of both carols by Maddy’s TCB. Both sound pretty good!...

There's also a version of While Shepherds Watch... that I've always assumed (there must be a reason) to be from Cornwall. I could sing it but I don't know how else to convey it to you! I wonder if you know such a version. I don't have Spotify: perhaps I'll have a search on YouTube tomorrow. It could be by one of the Wesleys, perhaps.

[cloughie]

There's also a version of While Shepherds Watch... that I've always assumed (there must be a reason) to be from Cornwall. I could sing it but I don't know how else to convey it to you! I wonder if you know such a version. I don't have Spotify: perhaps I'll have a search on YouTube tomorrow. It could be by one of the Wesleys, perhaps.

Youtube link for Holly and Ivy

https://youtu.be/4LxHj8vmlNA?si=Dx2sfWsKPjY6Itz2

Wile shepherds watch has in Cornwall alone 34 different tunes and many others elsewhere - including ‘Ilkley moor’, ‘House of the rising sun’ and I’ve used it for Troika bit of ‘I believe in Father Christmas’, useful when singing a cappella and providing a sacred contrast to Greg Lake’s more secular take on Christmas.

Back to Cornwall the most popular tune here is Lyngham

https://youtu.be/C5BiGpLqusQ?si=hAF8K7V-bdujbPsZ

Here it is sung by The Red River Singers - Mrs C and I are members but were not there on this occasion. It is not Cornish - I remember singing it in my youth in South Yorkshire.
It is the Methodist Hymnbook tune for ‘O for a thousand tongues to sing’.*

If you have not checked yet it is worth a look at the Wiki ‘While shepherds watch’

* Just checked and Lyngham was written by Thomas Jarman (from Northamptonshire) in 1803!

[kernelbogey]

Very many thanks, Cloughie. Yes it is the Lyngham/Jarman version that has been my earworm! I'm a bit full of Strauss atm so will listen to those two tracks properly dreckly.

[Serial_Apologist]

Very many thanks, Coughie. Yes it is the Lyngham/Jarman version that has been my earworm! I'm a bit full of Strauss atm so will listen to those two tracks properly dreckly.

I to had far too much stodge over Christmas!

[kernelbogey]

I've not read the whole of this thread but I have been wondering about the following question (which may have been answered by some previous posts).

Does anyone get earworms of bits of music that they haven't heard recently? That is, an earworm arriving apparently unprovoked?

[Petrushka]

Does anyone get earworms of bits of music that they haven't heard recently? That is, an earworm arriving apparently unprovoked?

Yes and those are the earworms I get the most. They can be, say, a hymn tune or anthem from my choir days that I've not heard for over 50 years. They are also the most difficult to track down and a severe test of memory skills!

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes and those are the earworms I get the most. They can be, say, a hymn tune or anthem from my choir days that I've not heard for over 50 years. They are also the most difficult to track down and a severe test of memory skills!

My experience also, mentioned in the Light Music thread. I've found this happening a lot recently - hearing piano music played by a piano teacher accompanying pupils entering for morning assembly when I was seven or eight - pieces I have not thought about for many years. It possibly has something to do with the fact that the two years I spent at that school were the happiest of my otherwise pretty miserable education, and the music has associations with feelings of inner security I find myself lacking, these days. Being simple to play I've been trying to re-evoke them on the piano.

[gradus]

I wonder if getting a tune on the brain/Earworm is really the norm for most people, possibly a topic for R4's All in the Mind which has been featuring research on the reasons some people don't have any emotional reaction to music , 10-15% apparently can take it or leave it.