Impromptu Singing

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

We don't hear enough of your valuable views on the forum, Historian, so I hope you weren't really offended!

I hope Histo wasn't "offended" at all! Nothing offensive was intended in my latin pun; just continuing the explosive detour. (I'll take the flak and apologise if necessary.)

(Mind you - nothing was said about how the referred-to "intellectual level" was intended! )

[Historian]

Not offended at all! I always forget that tone of voice/intent does not come over well in a post. May have to bite the bullet (is that eligible?) and start adding emojis.

[Historian]

Just sing it - fits the Austrian Hymn tune!

...or even Men of Harlech!

Yes, they both fit. I always enjoy singing 'Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion city of our God' as well.

[Mary Chambers]

The man who collects and organises the shopping trolleys in a local supermarket sings all the time. I don't Usually recognise what he sings, but it’s a pleasant and cheering sound.

It’s not as common as it was, though. When I was a child (a long time ago) our next door neighbour used to sing when she was in the garden.

[Lat-Literal]

Thinking back to my childhood (hard to think forward to it I suppose) my mother was always singing round the house. If I wanted her to sing a particular song I would hum a few phrases quietly nearby while she was busy doing something else. A few moments later she would break into the same song.

That is a nice memory - thank you for it.

The man who collects and organises the shopping trolleys in a local supermarket sings all the time. I don't Usually recognise what he sings, but it’s a pleasant and cheering sound.

It’s not as common as it was, though. When I was a child (a long time ago) our next door neighbour used to sing when she was in the garden.

And that is spot on.

Not that I could be specific but I recognise people in gardens singing in the past and the trolley man singing in the present time.

There is something about a sense of locational presence in each and yet not necessarily a sense of wider connection. I keep being brought back to the influence of the wars in this matter. Not sure if "Workers' Playtime" encouraged singing among factory workers? However, there is an interesting line between, say, Disney's "Whistle While You Work" and the more adult version which altered the lyrics to be rude about Hitler. Note that this was not an attack on any sort of need to grow up as some would have it and play a full part in society but a symbol of a unified sense of who and where was the common enemy. From there, two strands perhaps. The post wartime "Listen With Mother" with its nursery rhymes was surely more "Sing Along With The Radio". Mother was there but the nursery rhymes were intended to be sung. Do childrens' programmes in this era encourage this?

And then, rap music, would you believe. As it happens, I was coming back from the newsagents yesterday evening. There were half a dozen black youths, all male, with what in the eighties we might have called a ghetto blaster. They were chatting and laughing and getting a bit over excited. Probably on the way to a party. I think the chatter was in English and one other language. Spanish? Anyhow, the music was actually rather quiet but the conversation seemed to be partly focussed on it and intermittently they half-sang and half-talked the rap to their own amusement. I couldn't hear the words but they did seem to have a bit of an edge. Musically, that is in the non verbal sample, there was that spatial sound in popular music that is not without prettiness but when listened to alone has an implication of alienation. So if the lyric part was more about critique and attack, then of what? I dunno. The system, meaning what your life is expected to be after your 20s? It was interesting to me that in that context it was being negotiated in a light way by a pack.

I have also just recalled that we have had two professional singers living in my road for brief periods in the past five years. On the famous member of a boy band who had written for Victoria Beckham and lived next door to me, I never heard music coming from his house. Not even once. In contrast, the woman at the end of the road who was a professional opera singer could often be heard doing warming up exercises. The people who lived next door to her couldn't stand it. I would have quite liked it next to me.

[Serial_Apologist]

The man who collects and organises the shopping trolleys in a local supermarket sings all the time. I don't Usually recognise what he sings, but it’s a pleasant and cheering sound.

You and I are both fortunate in this repect, then, Mary.