Sunday 28 June 2015

Poem "The Chaos" Revisited: "CHAOS TALK" - A Singable Version

POST #79
PASTICHE with PARODY-LYRICS
ORIGINAL POEM:   "The Chaos" by Gerard Nolst Trenité, 1920. 
ORIGINAL SONG: "Limbo Rock", as recorded 1962 by Chubby Checker.
PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, June, 2015.
WORDPLAY LINK: The updated complete poem by G. Coniglio can be found on "Giorgio's Weekly Wordplay" at post #32.



KEYWORDS: language, goldenoldy, wordplay


Original version of the poem "The Chaos"

“The Chaos” is a poem written by the Dutch writer and English-teacher Gerard Nolst Trenité as a comment on the difficulty of English pronunciation. The work was published by the author in various versions (of increasing length) over the period 1920 to 1944; it has frequently appeared unattributed with some re-editing.
I have made changes quite liberally in the poem in adapting it, including 1) removing lines with dated language, 2) giving priority to American rather than British pronunciation, 3) making it singable, including a touch of  Caribbean lilt in relation to the Original Song, 4) changing the politically-incorrect context with the implied female character now serving as the language expert as well as the inspiration,  5) creating some thematic stanzas based on the subject matter of the problematic words, and 6) adding a last stanza to emphasize the learner's problem of accenting the correct syllable.




Dr. Gerard Nolst Trenité
1870-1946




CHAOS TALK 
(a singable revision of 'The Chaos')

(to the tune of "Limbo Rock")

Greatest creature God create -
Teacher, please enunciate.
Show how sounds should auscultate
Make my head to oscillate.
Heat up versions in your verse
Words like corpse, corps, horse, hoarse, hearse
Tear in eye, tear dress and worse
Tersely parse, or pierce your purse.

History of a billet-doux  -
....
....
....


Accent's hard to get correct
As in current or connect
Segment, portrait they portray
Moray, banquet and filet.
Insight, inquest and intent
Recent recipe, cement
Exit or exist, exude
Concert and request - conclude!



Performing Notes: 

The chord pattern is the same for all verses, and is quite easy. The trick is to clinch the Caribbean rhythm with heavy beats on 2 and 4. and the English lyrics ending just before the 4th downbeat for every line. Another nice trick is to to employ voicing versions for the C and G7 chords (5,4,3,3, and 4,5,3,2 respectively), which allow downward NewYork strumming (for percussion effect)  for the 4 and 4.5 counts in most lines (the F9 and G7 chords can also be adapted to do this for the last few line of each verse).

Fadd9 = 0010.

































Saturday 20 June 2015

Singable Limerick-Medley: CANADA DAY 2015

POST #77
PARODY-SONG with GUEST ARTISTS (various authors contributing limerick verses)
ORIGINAL SONG: These verses can be sung to  "The Limerick Song" , as in "The Flea and the Fly". See sactoGranny's recording on YouTube here.
PARODY COMPOSED: Contributions by a number of authors. Edited by Giorgio Coniglio, originally in June 2015, modified by subsequent additions.

sactoGranny, singing
good, clean limericks
KEYWORDS: wordplay, poetry, traditional, Canadian

CONTENTS:
1. INTRO: Confederation
2. British Columbia
3. Alberta
4. Saskatchewan
5. Manitoba
6. Ontario
7. Quebec
8. New Brunswick
9. Prince Edward Island
10. Nova Scotia
11. Newfoundland
12. Nunavut
13. NWT
14. The Yukon



CANADA DAY 2015

A LIMERICK MEDLEY

(to the tune of "The Limerick Song")

 To make the limericks look more like singable verse, lines 3 and 4 of the traditional 5-line format are compressed so that a four-line stanza with an internal rhyme in the third line results. Original lyrics by G.C. are noted here:


2. New to British Columbia? Rain
Won't extinguish the anguish and strain.
Frequent downpours and drizzle cause incentive to fizzle.
Cherish sunny climes" Get on a plane.

8. For your ode to the spell of New Brunswick
It bodes well that you threw in some puns, Rick;
For the Tidal Bore run daily spews through Moncton,
And the fine view of Fredricton stuns, Rick.

10. Those who cross to petite P.E. Island
Would concur there's no way it's a dry land;
Its calm temperate seas host some great seafood sprees:
Sunday church-dinner, lobster and pie land. 

14. Kim Jong Un, please don't dare drop a nuke on
That magical place called 'The Yukon'.
Visit soon (bring kimchee); oh, how honored we'd be!
Drop by Whitehorse, you'll see, our terrain's mostly scree,
And so cold that you can't grow a cuke on. 





HOTLINKS TO OTHER CANADIAN-THEMED SONG-POSTINGS
..AND A FEW LIMERICK-BASED SONGS
Canada Day 2016 (see below)
Limericks About Chemainus, B.C.



UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT
(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.)