Errantry music

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BraveBrownBear

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I'm still catching up and watching old episodes. While listening to prof. Olsen reading Errantry (Episode 121) I couldn’t help hearing it in my mind on a tune from the overture of Orpheus in the Underworld by Offenbach. This is an orchestra playing it on YouTube (it’s from 7:11 to 7:23, in case the player misbehaves): Offenbach - Orpheus in the Underworld Overture. It's not necessarily a suggestion. :)
 
If I'm not mistaken, you mean the section that's the introduction to the "can-can" melody? If you mean the first Errantry version, it does fit. It's too upbeat and fast once the poem gets serious, but I never would have thought of it. It would be a mouthful, though - all those yummy rhymes.
 
Correct. The first version, the part before the "can-can".
Tolkien said that it was to be read as fast as possible, so the tempo fits (though it requires some skill to avoid stumbling on words). Also the joke about repeating the poem from the start would work well.
 
BraveBrownBear said:
it requires some skill to avoid stumbling on words
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Totally unrelated anecdote: one of my favorite folk groups is Nickel Creek, especially the eponymous album, which includes the tune "The Fox". On this studio-recorded album, they sing the "easy" words "the old gray woman jumped out of bed". But I also have TWO live recordings of their rendition of this traditional song, and in both of those, they not only take the tempo up a notch or three from the studio version, but they attempt the tongue-tangling "old mother Hubbard stumbled out of her bed".

In both recordings, they utterly fail to get all those syllables out.
 
Listen to Gilbert and Sullivan’s “I am the very model of a modern major general” and then read Errantry. Life will never be the same. :p

 
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RogerWilco said:
Listen to Gilbert and Sullivan’s “I am the very model of a modern major general” and then read Errantry. Life will never be the same.
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Yes, definitely a patter song. You can go back further to Rossini to hear more of them. That's why the Offenbach works. Here's one of my favorites, with about as much sense as Errantry.

 
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As a poet, I still find Errantry to be pure genius. His consistency with his multisyllabic rhymes are sheer genius and so hard to emulate. And the entire form is a fiendish work of art.
 
Not even Tolkien could do it again. He adapted it and turned into something much more serious and subtle, but he couldn't just start over. It's one of those rare creative moments where the form seemed to arrive with the idea - something altogether new, and altogether unique.
 
It really is wonderful. Both I iterations are brilliantly done, though I do prefer errantry. For me personally it has far more playfulness with language
 
BraveBrownBear said:
I'm still catching up and watching old episodes. While listening to prof. Olsen reading Errantry (Episode 121) I couldn’t help hearing it in my mind on a tune from the overture of Orpheus in the Underworld by Offenbach. This is an orchestra playing it on YouTube (it’s from 7:11 to 7:23, in case the player misbehaves): Offenbach - Orpheus in the Underworld Overture. It's not necessarily a suggestion. :)
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Well, this thread got way more traction than mine did back in November 2019:

Errantry fits perfectly with Jacques Offenbach's "Can-Can" from Orpheus In The Underworld

Like it says in the title: Errantry fits perfectly with Jacques Offenbach's "Can-Can" from Orpheus In The Underworld.
forums.signumuniversity.org

But, yes. I agree completely!
 
Johannes said:
Well, this thread got way more traction than mine did back in November 2019:

Errantry fits perfectly with Jacques Offenbach's "Can-Can" from Orpheus In The Underworld

Like it says in the title: Errantry fits perfectly with Jacques Offenbach's "Can-Can" from Orpheus In The Underworld.
forums.signumuniversity.org

But, yes. I agree completely!
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I didn't expect such attention either, nor all the other interesting suggestions. I'm sure I've searched to see if anybody had suggested a music before, but probably I've searched only this forum.

Now we only need somebody who can actually sing and try it. :)
 
BraveBrownBear said:
I didn't expect such attention either, nor all the other interesting suggestions. I'm sure I've searched to see if anybody had suggested a music before, but probably I've searched only this forum.

Now we only need somebody who can actually sing and try it. :)
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HA! Thanks for commenting in my old post. Finally, recognition!

Yeah it's really fun to sing the poem to Can-Can music, but you have to loop the fist part over and over. I can't make the poem fit the rest of the music. Maybe someone with a little musical talent could make it work.
 
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