Children’s informal musical cultures

2.1: Learning to Sing Informally

Sample study:

Children Singing Online:
An Examination of Internet-Based Resources of
Children Singing Throughout the World
Christopher Roberts
University of Washington

!! Scholarship
!! (Newell, 1883; Gomme, 1894; Yoffie, 1948; Blacking, 1967;
Opie & Opie, 1985; Riddell, 1990; Harwood, 1998; Campbell,
1998/2010; Gaunt, 2006; Emberly, 2009)
!! Lack of recordings
"! Exceptions:

!!

Brumfield (2006, 2009); Corso (2003)

Rise of the internet: leading to change?

!! Purpose:
!! To identify websites of diverse groups of children singing
without the apparent mediation of adults
!! To transcribe sample songs into traditional Western notation
!! To provide for a classification system

Method

Smithsonian Folkways

!! Internet searched via:
!!
!!

Search engines (e.g. Google, Bing)
E-mails to colleagues in music education, ethnomusicology, and folk
music studies

!! Criteria:
!!
!!
!!

Limited (apparent) adult mediation
Easy accessibility of website
At least 10 examples per site

!! Five websites met the criteria
!!
!!
!!

All based in United States or the United Kingdom
Within these websites, particular attention was paid to recordings
made outside these two countries
34 songs transcribed, representing 15 countries and 23 cultures

Smithsonian Folkways:
Maburu We

Smithsonian Folkways
!! The site:
!!
!!
!!

2168 albums
30-second samples of all tracks streamed gratis
Albums and individual tracks can be downloaded for a fee

!! The musical examples, overall:
!!

Geographically diverse catalog
"! Both

broad (Folk Music of Japan)
"! And specific (Por Por: Honk Horn Music from Ghana)

!! The musical examples, children:
!!
!!
!!

Famous adult performers (Guthrie, Seeger, Jenkins, Ritchie)
Complete albums of children’s musickings (1, 2, 3, and a Zing Zing
Zing)
Individual tracks of children singing on albums of music of a specific
culture

Oh, A Shoe, A Shoe
#6
& 8œ
X

œ

œ

X

Ϫ

œ

# 6
& ™™8 œ œ œ œ™

5

Ma - bu - ru
X

we,

X

# 6
& ™™8 œ œ œ œ œ™

9

Setl - ha - ko
X

Ko mo - ra - go

x = hand claps

œ

X

we,

X

we,

œ

ma - bu - ru
X

X

X

œ œ œ™

we

X

i - joo,
X

2
œ 4œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
X

di - chan - ka - na - na chan - ka - na - na

œ œ œ œ œ œ™

setl - ha - ko

we

X

i - joo,

2
œ 4œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
X

X

ko mo - ra - go

X

di - chan - ka - na - na chan - ka - na - na

we

i - joo

X

X

œ

œ

Œ

™™ 68

Œ

™™ 68

chan chang.
-

2
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ™ œ 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ

X

X

X

di - chan -ka - na - na chan -ka - na - na

X

X

œ

œ

chan - chang.
X

œ

X

œ

chan - chang.

Œ

™™

 Smithsonian Folkways:
Maburu We

!!
!!

!!
!!
!!
!!

!!
!!

!!
!!
!!

Association for Cultural Equity

Performer(s) (with age): A group of young children of the Bakgaladi cultural group (ages not given)
Date: Not given. The song comes from the Folkways album Traditional Music of Botswana, Africa: A
Journey with Tape Recorder Along Southern Botswana from Muchudi to Keng (FE 4371), which was
released in 1983.
Location: Letlhakeng, Botswana
Collector: Elizabeth Nelbach Wood
Language: Bakgaladi cultural group (name of language not provided)
Translation:
!! Maburu we: the Boers
!! Ijoo: (a word is a sound indicating pain)
!! Dichankanana: prisons
!! Setlhako we: a shoe
!! Ko morago we: From the back
Game information: None provided
Recording notes: On the second time through the first phrase, the last word (“chang”) has a whistle
sound that occurs atop the singing. This whistle repeats at the same point in the second phrase, but
not on the third.
Other information:
Other recordings: Released on the Folkways recording, Traditional Music of Botswana, Africa: A
Journey with Tape Recorder Along Southern Botswana from Muchudi to Keng (FE 4371).
Sound source: http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=796

Archival Sound Recordings of the British Library

Florida Folklife of the WPA Project, 1937-1942

Classification System

Findings
!! Meter
!! Most in simple or compound duple
!! 12/34 in mixed or asymmetric meters
!! Song text topics
!! Death/violence/pain most common (8/34)
!! Others: animals/nature, food, work/occupation
!! Range, tessitura varied widely
!! 27/34 between a fourth and an octave
!! Inuit Children’s Song: A, - E; Trois Fois Passera: A flat – E
Flat’

 2.1: Other projects
!! Already completed:
!! Traditional Children’s Songs of the Wagogo of Central
Tanzania: Collection, Analysis, and Interpretation (Kedmon
Mapana)
!! Vocalizations in World Instrumental Traditions (Ethan
Chessin)
!! Upcoming projects:
!! Acquisition among the Mixtec-speaking Oaxacan Children in
Western Washington (Marin Haynes)
!! Small Nation Singing: Icelandic Song in Historical and
Contemporary Perspectives (Kim Kennedy)