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  • Scansion question about Shall We Dance?

    From Arthur T.@21:1/5 to All on Tue Apr 19 23:21:23 2022
    I'm filking Shall We Dance from The King And I. My mind, the lyrics,
    and the music don't seem to agree, though.

    After the line "Shall we dance", the music clearly goes "bum bum bum"
    (three beats, no rest). But the lyrics are "One two three and" (four syllables). When I replay it in my mind, I hear it as a different
    four beats which match neither the actual music nor the actual lyrics
    ("badum bum bum").

    So, my question is, how should I best filk it? Three syllables? Four
    equal syllables? Four, but the first shorter or less stressed?

    Of course, I could go with "Eh, close enough for filk music." But I'd
    like to know how people who might sing my lyrics would like it to be.

    If you're not comfortable opining in public, you can use the eddress
    that's in my sig.

    My source:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgVPnWmUqd4

    --
    Arthur T. - ar23hur "at" pobox "dot" com

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  • From Tim Merrigan@21:1/5 to All on Tue Apr 19 22:55:29 2022
    On Tue, 19 Apr 2022 23:21:23 -0400, Arthur T. <arthur@munged.invalid>
    wrote:

    I'm filking Shall We Dance from The King And I. My mind, the lyrics,
    and the music don't seem to agree, though.

    After the line "Shall we dance", the music clearly goes "bum bum bum"
    (three beats, no rest). But the lyrics are "One two three and" (four >syllables). When I replay it in my mind, I hear it as a different
    four beats which match neither the actual music nor the actual lyrics
    ("badum bum bum").

    So, my question is, how should I best filk it? Three syllables? Four
    equal syllables? Four, but the first shorter or less stressed?

    Of course, I could go with "Eh, close enough for filk music." But I'd
    like to know how people who might sing my lyrics would like it to be.

    If you're not comfortable opining in public, you can use the eddress
    that's in my sig.

    My source:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgVPnWmUqd4

    As I hear it, there's a half beat pause in the music before the bum
    bum bum, where the "and" goes in the lyrics. (And the dance steps.)
    --

    Qualified immunity = virtual impunity.

    Tim Merrigan

    --
    This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
    https://www.avg.com

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  • From Gary McGath@21:1/5 to Arthur T. on Wed Apr 20 06:53:18 2022
    On 4/19/22 11:21 PM, Arthur T. wrote:
    I'm filking Shall We Dance from The King And I. My mind, the lyrics,
    and the music don't seem to agree, though.

    After the line "Shall we dance", the music clearly goes "bum bum bum"
    (three beats, no rest). But the lyrics are "One two three and" (four syllables). When I replay it in my mind, I hear it as a different
    four beats which match neither the actual music nor the actual lyrics
    ("badum bum bum").

    So, my question is, how should I best filk it? Three syllables? Four
    equal syllables? Four, but the first shorter or less stressed?

    Of course, I could go with "Eh, close enough for filk music." But I'd
    like to know how people who might sing my lyrics would like it to be.

    If you're not comfortable opining in public, you can use the eddress
    that's in my sig.

    If I were doing it, I'd want to stick closely to the way it's done in
    "The King and I," with the strongest emphasis on "three." Having it with
    the strongest emphasis on "two," which is what I think you say you hear
    in your mind, would crowd the word "dance" or whatever you replace it with.

    Leaving off the "and" wouldn't hurt much. In the original, it's
    intentionally a bit awkward, reflecting the king's effort in learning
    the dance step. And since it's a duet, the lack of a space for breath
    doesn't matter as much. Changing it to three syllables, assuming your
    filk is a solo, may actually help.

    In "Sing Along with Mad," a parody reduces the response to three
    syllables. I haven't read it in years, but I'm pretty sure it starts
    like this:

    Shall we strike?
    Yes, yes, yes!
    For the third time since April
    Shall we strike?
    Yes, yes, yes!



    --
    Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

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  • From Arthur T.@21:1/5 to Tim Merrigan on Thu Apr 21 13:16:22 2022
    In Message-ID:<gr7v5hha22lba0ud1bl7a71hno216ge0rs@4ax.com>,
    Tim Merrigan <tppm@ca.rr.com> wrote:

    On Tue, 19 Apr 2022 23:21:23 -0400, Arthur T. <arthur@munged.invalid>
    wrote:

    I'm filking Shall We Dance from The King And I. My mind, the lyrics,
    and the music don't seem to agree, though.

    After the line "Shall we dance", the music clearly goes "bum bum bum" >>(three beats, no rest). But the lyrics are "One two three and" (four >>syllables). When I replay it in my mind, I hear it as a different
    four beats which match neither the actual music nor the actual lyrics >>("badum bum bum").
    <snip>
    As I hear it, there's a half beat pause in the music before the bum
    bum bum, where the "and" goes in the lyrics. (And the dance steps.)

    Yes. That explains my badum. I had been looking for a rest (or some
    such) at the *end* where they sing "and", but it was at the
    beginning.

    --
    Arthur T. - ar23hur "at" pobox "dot" com

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  • From Arthur T.@21:1/5 to Gary McGath on Thu Apr 21 13:17:01 2022
    In Message-ID:<t3oon0$h89$1@dont-email.me>,
    Gary McGath <garym@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:

    In "Sing Along with Mad," a parody reduces the response to three
    syllables. I haven't read it in years, but I'm pretty sure it starts
    like this:

    Shall we strike?
    Yes, yes, yes!

    Thank you for this and the analysis which preceded it. I decided to
    go with the Mad precedent and use the three beats.

    --
    Arthur T. - ar23hur "at" pobox "dot" com

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