tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415228448079976141.post3260807608506436498..comments2024-01-17T09:06:41.408-05:00Comments on BookMenDC: Playing the Sing-Song CardTimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09257203824962491470noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415228448079976141.post-34846762781914754102009-03-22T10:22:00.000-04:002009-03-22T10:22:00.000-04:00Thank you for your kind words (and for responding ...Thank you for your kind words (and for responding into the vacuum of cyberspace)! Limericks can be variously analysed but at a minimum they involve ternary meters. Ko-Ko's patter song from <I>The Mikado</I> ("As some day it may happen that a victim must be found") is binary (iambic heptameter, to be exact) so there's no chance of singing a limerick to it. Ditto for the Major General's "I am the very model of a modern major general" (binary again, iambic octameter—<I>The Pirates of Penzance</I>). The Lord Chancellor's patter song ("When you're lying awake with a dismal headache, and respose is taboo'd by anxiety" from <I>Iolanthe</I>) is ternary and parts of a limerick could be fitted to parts of its tune. The fitting, however, would never be satisfactory because the limerick consists of five lines of three beats each except for the third and fourth lines (two beats each). Thus, the middle three lines would fit the seven-beat line of the Lord Chancellor's patter song but then you would awkwardly have two three-beat lines left over. Well (whew! — "ditto ditto my song"), the next time anyone quotes you this bit of green-room lore, challenge them to prove it. What ham could leave that field unassayed!Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09257203824962491470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415228448079976141.post-71967042795405350932009-03-21T21:50:00.000-04:002009-03-21T21:50:00.000-04:00Tim, thanks very much for this and your other new ...Tim, thanks very much for this and your other new postings. I truly admire your ability to be prolific and thoughtful at the same time, a combination far too rare. :-) <BR/><BR/>I particularly relished the story about your theatrical experience, and would like to hear more about that. It called to mind a (tangentially related at best) contention I once heard: one can recite any limerick to the tune of any Gilbert & Sullivan patter song. I haven't tried it, and make no claims it is accurate, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were true as to the rhythm of the lines.DCSteve1441https://www.blogger.com/profile/11062458870814694249noreply@blogger.com