There are a thousand songs I know and never sing. Many of them I learned when I was very young – so young I don’t even know where I learned them. The assumption is that they are genetic material, right next to the gene that houses my eye color and my predilection for large amounts of Heath bars.
Bu, of course, that’s not true. And there’s no reason a kid will know “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, or “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, or “Do You Know the Muffin Man” – someone had to sing those songs to the kid – probably at least seven or eight times, and they had to sing it themselves.
We kind of figure that will just happen, but I’m not so sure.
I was at workshop of librarians recently and one of them said that she had visited ten pre-schools, and there was no singing in any of them. I would like to believe that the parents were taking care of the singing, but, um, that is a generous assumption. Most people don’t sing – they leave it to the experts (if I’m the expert we’re in trouble), and of course, singing isn’t for experts, it’s for humans in general.
How long does it take to lose a song? Jane Jacobs, in one of her last books, Dark Age Ahead, says it only takes one generation to lose part of a culture. If the parents don’t sing, and the pre-school teachers don’t sing, the kid ain’t gonna sing either. The song is gone. It may be in a book, but a song in a book, unsung, is a very sad little piece of information, and not really breathing.
Is something lost if we don’t sing something as simple as those songs we know but don’t sing?
Well, yes, something is lost. First, of course, because singing is part of being human, so not singing is approaching something else entirely, and I don’t want to see that permutation of the gene pool as it devolves. But second, those songs, those melodies, form a part of our common understanding. For sure, there are issues of cultural sensitivity, or white-guy dominance (“London Bridge” may have less value than “De Colores”, if those things are measureable) and we need to expand what we have in common. But those cultural references are important in conversations and community.
Songs we all know, in that way, are building blocks for a community we build. And I’m guessing songs do that better than guidelines for behavior or credos or laws.
I don’t think that we are going to lose music as a culture, just look at the number of people that listen to music on their mp3 players and iPods. It’s not decreasing. Kids and adults listen to music constantly whether it be through movies, tv or background themes on video games they play. Ask any kid to sing the theme song for Spongebob. They still remember songs.
The issue that you raise is more to the use of song at an early age as a teaching tool. The songs we sing and the songs that are learned in schools/libraries are much different from the songs we listen to as we grow older. The nursery rhyme songs, rounds, folksongs, songs like the ones you write that we grew up on taught us. It was part of the bond we had with our parents and early instructors. They were in fact the building blocks of our families and connection to our ancestors. What made them special was that we all shared the same songs at that age.
And you’re right there are too many songs and stories for that matter that are being lost due to not being shared. It would be truly sad to lose those connections with our past. You and I must keep on singing them, to our kids, our grandkids, our nieces, nephews and their families and not let them die.
Often when I’m asked for a song on the spur of the moment, I say “I’ll sing you one of the most spiritual (Zen) songs I know.” Then I sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat. After the chuckling dissolves I start the round off and get everyone to sing. I am never dissappointed in how that song lifts the energy of the group, and makes everyone smile.
Feelin’ blue? Just take a deep breath and start the round for yourself.
Reading this thread woke me up to the idea that The Endangered Stories Act could easily be called the Endangered Stories and Song Act. (You can find it at http://storytellerscampfire.wordpress.com/endangered-stories-act-2/)
I bought a giant harmonica fake-book recently. There I found dozens of old campfire songs that I’d totally forgotten about.
Okay Bill, I’m going to grab a harp and make sure I don’t forget Row Row Row. Songs don’t get more cosmic than that!