[Organizers] Contra Dance Birthday Round

[Erik Barry Erhardt via Organizers]

I've always heard/sung it "To *our* dear Name, May *he/she* have a long,
long life!"
Substitute "they" or other pronouns as gender/genderfree suggests.

Erik

-- 
Prof. Erik B. Erhardt, UNM Statistics, (505)750-4424  stat.unm.edu/~erike

On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 8:01 PM, Delia Clark via Organizers <
organizers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> I’ve actually always heard it sung with parallel grammar, a little
> differently from in Will’s video:
>
> We wish you a happy birthday,
> A joyous and celebrated birthday,
> To you dear Susan,
> May you live a long, happy life!
>
>
> > On May 5, 2015, at 9:57 PM, Don Peabody via Organizers <
> organizers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> >
> > Sung with gusto, who cares about grammar? But Quakers improved the
> torturous "ha--aa-aa--py" with "a very merry." Better poetry; scans with
> much more grace.
> >
> >
> > On May 5, 2015, at 9:40 PM, Rob Lindauer via Organizers wrote:
> >
> >> The non-parallel grammar of the lyrics have always grated on me
> >>
> >> On 05/05/2015 06:45 PM, William Loving via Organizers wrote:
> >>> Dear Contra friends,
> >>>
> >>> With the help of a number of contributors I believe I finally have a
> good accounting of the origins of the now rapidly spreading “Contra Dance
> Birthday Round”. You can read all I’ve put together here on the Downtown
> Amherst Contra Dance website, with more details, links to recordings and
> sheet music:
> >>>
> >>> http://www.amherstcontra.org/Amherst_Contradance/Birthday_Song.html
> >>>
> >>> We’ve known for a long time that the song was composed in the 1950s or
> early 60s by Dorothy Dushkin, co-founder of the Kinhaven Music School &
> Camp in Weston, Vermont, but the origins of the tune have remained a
> mystery until recently. Some years ago, long-time contra dance caller Ralph
> Sweet came across an out-of-print Girl Scout songbook at a flea market, and
> in it he recognized a song that had the same melody as the birthday round.
> He bought the book, took it home and then, misplaced it for a time.
> >>>
> >>> In today’s mail, I received from Ralph a photocopy from that book with
> the song “Whene’er You Make a Promise”, written in 1828 by English composer
> William Shield, who also composed the tune to “Auld Lang Syne” (to lyrics
> from Robert Burns). The original lyrics are lovely and may also be familiar
> to anyone who was in the Girl Scouts or Girl Guides, this apparently having
> been sung as a campfire song for generations.
> >>>
> >>>     When e're you make a promise,
> >>>     Consider well its importance
> >>>     And...when...made,
> >>>     Engrave it upon your heart.
> >>>
> >>> Enjoy!
> >>>
> >>> Will Loving
> >>> Northampton, Massachusetts
> >>> USA
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>> Organizers at lists.sharedweight.net
> >>> http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net
> >>>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Rob Lindauer
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> Organizers at lists.sharedweight.net
> >> http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
> <>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>
>
> Delia Clark
> PO Box 45
> Taftsville, VT 05073
> 802-457-2075
> deliaclark8 at gmail.com
>
>
>
>
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