The same day, I sent Rebecca an email telling her all sorts of things about the new set. She wrote back yesterday, very politely asking me what the hell I was blabbering on about, so then I started writing this post. You see, before I could open MuseScore, much like the gentle reader sifting through the opening pages of the Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, I had to work out a thing or two. For any poem from Stuff & Nonsense, I needed to know its key signature and possible melodic motive, and that meant I needed to solve exactly two puzzles.
Before I get into that, a word on the title "Stuff & Nonsense." The phrase is simply inspired by the poetry of the set; if you sit down and read it all at once, "Stuff and nonsense" would be your most natural and immediate reaction. It also happens to show up towards the end of "The Nursery Alice" in Chapter XIV:
The way the trial ended was this. The King wanted the Jury to settle whether the Knave of Hearts was guilty or not guilty-that means that they were to settle whether he had stolen the Tarts, or if somebody else had taken them. But the wicked Queen wanted to have his punishment settled, first of all. That wasn’t at all fair, was it? Because, you know, supposing he never took the Tarts, then of course he oughtn’t to be punished. Would you like to be punished for something you hadn’t done?
So Alice said “Stuff and nonsense!”So the Queen said “Off with her head!” (Just what she always said, when she was angry.)So Alice said “Who cares for you? You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”
The facts are these:
Outgrabe is the first group of 7 songs.
Stuff & Nonsense is the second.
There are also 4 independent "bookend" poems in the collection.
These, with "A-Sitting On A Gate" and the previously lost "A Wasp in a Wig," make a set of 24.
And of course they do! And so they must! For not only is this a topsy-turvy well-tempered collection, but also, each of the two Alice books has 12 chapters. Nothing has ever been more obvious than the necessity of 24. To Bach and to Carroll, I salute you both with the fervor and gusto my ancestors likely placed towards gods and countries.
I can hear you asking me about that wasp and that wig already, and I'll make it quick. The first thing to know is that the wig is yellow, the second is that it is made of ringlets, and the third is that the wasp had to shave his head of ringlets in order to wear it. The fourth is that the chapter, "A Wasp in a Wig" containing the poem, "A Wasp in a Wig," was discovered in 1974. We do not know with 100% certainty that the chapter was penned by Carroll, but it probably was. We do have the following letter from Tenniel:
My Dear Dodgson:
I think that when the jump occurs in the Railway scene you might very well make Alice lay hold of the Goat’s beard as being the object nearest to her hand – instead of the old lady’s hair. The jerk would naturally throw them together.
Don’t think me brutal, but I am bound to say that the ‘wasp’ chapter doesn’t interest me in the least, & that I can’t see my way to a picture. If you want to shorten the book, I can’t help thinking – with all submission – that this is your opportunity.
In an agony of haste,
Yours sincerely,
J. Tenniel 1870
Ouch.
So that's our set of 24.
Each of the Outgrabe songs has a different key signature in numbers of flats.
Each of the Stuff & Nonsense songs has a different key signature in numbers of sharps.
The Stuff & Nonsense poems, in chronological order, are:
1. The Mouse's Tale
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 3
2. The Duchess' Lullaby
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6
3. The Lobster Quadrille
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 10
4. The White Rabbit's Evidence
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 12
5. Humpty Dumpty's Poem
Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 6
6. The White Queen's Riddle
Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 9
7. Nursery Rhymes
Twinkle, Twinkle (Alice's Adventures, Chapter 7)
The Queen of Hearts (Alice's Adventures, Chapter 12)
Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 4)
Humpty Dumpty (Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 6)
The Lion and the Unicorn (Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 7)
Hush-a-by Lady (Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 9)
*Referenced Nursery Rhyme (Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 4)
More thoroughly,
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There
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Before I get there, I faced the sorting of key signatures and melodic motives.
Luckily, neither task was difficult, and they nearly worked themselves out for me.
Puzzle 1: Which S&N song gets which key signature?
Nursery rhymes ought not be written with too many sharps, and the key of G major happens to coincide with the name, "Mother Goose." One sharp, 7th song, done.
While we're playing with letters, Humpty ought to be written in the key of EGG, which is E major, G whole tone, and G major. Four sharps, check.
Next, we'll play with numbers.
A Mouse's Tale gives us 7 points. 7#s.
1865 Edition (ignore all the tails in the tales of subsequent editions!)
And what about The Queen's Riddle? There are six parts to it. 6#s.
This leaves us with 2#s, 3#s, and 5#s.
The quadrille is a French dance from the 18th century, so D major fits.
Lullabies are pretty, and B major is absolutely lovely.
That leaves the White Rabbit's evidence in B dorian.
You see, the most musically striking mode from Outgrabe was our Mock Turtle's lydian, and what's the opposite of lydian? Mixolydian, of course! Right? I decided not!
Mixolydian is just a major sound with a minor v chord, so the entire personality is wrapped up in a cadence, whereas lydian encompasses an altered pentascale, so it's a melodic shift. They're not pure opposites. I would argue, in this moment anyway, that dorian makes a better foe! Lydian is major, dorian is minor. Lydian has the sharp 4 and dorian has the flat 7. But wait, there's more! Dorian has that sharp 6, that raising-of-the-brow sharp 6 right under that flat 7. Perhaps not as glistening as a sharp 4, but then again, "The White Rabbit's Evidence" moves along at a faster pace and it was never meant to be so glisteny. It was never waiting in the hot tureen!
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So where was I, the possible motives...
Well, the finale of Stuff & Nonsense gives equal weight to the previous 6 themes.
Puzzle 2: Which S&N melody goes with which nursery rhyme?
To tackle this one, we need to know the publication dates of the rhymes and tunes.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was published in 1865.
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There was published in 1871.
The rhymes are all obviously published before these dates, and tunes that aren't don't count.
Twinkle, Twinkle
Roud Folk Song Index 7666
Rhyme - Jane Taylor, 1806
Tune - The Singing Master No. 3, The First Class Tune Book, 1840
There are a few to choose from, but the one we know was alive and well back then.
There are also two Hickory Dickories to choose from, but one appears to be more prominent.
It is not ours.
The Queen of Hearts*
Roud Folk Song Index 19298
Rhyme - The European Magazine Vol. 1 No. 4, 1782
Tune - N/A
Scroll down to the Score Gallery to see one that didn't pass the test of time.
*Not to be confused with the ever popular Roud Folk Song Index 3195.
Tweedledum & Tweedledee
Roud Folk Song Index 19800
Rhyme - Original Ditties for the Nursery, 1805
Tune - N/A
Some rhymes simply don't lend themselves to singing as well as others.
Ironically, the original names were used to describe composers Handel and Bononcini.
Poet and "significant landownder" John Byrom, 1725:
Some say, compar'd to BononciniThat Mynheer Handel's but a NinnyOthers aver, that he to HandelIs scarcely fit to hold a CandleStrange all this Difference should be'Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee!
Humpty Dumpty
Roud Folk Song Index 13026
Rhyme - Juvenile Amusements, 1797
Tune - N/A
The National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs printed this score in 1870.
That means it passes by the margin of one year.
But then, another one took over!
This is simply too unstable for all the king's horses and all the king's men.
The Lion and The Unicorn
Roud Folk Song Index 20170
Rhyme - William King 1708
Tune - N/A
I found only two scores, and they have absolutely nothing to do with one another.
Hush-a-bye Baby
Roud Folk Index 2768
Rhyme - Mother Goose's Melody, 1765
Tune - a few, but for this, Purcell's Lillibullero, 1686
Lillibullero is not Outgrabe's quote commemorating the baby oysters.
That one, which is more popular today, was written by Ms. Effie Canning in 1886.
Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
Roud Folk Song Index 7882
Rhyme - Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales, 1849
Tune - Hornpipe from John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, 1728
Popularized by dancer Nancy Dawson; there's some reading posted in the Scores Gallery.
At this point, it is likely you are wondering, "But Lan! Where did "Here We Go Round the Mulb'ry Bush" come from?" Quite right, very sharp of you! You're adorable first for the question and second for the contraction; I'm so glad you asked.
First of all, we need 7 nursery rhymes for the finale, not 6. For one thing, the numbers say so; we are celebrating 7 all the time. Secondly, the piece needs something new to bind it together and give it its own character, and this is the Mulberry Bush.
And yes, I can buy dried mulberries and bake with them.
The rhyme is referenced but not spelled out in Chapter IV (Tweedles) of Looking-Glass.
Alice did not like shaking hands with either of them [the Tweedles] first, for fear of hurting the other one’s feelings; so, as the best way out of the difficulty, she took hold of both hands at once: the next moment they were dancing round in a ring. This seemed quite natural (she remembered afterwards), and she was not even surprised to hear music playing: it seemed to come from the tree under which they were dancing, and it was done (as well as she could make it out) by the branches rubbing one across the other, like fiddles and fiddle-sticks.
‘But it certainly was funny,’ (Alice said afterwards, when she was telling her sister the history of all this,) ‘to find myself singing “Here we go round the mulberry bush.” I don’t know when I began it, but somehow I felt as if I’d been singing it a long long time!’
The task was to assign each of 6 rhymes to the first 6 pieces, and wouldn't you know it, but this one worked itself out for me as well.
Twinkle is finished by the Dormouse, so it belongs with The Mouse's Tale.
The Queen of Hearts is literally part of the court scene involving The White Rabbit's Evidence.
The Tweedles are big fat babies with a rattle, so they get The Duchess' Lullaby.
Humpty Dumpty goes with Humpty Dumpty, duh.
The Lion and the Unicorn are the land creatures to the sea creatures of The Lobster Quadrille.
Hush-a-by puts the White Queen to sleep shortly before she recites The White Queen's Riddle.
Well that was easy.
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SONG I
is A Mouse's Tale. This is in 7/8 time, just like the opening of Outgrabe was in 7/4; I told you we were celebrating 7 all the time. But with Crocodile, we had a very predictable underwater waltz, and this is the opposite. (Now I am distracted by the vision of Rebecca and me performing Crocodile underwater and I am playing the accordion instead of the piano, and it's such a lovely distraction that I don't want it to end. Rebecca, your pink and purple fascinator stays on your head beautifully underwater).
For Mouse, I use the number 7 haphazardly, with seemingly random groupings of 2 and 3. All of Stuff & Nonsense generally speaking is lighter, shorter, and more playful than Outgrabe, and its opening number shows it.
Aaron Copland wrote a piano piece called "The Cat and the Mouse." It's much more involved than my little nursery rhyme inspired set, but the idea that you can hear a cat and a mouse is familiar. The mouse telling the tale/tail is terrified of Alice's cat Dinah, after all. Dinah isn't in A Mouse's Tale, but scurrying minor seconds and some chromatic runs can be made by mice too, you know.
Anyway, the poem is a visual curving of the tail as you have seen with the 7 red dots, and I needed to incorporate that aspect in my music. So Rebecca's melodic outline is based on this (treble clef, 7 sharps).
I really can't tell you any more about it because I haven't written a thing. But now you know the meter, the key, and the fact that it must incorporate Twinkle, Twinkle. And let's be real, Hickory Dickory Dock shall make an appearance.
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SONG II
The Duchess' Lullaby.
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NURSERY RHYMES SCORE GALLERY
The Singing Master 1840
National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs 1872
Stories for the Kindergarten 1896
75 British Nursery Rhymes 1904
Songs the Whole World Sings 1915
Twinkle, courtesy of Wiki
Nursery Rhymes with Old Tunes 1846
National [English] Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs 1872
Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes 1877
75 British Nursery Rhymes 1904
Hickory Dickory Dock, courtesy of Wiki
So much drama with this one.
According to Ronald Reichertz in his book, "The Making of the Alice Books,"
the rhyme was set to music by 1785.
This score, sent to me by Steve Roud himself (of the Roud Index),
comes from the British Library Music Collections English Songs Vol. 7
It is dated, "late 18th century."
75 British Nursery Rhymes 1904
(Queen of Hearts is listed as a jingle with no score in this song book!)
National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs 1872
Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes 1877
Echoes from the Nursery 1877
75 British Nursery Rhymes 1904
Songs the Whole World Sings 1915
Humpty Dumpty, courtesy of Wiki
Juvenile Minstrelsy 1852
75 British Nursery Rhymes 1904
Purcell's Lillibullero 1688
The Beggar's Opera 1735
Nursery Rhymes with Old Tunes 1846
The Baby's Opera, A book of Rhymes and The Music by the Earliest Masters, 1877
Songs of the Old Homestead 1886
Songs the Whole World Sings 1915
Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody 1918
Part Third of the Complete Repository of Original Scots Slow Strathspeys & Dances 1799-1813
Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush 1879
Polly Peachum1913
Songs the Whole World Sings 1915
Mulb'ry Bush, courtesy of Wiki
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ORIGIN POETRY SCORES
Aside from the nursery rhymes we have been exploring, 10 of the remaining 18 Alice poems by Carroll were based on famous poems of his day. I will refer to these as "origin poems."
I came across this when I was thumbing through 75 British Nursery Rhymes from 1904.
Well, wouldn't you know it, but "The Spider and The Fly" is the origin poem for "The Lobster Quadrille"!! The score above is a popular tune with arrangements linked below by Russell, Dyer, and Normino. The Mollenhauer setting is part of a collection of pieces from a comic opera, and the Eastman setting is more of a waltz about the same subject matter.
Accidentally happening upon "The Spider and The Fly" got me curiouser and curiouser about finding scores to Carroll's other origin poetry. This is what I found.
The left hand column lists Carroll's poetry.
The right hand column begins with the writer of each origin poem.
Underneath the writers are score links listed with the names of their composers.
We have already had a sing-along with A-stting On a Gate set to Moore's My Heart and Lute.
We have 5 more sing-alongs to add!
The Duchess' Lullaby to Wallace's Speak Gently,
The Lobster Quadrille to Russell's "arrangement of a favorite melody,"
Turtle Soup to Sayles' Star of the Evening,
The White Rabbit's Evidence to Reeve's "arrangement of celebrated Scotch ballad,"
and To the Looking-Glass World set to Scott's Bonnie Dundee.
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PICTURE GALLERY
National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs 1872
National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs 1872
Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes 1877
Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes 1877
Slices of Mother Goose 1878
The Nursery Rhymes of England 1886
Mother Goose's Melody 1889
Denslow's Mother Goose 1901
Mother Goose Rhymes 1911
Mother Goose the Volland Edition 1915
Mother Goose Set To Music 1889
Mother Goose Melodies and Nursery Rhymes 1896
Mother Goose's Story Book 1899
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Old Mother Goose's Rhymes & Tales 1890s
Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes 1877
Tommy Thumb's Song Book 1744
Mother Goose's Melody 1784
Slices of Mother Goose 1878
Mother Goose's Melody 1889
Denslow's Mother Goose 1901
Denslow's Mother Goose 1901
Mother Goose the Volland Edition 1915
Mother Goose Rhymes 1911
European Magazine and London Review 1782
European Magazine and London Review 1782
Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes 1877
The King and Queen of Hearts 1805
The King and Queen of Hearts 1805
Mother Goose Melodies and Nursery Rhymes 1896
Caldecott Picture Book 1846-1886
Caldecott Picture Book 1846-1886
Caldecott Picture Book 1846-1886
Caldecott Picture Book 1846-1886
Caldecott Picture Book 1846-1886
Caldecott Picture Book 1846-1886
The Queen of Hearts and the Damson Tarts 1869
The Queen of Hearts and the Damson Tarts 1869
Denslow's Mother Goose 1901
Denslow's Mother Goose 1901
Denslow's Mother Goose 1901
Denslow's Mother Goose 1901
Mother Goose Rhymes 1911
Mother Goose the Volland Edition 1915
Tweedledum and Tweedledee The Schoolmaster is Abroad 1835
The Nursery Rhymes of England 1886
Mother Goose Melodies and Nursery Rhymes 1896
Mother Goose Rhymes 1911
Political Cartoon 1903
Political Cartoon 1913
Pantomime Poster 1868
The Nursery Rhymes of England 1886
Mother Goose Melodies and Nursery Rhymes 1896
Mother Goose's Story Book 1899
Mother Goose Rhymes 1911
Denslow's Mother Goose 1901
Brooke Illustration 1862-1940
Political Cartoon 1913
Mother Goose the Volland Edition 1915
58 Holborn Hill 1818
The Nursery Rhymes of England 1886
Mother Goose Melodies and Nursery Rhymes 1896
Mother Goose's Story Book 1899
Old Mother Goose's Rhymes & Tales 1890s
Mother Goose Rhymes 1911
Crane Children's Book Illustration 1911
A Nursery Rhyme Picture Book 1914
A Nursery Rhyme Picture Book 1914
Mother Goose the Volland Edition 1915
The Anne Anderson Fairy-tale Book 1923
Tommy Thumb's Song Book 1744
Mother Goose's Melody 1760
Mother Goose in Hieroglyphics 1855
The Baby's Opera, A book of Rhymes and The Music by the Earliest Masters, 1877
The Nursery Rhymes of England 1886
Mother Goose's Melody 1889
A Book of Nursery Rhymes 1901
Denslow's Mother Goose 1901
Denslow's Mother Goose 1901
Mother Goose Rhymes 1911
Mother Goose Rhymes 1911
Mother Goose the Volland Edition 1915
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