Cumulative song

2025-08-31T16:31:38Z

2601:81:102:8640:5515:B234:5EAF:8BAA: /* Song examples */

{{Short description|Simple song form with repetitive and linked verses}}
{{more citations needed|date=December 2011}}
[[File:XRF 12days.jpg|thumb|"[[The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)|The Twelve Days of Christmas]]" is a cumulative song.]]
A '''cumulative song''' is a song with a simple [[Verse (popular music)#Verse|verse]] structure modified by progressive addition so that each verse is longer than the verse before. Cumulative songs are popular for group singing, in part because they require relatively little [[memory|memorization]] of [[lyrics]], and because remembering the previous verse to concatenate it to form the current verse can become a kind of game.

== Structure ==
Typically, the [[lyrics]] take the form of a [[stanza]] of at least two [[Line (poetry)|lines]]. In each verse, the text of the first line introduces a new item, and the other line uses the words to begin a list which includes items from all the preceding verses. The item is typically a new phrase (simultaneously a [[Phrase|group of words]] and a [[Phrase (music)|musical phrase]]) to a [[Line (poetry)|line]] in a previous stanza.

The two lines are often separated by [[refrain]]s. Many cumulative songs also have a [[Song structure (popular music)#Chorus|chorus]].

=== Songs with two-line stanzas ===

One of the most well-known examples of a cumulative song is the [[Christmas song]] "[[The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)|The Twelve Days of Christmas]]", which uses a two-line stanza, where the second line is cumulative, as follows:

<blockquote><poem>
On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent (''or "gave"'') to me
A partridge in a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Three french hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.
</poem></blockquote>

and so on until

<blockquote><poem>
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five gold(en) rings, four calling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.
</poem></blockquote>

The first gift (the partridge) is always sung to a "coda melody" phrase. For the first four verses, the additional gifts are all sung to a repeated standard melodic phrase. In the fifth verse, a different melody, with a change of tempo, is introduced for the five gold(en) rings; and from this point on the first five gifts are always sung to a set of varied melodic phrases (with the partridge retaining its original coda phrase). Thence forward, the wording of each new gift is sung to the original standard melodic phrase before returning to the five gold(en) rings.

=== Songs with refrains ===
In many songs, an item is introduced in the first line of each stanza and extends the list in another line. An example is [[The Barley Mow]] ([[Roud Folk Song Index|Roud]] 944):

<blockquote><poem>
Here's good luck to the pint pot,
Good luck to the barley mow
Jolly good luck to the pint pot,
Good luck to the barley mow

Oh the pint pot, half a pint, gill pot, half a gill, quarter gill, nipperkin, and a round bowl
Here's good luck, good luck, good luck to the barley mow
</poem></blockquote>

The second verse substitutes a larger drink measure in the first line. In the second line the new measure heads the list and is sung to the same musical phrase as pint pot.

<blockquote><poem>
Here's good luck to the quart pot,
Good luck to the barley mow
Jolly good luck to the quart pot,
Good luck to the barley mow

Oh the quart pot, pint pot, half a pint, gill pot, half a gill, quarter gill, nipperkin, and a round bowl
Here's good luck, good luck, good luck to the barley mow
</poem></blockquote>

One version of the final line and [[refrain]] is:

<blockquote><poem>
Oh the company, the brewer, the drayer, the slavey, the daughter, the landlady, the landlord, the barrel, the half-barrel, the gallon, the half-gallon, the quart pot, pint pot, half a pint, gill pot, half a gill, quarter gill, nipperkin, and a round bowl
Here's good luck, good luck, good luck to the barley mow
</poem></blockquote>

[[Alan Lomax]] recorded Jack French singing ''The Barley Mow'' at the Blaxhall Ship, a famous singing pub in Suffolk, in 1953. This recording is available online at the Cultural Equity website.<ref>Cultural Equity Research Centre http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=7625{{Dead link|date=December 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Retrieved 2017/04/18</ref>

=== Songs with a chorus ===
A chorus (often with its own refrain) may be added to the stanzas as in "[[The Rattlin' Bog]]" (Roud 129):

<blockquote><poem>
Hi ho, the rattlin' bog,
The bog down in the valley-o,
Hi ho, the rattlin' bog,
The bog down in the valley-o.

1. Now in the bog there was a tree,
A rare tree, a rattlin' tree,
The tree in the bog,
And the bog down in the valley-o.

(CHORUS)

2. And on that tree there was a branch,
A rare branch, a rattlin' branch,
The branch on the tree, and the tree in the bog,
And the bog down in the valley-o.

(CHORUS)
</poem></blockquote>

One version of the final line+refrain is:

<blockquote><poem>
The feather on the wing, and the wing on the bird, and the bird on the nest, and the nest on the twig, and the twig on the branch, and the branch on the tree, and the tree in the bog,
And the bog down in the valley-o.
</poem></blockquote>

Each phrase is sung to the same two-note melody.

[[Hamish Henderson]] recorded William Sinclair Mitchell, Agnes Mitchell and Agnes Mitchell singing ''The Rattling Bog'' in 1979. The recording is available on line on the [[Tobar an Dualchais – Kist o Riches]] website.<ref>Tobar an Dualchais / Kist o Riches Track ID - 83348 http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/83348?l=en Retrieved 2017/04/18</ref>

Jim Carroll and Pat McKenzie recorded Pat McNamara singing ''The Bog Down in the Valley'' in Kilshanny, in 1975. The recording is available online on the Clare County Library website.<ref>Clare County Library; Songs of Clare; http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/songs/cmc/bog_down_in_valley_pmcnamara.htm Retrieved 2017/04/18</ref>

== Cumulative songs in languages other than English ==
[[Yiddish language|Yiddish]] [[folk music]] contains many prominent examples of cumulative songs, including "?װאָס װעט זײַן אַז משיח װעט קומען" and "מה אספּרה," or "What Will Happen When the Messiah Comes?" and "Who Can Recall" (a Yiddish version of the [[Passover song]] "[[Echad Mi Yodea]]").<ref name="echad">{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tzI_ilmQdAQC&pg=PA25 | title = Translating Fictional Dialogue for Children and Young People
|editor1=Maria Wirf Naro|editor2=Martin B. Fischer | page = 25 | publisher = Frank & Timme GmbH | year = 2012 | isbn = 978-3-86596-467-0}}</ref><ref name="chad">{{cite web | url = http://us.macmillan.com/hadgadya/SeymourChwast | title = Had Gadya – Illustrated by Seymour Chwast; Afterword by Rabbi Michael Strassfeld | work = Macmillan Publishing | accessdate = 2014-07-07 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120617163702/http://us.macmillan.com/hadgadya/SeymourChwast | archive-date = 2012-06-17 | url-status = dead }}</ref>;;

The [[Passover seder]] contains two [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] cumulative songs: "[[Echad Mi Yodea]]" and "[[Chad Gadya]]".

Italian folk Catholicism has Le dodici parole della verita (from the One God to the Twelve Apostles). Stanislao Prato, Le dodici parole della verita (Palermo: Giornale di Sicilia, 1892).

== Song examples ==
* "Father Abraham Had Many Sons"
* "[[The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)|The Twelve Days of Christmas]]"
* "[[The Barley Mow]]"<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/ShH99.html | title = Barley Mow, The | editor1=Robert B. Waltz | editor2 = David Engle | work = The Ballad Index | accessdate = 2014-07-07}}</ref>
* "[[Chad Gadya]]"<ref name="chad" />
* "[[Echad Mi Yodea]]"<ref name="echad" />
* "[[Alouette (song)|Alouette]]"
* "The Austrian Yodeler (Once An Austrian Went Yodeling)"
* "When I Build My House" by [[Parachute Express]]"
* "Birthday Cake" by [[Parachute Express]]<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780838906507 | url-access=registration | page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780838906507/page/61 61] | title=Children's Jukebox: A Subject Guide to Musical Recordings and Programming Ideas for Songsters Ages One to Twelve| publisher=American Library Association | isbn=9780838906507| last1=Reid| first1=Rob| year=1995}}</ref><ref name="something musical">{{Cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780838909423 | url-access=registration | page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780838909423/page/70 70] | title=Something Musical Happened at the Library: Adding Song and Dance to Children's Story Programs| publisher=American Library Association | isbn=9780838909423| last1=Reid| first1=Robert| year=2007}}</ref>
* "[[Children, Go Where I Send Thee]]"
* "The Court of King Caractacus" by [[Rolf Harris]]
* "Don't Be Anything Less Than Anything You Can Be" from the musical ''[[Snoopy The Musical|Snoopy]]''
* "[[Du Hast]]" is partially cumulative; it's a fairly popular German industrial song, making its cumulative parts somewhat novel
* "[[Eh, Cumpari!]]"
* "Getta Loada Toad" from the musical [[A Year with Frog and Toad]]
* "Grandmother's Farm" by [[Hap Palmer]] on his album ''Witches Brew''
* "[[The Green Grass Grew All Around]]"
* "[[Green Grow the Rushes, O]]"
* "Guerres de clocher" by Québec Redneck Bluegrass Project<ref>{{cite web|title=Guerres de clocher {{!}} Song|url=https://qrbp.bandcamp.com/track/guerres-de-clocher}}</ref>
* "[[The Herring Song]]" (or "Herring's Heads")
* "The House at the Top of the Tree" by [[They Might Be Giants]] on their album ''[[No!]]''
* "[[I Bought Me a Cat]]", known by various other titles, such as "My Cock Crew" and "Barnyard Song"<ref name="something musical"/>
* "I Am a Fine Musician" from two episodes of the [[Dick Van Dyke Show]]
* "I Have a Song to Sing, O" from [[Gilbert & Sullivan]]'s opera ''[[The Yeomen of the Guard]]''
* "Jouer dehors" by Jérôme 50 & Julyan, sung by Passe-Partout <ref>{{cite web|title=Jouer dehors by Passe-Partout {{!}} Song|url=https://soundcloud.com/passe-partoutofficial/jouer-dehors-passe-partout}}</ref>
* "Katootje" Dutch traditional sung by [[Wim Sonneveld]] in 1955.
* "Langt ud' i Skoven", a traditional Danish folk song played by [[Dreamers' Circus]] and DR BørneKoret on their album "Langt ud' i Skoven" from 2022
* "Moshpit à St-Dilon" by Margaret Tracteur<ref>{{cite web|title=Moshpit à St-Dilon {{!}} Song|url=https://margarettracteur.bandcamp.com/track/moshpit-st-dilon-2}}</ref>
* "Most Beautiful Leg of the Mallard", sung by Henry Mitchelmore on [[The Voice of the People]] vol 07
* "[[The Music Man (song)|The Music Man]]"
* "[[Must Be Santa (song)|Must Be Santa]]", a Christmas song popularized by [[Mitch Miller]]
* "My Hand on My Head"
* Some versions of "[[Old King Cole]]"
* "[[Old McDonald Had a Farm]]"<ref>{{cite book|author=Roger deV. Renwick|title=Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x1yY1zbIodIC&pg=PA89|date=17 December 2001|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-57806-393-2|pages=89}}</ref>
* "One Little Coyote" by [[Riders in the Sky (band)|Riders in the Sky]] on their album ''[[Harmony Ranch]]''<ref>{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YbtWmpLVuuQC | title = It's the Cowboy Way!: The Amazing True Adventures of Riders in the Sky | first = Don | last = Cusic | year =2003 | publisher = University Press of Kentucky | pages = 166–167 | isbn = 978-0-8131-2882-5 }}</ref>
* "Pat the Cat" by [[Don Spencer]]
* "Pumpernickel Bread" by [[Barney & Friends]]
* "Prologue" from ''[[Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812]]'' makes use of the format to familiarise the audience with the cast of the musical.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://genius.com/9129035 | title = Prologue | last1 = Malloy | first1 = Dave | website = Genius | access-date = 28 September 2016 }}</ref>
* "[[The Rattlin' Bog]]"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://onmilwaukee.com/seasonal/festivals/articles/horseshoes-and-hand-grenades-summerfest.html|title=Horseshoes & Hand Grenades serve up refreshing jolt of Wisco-grass|date=2 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://forward.com/culture/111440/the-celtic-jewish-connection/|title=The Celtic Jewish Connection|date=5 August 2009 }}</ref>
* "Le reel alcalinisant" by Québec Redneck Bluegrass Project<ref>{{cite web|title=Le reel alcalinisant|url=https://qrbp.bandcamp.com/track/le-reel-alcalinisant}}</ref>
* "[[Rig-a-Jig-Jig]]"
* "[[Schnitzelbank#Song|The Schnitzelbank Song]]"
* "Song of Love" from the musical ''[[Once Upon a Mattress]]''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~esapcs/content/04-functional-decomposition.html |title=Functional Decomposition |first=Peter-Michael |last=Osera |work=ESAP Computer Science |publisher=University of Pennsylvania}}</ref>
* "[[Star Trekkin']]", a 1987 parody song by [[The Firm (novelty band)|The Firm]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jonkutner.com/star-trekkin/ |title=Star Trekkin' (The Firm) |date=February 10, 2013 |last=Kutner |first=Jon}}</ref>
* "[[There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly]]"
* {{anchor|There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea}}"There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea"<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-84686-862-7 | title = A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea | publication-date = June 2013 | date = 2013-04-29 | work = Publishers Weekly | accessdate = 2014-07-07}}</ref>
* "Hole in the Bottom of My Brain" by [[AJR]]
* "Today is Monday"<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/today-monday | accessdate = 2014-07-17 | title = Today is Monday by Eric Carle | work = Teachers – Scholastic | publisher = [[Scholastic Corporation|Scholastic]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u0V0qbFwb60C&pg=PA242 | page=242 | title=Peak with Books: An Early Childhood Resource for Balanced Literacy | author-first1=Marjorie R. |author-last1=Nelsen | author-first2=Jan | author-last2=Nelsen-Parish | publisher=Cengage Learning | year=2002 | isbn=9780766859487 | quote=A catchy, cumulative song featuring a different food for each day of the week.}}</ref>
* "White Pyjamas" by [[Franciscus Henri]]
* "[[Il Pulcino Pio]]" and its various language versions
* "[[Alla fiera dell'est]]", an Italian song by [[Angelo Branduardi]] and its English version "Highdown Fair"
* "One Man Went To Mow" ([[Roud Folk Song Index|Roud]] 143) is an example of a cumulative counting song.
* "To Kokoraki" (as sung by [[Donald Swann]] on [[Flanders and Swann]]'s "At the Drop of a Hat") is a Greek counting song about animals.
* "Oh Sir Jasper!" is the opposite of a cumulative song, in which words are successively omitted from the chorus each time it is sung.<ref>{{cite web|title=Oh Sir Jasper!!|url=http://hymnsandarias.com/sirjasper.html|website=Hymns and Arias|accessdate=4 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150301080405/http://hymnsandarias.com/sirjasper.html|archive-date=1 March 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* "The Camping Song", from the ''[[Noddy (TV series)|Noddy]]'' episode "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Goblins"<ref>{{cite web|title=Noddy Song: The Camping Song|url=https://pbskids.org/noddy/theater/activities/s105.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001217192500/http://www.pbs.org/kids/noddy/theater/activities/s105.html|url-status=live|archive-date=2000-12-17|website=Hymns and Arias|access-date=2018-10-08}}</ref>
* "Why We Build the Wall" by [[Anaïs Mitchell]]
* "La feria de Cepillín", by the Mexican clown and singer [[Cepillín]]
* "A-benn dilun..." ("On Monday...") also known as "Kokerikero", a Breton folk counting song about animals
* "Mountain People" by [[Super Furry Animals]]
* Got No Beard by [[The Longest Johns]]
* "What's in there inside this egg?", by the Brazilian writer, poet and musician [[Marcelo Aceti]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://g.co/kgs/esaswJ1 | title=Google Search }}</ref>
* "A Velha a Fiar", Brazilian folk song
* "Roll Up the Map", from ''[[Jake and the Neverland Pirates]]''
* "Ajde da si rečime edna pesna (Bilbil rano pee)", Macedonian song by [[:mk:Војо Стојановски|Vojo Stojanovski]]

== See also ==
* [[Cumulative tale]]
* [[Announcer's test]]
* [[Round (music)]]
* [[The Complexity of Songs]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Children's music}}

[[Category:Cumulative songs| ]]
[[Category:Poetic forms]]
[[Category:Song forms]]

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Cumulative song