Arabian riff

From Vero - Wikipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:Image frame

File:Arabian Song.jpg
The melody titled "Arabian Song" in Arban’s Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet, first published in 1864.<ref name="Benzon2002">Template:Cite book</ref>

"Arabian riff", also known as "The Streets of Cairo", "The Poor Little Country Maid", and "the snake charmer song", is a well-known melody, published in different forms in the 19th century.<ref name="Benzon2002"/> Alternate titles for children's songs using this melody include "The Girls in France" and "The Southern Part of France".<ref name=shira/><ref name=Desultor/>

History

File:Streets of Cairo.jpg
1895 sheet music cover for "The Streets of Cairo"

Template:Listen There is a clear resemblance between the riff and the French song Colin prend sa hotte (published by Christophe Ballard in 1719), whose first five notes are identical. Colin prend sa hotte appears to be derived from the lost Kradoudja, an Algerian folk song of the 17th century.<ref name="Fuld2000">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=straightdope/>

A version of the riff was published in 1845 by Franz Hünten as Melodie Arabe.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> The melody was described as an "Arabian Song" in the La grande méthode complète de cornet à piston et de saxhorn par Arban, first published in 1864.<ref name="Benzon2002"/><ref>Jackson, Roland. "Performance Practice: A Dictionary-Guide for Musicians". Routledge 2005. P. xvii. Template:ISBN "&pg=PR17&printsec=frontcover</ref>

Sol Bloom, a showman (and later a U.S. congressman), published the song as the entertainment director of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. It included an attraction called "A Street in Cairo" produced by Gaston Akoun, which featured snake charmers, camel rides and a scandalous dancer known as Little Egypt. Songwriter James Thornton penned the words and music to his own version of this melody, "Streets Of Cairo or The Poor Little Country Maid". Copyrighted in 1895, it was made popular by his wife Lizzie Cox, who used the stage name Bonnie Thornton.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=shira/> The oldest known recording of the song is from 1895, performed by Dan Quinn (Berliner Discs 171-Z).<ref name=berliner/>

Music

It has been used as a basis for numerous songs:

1900s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Children's culture and parodies

The tune is used for a 20th-century American children's song with – like many unpublished songs of child folk culture – countless variations as the song is passed from child to child over considerable lengths of time and geography, the one constant being that the versions are almost always obscene. One variation, for example, is: <poem style="margin-left: 2em;">There's a place in France Where the ladies wear no pants But the men don't care 'cause they don't wear underwear.<ref name=shira/></poem> or a similar version:<ref name=Desultor/> <poem style="margin-left: 2em;">There's a place in France Where the naked ladies dance There's a hole in the wall Where the men can see it all.</poem>

See also

References

Template:Reflist

Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=Arabian_riff&oldid=597655"