Merrily, merrily, merrily

April 18, 2009 6:17 AM

MusicFilter: There's "Row, row, row your boat" and then there's...?

I'm looking for good resources on the traditional song form know as a round. I've found some good material online concerning it's history and definition and such but I'd love to find more.

I'm especially interested in hearing about any contemporary artists* who might be using or referencing rounds in their work, musical or otherwise** - especially those who might be doing something new as opposed to just traditional renditions.

* I thought Meredith Monk had done something with rounds, no? Can't seem to find it... Would any work from Steve Reich or Philip Glass or Terry Riley fit a rough definition of being a round? Maybe some scratch/sample DJ is doing work that might be round-ish?

** For example, when I worked at a summer camp we used to do this pretty cool non-vocal "round" called "Making a Thunderstorm." We'd gather in the big meeting space (a barn) and divide into 4-5 groups. The first group would start rubbing their hands together, creating a hissing noise (wind). After a minute or two the next group would start. When the third group had started the wind sound the first would then start tapping their fingers together (drizzle)... then on to snapping fingers (rain), drumming on thighs/knees (downpour!) and stomping our feet (thunderstorm!!) & then we'd do it in reverse until it was just a whisper of wind left. It really evoked a thunderstorm coming & going and the kids loved it...

posted by jammy to media & arts (28 answers total)

Instrumentally, I would say Tortoise does a lot of this kind of thing.
posted by mannequito at 6:26 AM on April 18, 2009

I don't know if it has been done by any contemporary artists, but the first round I ever learned was Frère Jacques.
posted by zerokey at 7:05 AM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

You hear elements of rounds in popular music from time to time. Black Water is the first one that comes to mind, but it is not uncommon.
posted by Lame_username at 7:29 AM on April 18, 2009

You might also be interested in checking out the similar element in classical music, fugues. In literature, Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach was chock full of the concept, particularly as it pertained to recursion.
posted by jenkinsEar at 7:33 AM on April 18, 2009

I want to say The Moldy Peaches use rounds but I'm not positive.
posted by lunasol at 7:51 AM on April 18, 2009

Donovan's Happiness Runs has rounds toward the end.
posted by pemberkins at 7:51 AM on April 18, 2009

^1 looking up "fugue" for more resources. Two modern(ish) songs I know of that use rounds are

The Chain by Ingrid Michaelson (rounds start towards the end)

Three Gymnopedies on one of the Blood, Sweat, and Tears albums (the original piece is not a round, but it works very well as one)
posted by parkerjackson at 8:03 AM on April 18, 2009

This is sort of old, but awesome and worth listening to if you're into rounds: Mahler used "Frere Jacques" in his first symphony. It's in the third movement and it's in the minor mode, so it sounds funereal (it is supposed to soundtrack a funeral march, as some animals "mourn" the death of a huntsman).
posted by bewilderbeast at 8:15 AM on April 18, 2009

Adiemus used rounds in "Chorale VI Cantus - Song of Aeolus".

In musical theatre, RENT used rounds in "Will I?"
posted by rakaidan at 8:23 AM on April 18, 2009

I don't know if this is any help, but I am looking at a page from a songbook I put together when I was in scouts. There are 10 listed and I found discussions or recordings about the following:

Rose, Rose, Rose Red

Rosen Fra Fuhn

White Coral Bells

Hey Ho, Nobody Home
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:27 AM on April 18, 2009

Derroll Adams' Portland Town works well as a round. Folks like Imogen Heap and Final Fantasy use real-time looping to build up a round/fugue structure as a song progresses.

[Every round in Rise Up Singing: A Ram Sam Sam, Ah Poor Bird, Apple Trees in Bloom, Black Socks, Canoe Round, Chairs to Mend, Chickens Get Into the Tomatoes, Come Follow, Down at the Station, Ego Sum Pauper, French Cathedral Round, Gibberish, Go to Joan Glover, Have You Seen the Ghost of John, Hey Ho Nobody Home, I Love the Flowers, I Sat Down with the Duchess to Tea, Joan Come Kiss Me Now, Joy & Temperance, Kookabura, Lachen Lachen, Make New Friends, Morning Comes Early, Music Alone Shall Live, My Dame (Had a Lame Tame Crane), O How Lovely Is the Evening, O Joy Upon This Earth, One Bottle of Pop, Poor Mr. Morgan, Ride-a-Cock Horse, Rose Rose, Scotland's Burning (which I always knew as London's Burning - but then, I'm Scottish ...), Sumer Is Icumen In, There Are Three Brothers, To Stop the Train, White Sands & Grey Sands, Why Shouldn't My Goose]
posted by scruss at 8:32 AM on April 18, 2009

CocoRosie does a round in their song, Good Friday (about 2:40 into the video). Just so happens to be my favorite part of the whole album.
posted by razdrez at 8:35 AM on April 18, 2009

Those wacky Decemberists include one in "Sons and Daughters" (youtube)
posted by ormondsacker at 8:37 AM on April 18, 2009

Moondog often used rounds. Here's an example.
posted by hydrophonic at 8:54 AM on April 18, 2009

By the Waters of Babylon

When Jesus Wept (the link is a cell phone ringtone; couldn't resist)

There's also a charming one:

Soap and Water/soap and water for the skin/(second start here)health and beauty help to win/in the morning then begin/rubbing hard and washing clean/rubbing hard and washing clean.

Can't find it on line. We used to sing these with our kids on road trips.
posted by nax at 9:20 AM on April 18, 2009

I've heard some reviewers refer to Fleet Foxes' "White Winter Hymnal" as a round, but might be because they're confusing "round" with "rondeau."
posted by dw at 9:31 AM on April 18, 2009

Dona Nobis Pacem sounds fabulous sung as a ound. The Rounds Site that hosts that page has a bunch of older rounds and rough midi files.
posted by julen at 9:41 AM on April 18, 2009

Previously (some good links here.)
posted by applemeat at 10:21 AM on April 18, 2009

There's the Frog Round, which apparently was popular in the 1920s.
posted by bjrn at 11:06 AM on April 18, 2009

Fie nay prithee John by Purcell

A drinking song that for some reason we sang in elementary school.
posted by sciencegeek at 11:28 AM on April 18, 2009

You also might find Quodlibets interesting.
posted by leahwrenn at 12:15 PM on April 18, 2009

Queen's "The Prophet's Song" contains a canonical chorus. Not exactly a round, but close enough to excerpt as a demo of the concept in modern music.
posted by EnsignLunchmeat at 5:50 PM on April 18, 2009

Here in Australia we learn a song called Kookaburra that we learn to sing in a round.
posted by Admira at 6:45 PM on April 18, 2009

My family has two wonderful rounds CDs that we bought here (and I just ordered the third one!). I particularly recommend the Mozart drinking round on the first CD (there's a sample of it on the linked site--that is not all of it by any means!).
posted by dlugoczaj at 9:08 PM on April 18, 2009

Blind Pilot does a great song called "3 Rounds and a Sound" - if I weren't on my phone I'd go find it for you.
posted by you're a kitty! at 9:41 AM on April 19, 2009

wow, my cup runneth over! what a lot of interesting things to explore...

thanks much everyone - i appreciate it
posted by jammy at 5:12 PM on April 19, 2009

"Carol of the Bells", from the Christmas play list.

When I was in kid's choir, at church, we had a song we sang this way, that went:
"Back bones straight and chest held high! Chinny chin down, here's the reason why! Organ pipes and singers too, must stand straight so the tone comes through." I have no idea the source, but suspect it may be rooted in someone's fugue. This piece, in my head, rapidly evolves into fugue.
posted by Goofyy at 5:25 AM on April 20, 2009

did i ever mention i went and made a web page on rounds and other loopy music? thought anyone stopping by here might find it useful/entertaining
posted by jammy at 5:26 AM on September 14, 2009 [1 favorite]