Re: OT: Code-switching in music

On Saturday 06 October 2007, Philip Newton wrote:
> On 10/5/07, li_sasxsek@nutter.net <li_sasxsek@...> wrote:
> > I'm just wondering if anyone else out there could provide some good
> > examples of music with lyrics that involve some type of
> > code-switching or mixing in of "foreign" words or phrases.
>
> After reading some of the responses, I was reminded of _In dulci
> jubilo_, a Christmas carol which (at least in Germany) is commonly
> sung half in Latin, half in German:
>
> In dulci jubilo
> Nun singet und seid froh
> Uns'res Herzens Wonne
> Liegt in praesepio
> Und leuchtet als die Sonne
> Alpha es et O
> Alpha es et O
>
> I believe there's also an all-German version, but the mixed one is the
> one I'm most familiar with.
>
> Surely there are similar things in English hymns and carols. (Though
> that may not have been what you're looking for.)
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
>
I have an old vinyl album "Medieval English Carols" still in storage
somewhere. The text on the back stated that the original meaning of 'carol'
was a song including both Latin and the vernacular (often with the Latin part
in the chorus). That's why you get things like the Agincourt Carol, which is
a carol by that definition and has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas.

--
Elyse Grasso

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