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Singing game
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Singing game
A singing game is an activity based on a particular verse or rhyme, usually associated with a set of actions and movements. As a collection, they have been studied by folklorists, ethnologists, and psychologists and are seen as important part of childhood culture. The same term is also used for a form of video game that involves singing.
Singing games began to be recorded and studied seriously in the nineteenth century as part of the wider folklore movement. Joseph Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (1801), Robert Chambers’s Popular Rhymes of Scotland (1826), James Orchard Halliwell's The Nursery Rhymes of England (1842) and Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales (1849), and G. F. Northal's English Folk Rhymes (1892) all included singing games. However, the first studies to focus solely on this area were William Wells Newell's Games and Songs of American Children (1883) and Alice Gomme's The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894-8). Both were considered landmark works in studies conducted on respective sides of the Atlantic. Naturally, these studies tended to include many of the faults associated with the gathering of folklore and folk song examples in the eras studied. They have been criticised for focusing on rural society at the expense of urban, and an obsession with recovering what they considered “authentic” and original, but “disappearing,” verse from adults while disregarding contemporary practice by children. Some of these problems were rectified by the work of Norman Douglas, who produced London Street Games in 1916, focusing on the urban working classes.
Perhaps still the most significant works in the field are that of Iona and Peter Opie, who departed from previous practice in Britain; following work by Dorothy Howard in America and Brian Sutton-Smith in New Zealand, they relied on detailed observation of children for their evidence. This resulted in the couples’ works The Language and Lore of Schoolchildren (1959), Children's Games in Street and Playground (1969), and The Singing Game (1985). Their extensive studies refuted the idea that the traditions of singing games were disappearing in the face of social and media change, and instead suggested adaptation as well as primary development. Their work was highly influential, and efforts were made to replicate it in a number of locations, including America, where Herbert and Mary Knapp produced One Potato, Two Potato: the Secret Education of American Children (1976) and Finland which saw Leea Virtanen's Children's Lore (1978). Wider anthropological-based studies include Helen Schwartzman's Transformations: The Anthropology of Children's Play (1978).
As investigational evidence changed, so did the methods of recording. Early folklorists like Lady Gomme tended to provide written descriptions of games, lyrics, and occasionally musical notation of tunes. In time, complex symbols were developed to choreograph the body’s movements within the games, but from the late 1970s on there was increasing use of ethnographic film to record the actual practice of games, providing a record of the links between movement and music.
Early folklorists tended to reflect contemporary theories and beliefs, including the view that singing games were a form of pagan survivalism, which led Alice Gomme to conclude that "London Bridge Is Broken Down" reflected a memory of child sacrifice, or 'devolution', which assumed that children's songs must have devolved down to children from adult culture and did not allow for innovation by children themselves. The origins of most are obscure and have been evolved by children over many generations.
The Opies divided singing games into a number of categories, including:
Many other children's games, that do not themselves involve singing are prefaced by a song. Traditionally there were many calling rhymes, used to assemble players of a game, which is probably the origin of the nursery rhyme "Girls and Boys Come Out To Play". Singing games are often used as counting out or 'dipping' games, a means of starting a game by choosing special roles, usually by eliminating all but one player, most famously in rhymes like "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" and "One potato, two potato".
Some children's singing games may have their origins in circle dances, including "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush". The simplest, and perhaps the best known, circle dance is "Ring a Ring o' Roses".
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Singing game
A singing game is an activity based on a particular verse or rhyme, usually associated with a set of actions and movements. As a collection, they have been studied by folklorists, ethnologists, and psychologists and are seen as important part of childhood culture. The same term is also used for a form of video game that involves singing.
Singing games began to be recorded and studied seriously in the nineteenth century as part of the wider folklore movement. Joseph Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (1801), Robert Chambers’s Popular Rhymes of Scotland (1826), James Orchard Halliwell's The Nursery Rhymes of England (1842) and Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales (1849), and G. F. Northal's English Folk Rhymes (1892) all included singing games. However, the first studies to focus solely on this area were William Wells Newell's Games and Songs of American Children (1883) and Alice Gomme's The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894-8). Both were considered landmark works in studies conducted on respective sides of the Atlantic. Naturally, these studies tended to include many of the faults associated with the gathering of folklore and folk song examples in the eras studied. They have been criticised for focusing on rural society at the expense of urban, and an obsession with recovering what they considered “authentic” and original, but “disappearing,” verse from adults while disregarding contemporary practice by children. Some of these problems were rectified by the work of Norman Douglas, who produced London Street Games in 1916, focusing on the urban working classes.
Perhaps still the most significant works in the field are that of Iona and Peter Opie, who departed from previous practice in Britain; following work by Dorothy Howard in America and Brian Sutton-Smith in New Zealand, they relied on detailed observation of children for their evidence. This resulted in the couples’ works The Language and Lore of Schoolchildren (1959), Children's Games in Street and Playground (1969), and The Singing Game (1985). Their extensive studies refuted the idea that the traditions of singing games were disappearing in the face of social and media change, and instead suggested adaptation as well as primary development. Their work was highly influential, and efforts were made to replicate it in a number of locations, including America, where Herbert and Mary Knapp produced One Potato, Two Potato: the Secret Education of American Children (1976) and Finland which saw Leea Virtanen's Children's Lore (1978). Wider anthropological-based studies include Helen Schwartzman's Transformations: The Anthropology of Children's Play (1978).
As investigational evidence changed, so did the methods of recording. Early folklorists like Lady Gomme tended to provide written descriptions of games, lyrics, and occasionally musical notation of tunes. In time, complex symbols were developed to choreograph the body’s movements within the games, but from the late 1970s on there was increasing use of ethnographic film to record the actual practice of games, providing a record of the links between movement and music.
Early folklorists tended to reflect contemporary theories and beliefs, including the view that singing games were a form of pagan survivalism, which led Alice Gomme to conclude that "London Bridge Is Broken Down" reflected a memory of child sacrifice, or 'devolution', which assumed that children's songs must have devolved down to children from adult culture and did not allow for innovation by children themselves. The origins of most are obscure and have been evolved by children over many generations.
The Opies divided singing games into a number of categories, including:
Many other children's games, that do not themselves involve singing are prefaced by a song. Traditionally there were many calling rhymes, used to assemble players of a game, which is probably the origin of the nursery rhyme "Girls and Boys Come Out To Play". Singing games are often used as counting out or 'dipping' games, a means of starting a game by choosing special roles, usually by eliminating all but one player, most famously in rhymes like "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" and "One potato, two potato".
Some children's singing games may have their origins in circle dances, including "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush". The simplest, and perhaps the best known, circle dance is "Ring a Ring o' Roses".
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