Friday, May 27, 2011
The crossing song
In the 20 years I've been at this address, I've heard the 'Crossing Song' every morning from the nearby school. It's an interesting example of how music develops on its own from shouting. Ethnomusicology or something like that.
The crossing guards seem to be assigned on a weekly basis. Each pair has a slightly different way of singing, but the basic tune is always the same. You'd think that in 20 years, with presumably a different pair each week, you'd hear at least one pair who can sing in unison. Nope. Each pair has one good tune-carrier who starts the song, and one poor tune-carrier who follows. The follower is always out of unison by at least a half-tone.
The 9:00 song is simplest, just Last Crossing! I've represented it as G G E, though it's really Sol Sol Mi. (Relative pitch, not absolute.)
The 8:30 song adds another phrase. (Schools here offer both breakfast and lunch; about half the kids take advantage of the breakfast, so it needs a separate crossing period.)
And a few musically conscious 'lead singers' add an extra pitch to the 8:30 song, with just a bit of pride evident in the voice. = = = = = May 2015: After building a usable microphone, I finally got a live recording of the Crossing Song. Thirty seconds long, with three repeats; there was some noise from a nearby weed-wacker or something on the first two, but the noise turned off on the third. Here is the MP3 file. ¶ 4:40 AM
The crossing guards seem to be assigned on a weekly basis. Each pair has a slightly different way of singing, but the basic tune is always the same. You'd think that in 20 years, with presumably a different pair each week, you'd hear at least one pair who can sing in unison. Nope. Each pair has one good tune-carrier who starts the song, and one poor tune-carrier who follows. The follower is always out of unison by at least a half-tone.
The 9:00 song is simplest, just Last Crossing! I've represented it as G G E, though it's really Sol Sol Mi. (Relative pitch, not absolute.)
The 8:30 song adds another phrase. (Schools here offer both breakfast and lunch; about half the kids take advantage of the breakfast, so it needs a separate crossing period.)
And a few musically conscious 'lead singers' add an extra pitch to the 8:30 song, with just a bit of pride evident in the voice. = = = = = May 2015: After building a usable microphone, I finally got a live recording of the Crossing Song. Thirty seconds long, with three repeats; there was some noise from a nearby weed-wacker or something on the first two, but the noise turned off on the third. Here is the MP3 file. ¶ 4:40 AM
