Cumulative song

A cumulative song is a song with a simple verse structure modified by progressive addition so that each verse is longer than the verse before.

Cumulative songs are popular for group singing, in part because they require relatively little memorization of lyrics, and because remembering the previous verse to concatenate it to form the current verse can become a kind of game.

Structure of cumulative songs

Typically, the lyrics take the form of a stanza of at least two lines. In each verse, the text of the first line introduces a new item, and the other line uses the words to begin a list which includes items from all the preceding verses. The item is typically a a new phrase (simultaneously a group of words and a musical phrase) to a line in a previous stanza.

The two lines are often separated by refrains. Many cumulative songs also have a chorus.

Example with two-line stanza

A example of a simple text with an addition to each second line is The Twelve Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

A partridge in a pear tree.

On the second day of Chrismas my true love gave to me

Two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Three french hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.

and so on until

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a milking, seven swans a swimming, six geese a laying, five gold rings, four calling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.

The first five gifts are sung to varied melodic phrases, and with a change of tempo for five gold rings. Otherwise the wording of each new gift is sung to a repeated melodic phrase.

Example with refrains

In many songs, an item is introduced in the first line of each stanza and extends the list in another line. An example is The Barley Mow:

1. Here's good luck to the pint pot,

Good luck to the barley mow

Jolly good luck to the pint pot,

Good luck to the barley mow

Oh the pint pot, half a pint, gill pot, half a gill, quarter gill, nipperkin, and a round bowl

Here's good luck, good luck, good luck to the barley mow

The second verse substitutes a larger drink measure in the first line. In the second line the new measure heads the list and is sung to the same musical phrase as pint pot.

2. Here's good luck to the quart pot,

Good luck to the barley mow

Jolly good luck to the quart pot,

Good luck to the barley mow

Oh the quart pot, pint pot, half a pint, gill pot, half a gill, quarter gill, nipperkin, and a round bowl

Here's good luck, good luck, good luck to the barley mow

One version of the final line and refrain is:

Oh the company, the brewer, the drayer, the slavey ,the daughter, the landlady, the landlord, the barrel, the half-barrel, the gallon, the half-gallon, the quart pot, pint pot, half a pint gill pot, half a gill, quarter gill, nipperkin, and a round bowl

Here's good luck, good luck, good luck to the barley mow

Example with chorus

A chorus (often with its own refrain) may be added to the stanzas as in The Rattlin' Bog:

Hi ho, the rattlin' bog,

The bog down in the valley-o,

Hi ho, the rattlin' bog,

The bog down in the valley-o.

1. Now in the bog there was a tree,

A rare tree, a rattlin' tree,

The tree in the bog,

And the bog down in the valley-o.

Hi ho, the rattlin' bog,

The bog down in the valley-o,

Hi ho, the rattlin' bog,

The bog down in the valley-o.

2. And on that tree there was a branch,

A rare branch, a rattlin' branch,

The branch on the tree, and the tree in the bog,

And the bog down in the valley-o.

Hi ho, the rattlin' bog,

The bog down in the valley-o,

Hi ho, the rattlin' bog,

The bog down in the valley-o.

One version of the final line+refrain is:

The feather on the wing, and the wing on the bird, and the bird on the nest, and the nest on the twig, and the twig on the branch, and the branch on the tree, and the tree in the bog,

And the bog down in the valley.

Each phrase is sung to the same two-note melody.

Song Examples

Cumulative songs referred to in Wikipedia entries

• "The Twelve Days of Christmas"
• "Chad Gadya"
• "Green Grow the Rushes, O"
• "I Am a Fine Musician" from 2 episodes of the Dick Van Dyke Show
• "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly"
• "Old McDonald Had a Farm"
• "Alouette"
• "Eh, Cumpari!"
• "I Have a Song to Sing, O" from Gilbert & Sullivan's opera The Yeomen of the Guard
• "Children, go where I send thee"
• "I Bought Me A Cat"
• "The Green Grass Grew All Around"
• "Song of Love" from the musical Once Upon a Mattress
• "The Rattlin' Bog"
• "The Barley Mow"
• "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea" [1]
• "Du Hast" is partially cumulative, and is a fairly popular German industrial song, making its cumulative parts somewhat novel.
• "The Court of King Caractacus" by Rolf Harris
• "The Schnitzelbank Song"
• "Must Be Santa", a Christmas song popularized by Mitch Miller
• "Don't Be Anything Less Than Anything You Can Be" from the musical Snoopy
• "Getta Loada Toad" from the musical A Year with Frog and Toad
• "Minkurinn í hænsnakofanum", an Icelandic song about farm animals waking each other when a mink storms the chicken pen.
• 'Herring's Heads', sung by Johnny Doughty on The Voice of the People vol 07
• 'My Cock Crew', sung by Con Greaney on 'Traditional Singer'
• 'Old King Cole', sung by Martin Gorman on The Voice of the People vol 07
• "Widdlecome Fair" (Widecombe Fair, Tam Pierce), sung by Tom Brown on The Voice of the People vol 07
• 'Most Beautiful Leg of the Mallard', sung by Henry Mitchelmore on The Voice of the People vol 07
• 'This Is the House That Jack Built'

Cumulative songs in Judaism

Yiddish folk music contains many prominent examples of cumulative songs, including "?װאָס װעט זײַן אַז משיח װעט קומען" and "מה אספּרה," or "What Will Happen When the Messiah Comes?" and "Who Can Recall" (a Yiddish version of the Passover song "Echad mi yode'a").

The Passover seder contains two cumulative songs: Echad mi yode'a and Chad Gadya.

See also

• Cumulative tale
• Announcer's test
• Round (music)
• The Complexity of Songs