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September 3

"The Ants Go Marching One by One" and "The Animals Went In Two by Two"

How were these songs' tunes able to diverge?? The former has a long final line:

...and they (new bar) all go (new bar) marching (new bar) down to the (new bar) ground to get (new bar) out of the (new bar) rain.

The latter has a shorter final line:

...and they (new bar) all went (new bar) into the ark (new bar) for to get out of the (new bar) rain.

(Note: Wikipedia used to have an article about both of these songs titled The Ants Go Marching, and it said that these 2 songs have exactly the same tune. But for some reason the article was re-directed.) Georgia guy (talk) 00:45, 3 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The article's/redirect's history is still there. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:42, 3 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

"How were these songs' tunes able to diverge?" When songs effectively enter the Folk music arena, people can and do vary the tunes (and lyrics) however they like: sometimes variations catch on, sometimes tunes diverge and evolve until they are scarcely recognisable as variations of the same progenitor.

As the linked article says, these two songs used the tune of the 1863-registered song 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home', but even that was not original – the lyricist heard someone humming it, and it resembles a Scottish folk tune Robert Burns used in 1630, which is thought to be connected to a different English folk song first printed in 1611, though undoubtably older. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 51.194.81.165 (talk) 04:55, 3 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

To clarify, Burns reused a melody originating in 1630 (he wasn't born until 1759). Alansplodge (talk) 10:40, 4 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Quite right, my wording was poor. I meant to say "...tune known from 1630 which Robert Burns re-used . . . ." {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 51.194.81.165 (talk) 03:23, 5 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]