Ancient Composition

To make up for the last post, here is a little composition that I worked up recently. If you can believe it, I "wrote" this haunting tune and nonsensical lyrics when I was 3 or 4 years old. I remember sitting in the back of the car, or under my bed, singing this song over, and over, and over again. Next to the repeat sign, I think I should write "repeat ad nauseum" because I would sing it for 10-20 minutes sometimes. It drove everyone crazy, I think. Sometimes, someone would prompt me to sing it, and everyone else would protest. Click on the image below to enlarge the song.




I have a .mid file, in case you can't read music:

There are a few strange things about this song. First, it is just so sad; and yet the words are silly. I thought about adding an interesting base line or something, but I left it as a dirge. Also, I wanted it to be as close to how I would have sung it as a kid.

Another thing that is strange is that the first four measures are in the key of Gm (two flats), but the last four measures are actually in five flats (Bb-minor). Instead of getting fancy and doing a key change in the middle of an eight-measure composition, I just handled this as accidentals. This is how I sang it, first half in Gm, second half up a minor third, and then I would repeat - going back down to where I was. That is more haunting than the actual melody, I think. Anything that I write now is not near as complicated like this.

As for the words, your guess is as good as mine. Sure, someone could psychoanalyze this into a young child not in control of his surroundings or something. But honestly, I just came up with the words to match the melody. However, I firmed up the lyrics fairly quickly and did not waiver from them. The only clue that I can give you is that I liked pigs when I was little. And maybe that is just about as deep as the words really are. As for the title, maybe I picked it up from dialog in "I Love Lucy" or something...

--gh