Is the chicken tune universal phenomena?

Is some cat in Mathura making his Sarangi go bak-bak-bakaw this very moment?

I wonder…

Chicken tunes could be divided into more than one category:

1) Tunes that sound like chickens

2) Tunes that are about chickens

Tunes in the first category also belong to the second but tunes in the second don’t necessarily belong in the first.

I’m interested in the ones where the fiddle makes a sound like a chicken.

My list for the first category;

Cluck Old Hen
Chicken Reel
Cacklin’ Hen

There must be more!!!

Does anybody know more tunes that make any kind of chicken sound???

Clark Kessinger's Chicken in the Barnyard

Janet
"Curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back." -my grandmother, Bertha Morgan Nelson

Well, thanks. Now I'm trying to get my work done with the Chicken Dance hammering through what's left of my brain. Dada-dada-dada-dum, dada-dada-dada-dum, dada-dada-dada-daht dah ...

Sigh. Sorry, I'm scratching around for a tune of the kind you're looking for, but at the moment I'm just a dumb cluck.

Rich

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... in savage and impenetrable darkness with chaos and pandemonium before me, and the demon madness of that night-baying viol behind me.--H.P. Lovecraft

I checked out "Chicken in the Barnyard" on the jukebox posted by dsreiner, great tune, great fiddling.
Sounds like a variation of Cacklin' Hen to me.

Chicken Dance has a chicken rhythm which might be another chicken tune catagory!

quote:

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Originally posted by Phyddlyr

Is the chicken tune universal phenomena?

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Charlie Daniels seems to think there's a tune called "Chickens in the Bread Pan, Scratching out Dough".

Anybody ever heard it?

--OTJ
"I can barely fiddle on four strings. Why would I want five?"

Oh - and just did a search of the Juke Box.

There I see "Crow Black Chicken" - oldtimer has a great recording of it on his music page. I think Rayna Gellert recorded it?

And there's a great B-minor Irish tune called "Jennie's Chickens" that's traditionally played after a multi-variant rendition of "Bonnie Kate".

Though I guess "Jennie's Chickens" is really a modal tune in B Dorian - and I'm not even really sure it's Irish since I think "Bonnie Kate" is of Scottish origin though it's widely played by a lot of Irish fiddlers.

Somebody help me!!!

--OTJ
"I can barely fiddle on four strings. Why would I want five?"

I play Cluck Old Hen and Chicken Reel, I'm still trying to get my version of Cacklin' Hen established. Every time I hear another fiddler do it I think of something else I want to add or change.

I would guess the syncopated bowing is required for Chicken Reel.

I believe "chicken in the bread pan scratchin' out dough" is a lyric preceding "granny will your dog bite lawd child no" in the tune of the same name.

Crow Black Chicken is a great tune but I think it would be in the category of tunes about chickens.

I found a raucous version of Jennie's Chickens on youtube and I could detect some chickenish sounds in the A part and C part, very cool tune. The chicken kind of has an accent so I think it's the first cross cultural world chicken tune for the list. Here's the url youtube.com/watch?v=IVBE5KbzSDE

Edited by - Phyddlyr on 07/07/2009 22:59:50

Just thought I'd mention that the one OT jam I sometimes attend has a moratorium on these tunes. When informed of it, I suggested to them that they should have their OT licence revoked . . .

^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^
So many tunes. So little time!

Me on the Web --
doneinstyle.com
My inspiration:
pandora.com/?sc=sh14633812588807237

The Chicken Polka (in D and G) can have chicken sounds in the G part. A tune from Jehile Kirkhuff:
homepage.mac.com/edwardberbaum...Polka.mp3

Carl

Edited by - carlb on 07/10/2009 06:19:01

"The Hens' March to the Midden" - great Shetland tune with bow "clucks" in the B music.
Dave Swarbrick playing it here
youtube.com/watch?v=gnOxEHEI0Sg
Very dated 1980's clip!

(Is "midden" a word you folks use West of the Atlantic? Rubbish heap, compost heap, dung heap etc. The word has become a bit archaic in this country.)

Swedish "Chicken Polka" here (with real chickens) but played on diatonic accordion
youtube.com/watch?v=Qxz3TUqDRa0

Tom

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"Before you criticise anyone, you should walk a mile in their moccasins."
This is wise because (a) you''re a mile away when you start criticising, and (b) you''ve got their moccasins....

If you ban chicken tunes what's next, whiskey tunes? Heck I wouldn't have anything left to play except songs about rabbits. And I don't know how to make rabbit sounds on my fiddle.

Chicken Polka definitely has chicken sounds, I had to get rid of the greater than at the end of carlbs' link then it worked fine. Great fiddling.

The "Hens' March to the Midden" chicken barely has an accent, I can understand him perfectly.

Here we use midden as a measure of time as in "give me a midden while I finish my beer".

I accidently let my friend see the Swedish Chicken Polka Video... and we had just gotten him to start leaving the accordian at home. Thanks!!

Edited by - Phyddlyr on 07/08/2009 09:00:24

quote:

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Originally posted by fiddlepogo

But I have noticed that BOWING plays a part in getting the chicken sounds right-
chickens SYNCOPATE!!!
Bak-bak-bak-KAW!!!

So you need a syncopated bowing to make it sound right.
Guess which one THAT would be...

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Ah, Michael! What would this place be without you?

It's hard to take yourself seriously when you're learning shuffles from chickens!

~Rich

And going back to the original question, are chicken tunes universal?

Well, this morning on the way to work, I heard three of 'em on WFMT, our classical station:

"La Poule" by Jean-Philippe Rameau
"La Gallina" by Ottorino Respighi
"La Gallina, Cakewalk" by Louis-Marie Gottschalk

(all meaning "The Hen")

Rich

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... in savage and impenetrable darkness with chaos and pandemonium before me, and the demon madness of that night-baying viol behind me.--H.P. Lovecraft

"La Poule" by Jean-Philippe Rameau
"La Gallina" by Ottorino Respighi
"La Gallina, Cakewalk" by Louis-Marie Gottschalk

Do any of these pieces have classical chickens sounds?

La Boc
La Boc
La Boc CAK!

** said with dew claw extended extremely as if it were a pinkie at teatime ""

^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^
So many tunes. So little time!

Me on the Web --
doneinstyle.com
My inspiration:
pandora.com/?sc=sh14633812588807237

Even country and rock guitarists do " chicken picken". Living in the country, people say and do things to amuse themselves with things that they find funny. I've raised chickens and they can be very amusing. I can do a pretty good imitation of chickens, ducks, pigs and cows ( vocally, not on fiddle). Sometimes I'll do it to see if they answer me back, sometimes just to make myself laugh. I can see how this would translate to instruments, and how audiences would get a chuckle out of it. Heck, I still chuckle every time at a good rendition of "Listen to the Mockingbird".

James Bryan plays a great tune called "Chicken in the Snowbank". Great tune.

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"I wonder how the old folks are at home..."

How did I miss this thread? My favorite chicken tune is "Chickens Don't Roost Too High". There's a great version on the CD "Possum Up a Gum Stump" by Alabama fiddler Leonard Keith. Earl Johnson from Georgia also recorded, but I think he might have called it something slightly different. He sings some crazy lyrics to his version.

Maybe one day I'll be able to play it half-way decently!

Judy

P.S. On that Possum Up a Gum Stump CD, you get your money's worth of animal tunes, the title track, in addition to "Turkey Foot", "Flop Eared Mule", "Chicken in the Barnyard", and "Coon On a Rail". In all seriousness, it is a great CD with a great collection of tunes.

And don't forget "Old Lady's Peckin' Chickens" with pizzicato in the B part to simulate clucking. Great tune!! (I think this tune comes from either Chirps or the Allen Street String Band - and where they got it, who knows.)

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fiddle music - "... it''s for the uplifting of people. It''s the highest, the most high, most high, most high...'''' Marcus Martin.

quote:

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Originally posted by Fiddler

And don't forget "Old Lady's Peckin' Chickens" with pizzicato in the B part to simulate clucking. Great tune!! (I think this tune comes from either Chirps or the Allen Street String Band - and where they got it, who knows.)

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Thanks -- I really never knew the "true" source for the tune and it is very likely like Dwight Lamb is the source. It is a fun tune to play!

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fiddle music - "... it''s for the uplifting of people. It''s the highest, the most high, most high, most high...'''' Marcus Martin.

Well, it seems that Lamb grew up around fiddlers, and that he learned a lot of his repertory from Bob Walter and Cyril Stinnett. so I don't really know where it came from. The tape I have, "Old Ladies Pickin' Chickens" consists of tunes recorded in the late 60's and early 70's. Charlie Walden has also recorded it, among others. Might well be a Bob Walters tune.

Michael R

kcstrings.com
"You''ll love the way you sound"

"Thank you for the wonderful violin you made. I''ve used it on every show I''ve played since I''ve got it." John Hartford

There's one in the FHO Archive from user oldcitico, aka Matt Downer, called "Rise When the Rooster Crows". He's collected tunes out in the field so I suspect it's a legitimate Chicken tune, though it's actually more of a song.

^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^
So many tunes. So little time!

Me on the Web --
doneinstyle.com
My inspiration:
pandora.com/?sc=sh14633812588807237

"I'll Rise When the Rooster Crows" was recorded commercially in the 1920's by both Uncle Dave Macon and the Binkley Brothers Dixie Clodhoppers. mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid...ssages=11

There also "Who Broke the Lock on the Henhouse Door." How could I forget that one?

Both are old minstrel show songs I believe.