h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There's a song in The Yeoman of the Guard that is unique. It's unique among the songs in "Yeoman". It's unique among the songs in all of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Operas. It was unique in 1888, and it became unique for a second reason in 1969.

Which song? Why unique? Why unique? Why unique?

I know nothing about this or any musical, but maybe in 1969 this was the only Gilbert and Sullivan song to make the top forty?

Well deduced. It was never a singles hit, but it was one of the few gems in an abysmal album by Peter Paul and Mary, and got a lot of airtime,

In "Yeoman" the character of the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Richard Cholmondeley, is the only character in all of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas that is based on an historical figure.

Are you sure, Feisor? The First Sea Lord in Pinafore is a satire on the first non-sailor to hold the post, a real historical figure, giving rise to lines like,

"And that junior partnership, I ween,
Was the only ship that I ever had seen.

A satire, yes, most of the characters in G & S were satires of famous characters and sometimes not very subtly disguised - but the character Sir Richard Cholmondeley was an actual person and, although "fictionalised", not disguised at all.

He was Lieutenant of the Tower of London and is buried there

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cholmondeley

Sorry about the W*k* link but it was the first google link I found.

Thanks, Feisor. Definite points there.

My only thought is that if this song was recorded by folk singers like Peter, Paul and Mary, was it written in a different tempo?

That's a good question, Icy, but I can't answer it. I just don't have the expertise.

All that waltz time and 4:4 stuff is a closed book to me. It may have a bearing, but I can't help you there.

No worries - I wouldn't understand the answer if you did

Shouldn't think they wrote much in a blues tempo either...

"Woke up this morning,
Had constabulary duty to be done.

Said I woke up this morning,
Had that constabulary duty to be done.

Taking all things considered,
A policeman's lot is not a happy one"



Anyone have Andrew Lloyd Webber's phone number?

I wish I did, Icy. If anything's going to bring the Eurovision back to the UK, that's the song to do it.

Being fair to your original question, Icy, the uniquenesses are musical rather than relating to the lyric.

It's a guess, but was there a unique instrument being played? It would have to be something folky, I suppose...

Nothing like that, Icy. It's the melody, and the way it was used in the course of the story.

Wild guess - the same melody was used twice, once in a major and once in a minor key?

Is the song "I have a song to sing,o"? And was the melody 'borrowed' from another, older song?

Malabarista and Ekky99 are both right.

The song is sung in both keys (as opposed to being used as incidental music, part of the overture and so on).

Gilbert wrote it to the tune of a sea shanty and handed it over to Sullivan, who said he couldn't better the original melody.

The lyric is splendid, but in my opinion it's the fact that Sullivan didn't write the melody that made it so special.

Interesting QI, Infinite Imp.

"The First Sea Lord in Pinafore is a satire on the first non-sailor to hold the post, a real historical figure"

Am I right in thinking that the person parodied was a certain WH Smith, who was either the founder or the son of the founder of the bookshop/newsagent chain?

Yep! Here's more ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Smith_(politician)