TO: Listers
FROM: Diane Aitken djaitken(a)prodigy.net

In mid-December I asked for your help with suggestions for songs about food for a spring concert. You were great!! I had 55 responses and have compiled a list for you from those responses plus other ideas we had already come up with. Thanks to all who wrote. I will not list you and make this already long transmission even longer!

I included some drink songs as well since I received some as suggestions and since our concert is Food AND Drink. Thanks again for your help.

SATB FOOD SONGS SUGGESTED BY CHORALIST RESPONSES

Banquet Fugue - John Rutter
Brindisi - From Rutter's book of opera choruses - drinking song
Chili Con Carne - SSATB or SAATB - is moderately challenging vocal jazz
Chocolate - Kirby Shaw
Chorus of Homage -.good drinking song by Brahms
Cockles and Mussels
Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes
Drinking Song from The Student Prince
The Feast - published in 4 "sweets" with music by Allan Robert Petker, published by Pavane Publishing, distributed by Hal Leonard.
Food, Glorious Food - Oliver (2 part only)
Fragments from His Dish: A cycle of Six Choral Pieces on a Theme of Food - Bob Chilcott - Oxford - premiered this year by Chicago A Capella
The Free Lunch Cadets - John Philip Sousa tune
Frisco Bay
Fruitcake - Philip Hagemann and Penny Leka
Give Me Good Digestion, Lord - Edwin Earle Ferguson - Walton WW1027
Goober Peas
Goober Peas TTB arranged by Donald Moore
Good Ale - John Rutter
Grandma's Killer Fruitcake (silly)
Hanibal Mo (From Tom Sawyer)
If Music Be the Food of Love - Jean Belmont
If Music Be the Food of Love - David Dickau
Jamaican Market Place - Larry Farrow
Java Jive - Kirby Shaw
Let Us Break Bread Together On Our Knees
Lime Jello Marshmello Cottage Cheese Surprise - William Bolcom
A Little White Hen - Antonio Scandello
Now to the Banquet We Press - Gilbert and Sullivan from The Sorcerer
Oysters and Clams - a Vocal Rag by Theodore Morse. Arr. David Dusing. E. Henry David Music Publishers, Theodore Presser
Pasta - Kirby Shaw"
Pop! - A Salute to Soft Drinks
The President Jefferson Luncheon Party March - Leonard Bernstein from "1600 PA Ave."
The Prune Song - Arr. Charlene Archibeque
The Recipe by Jacques Offenbach from "Robinson Carusoe)
The Roast Beef of Old England
Save the Bones for Henry Jones - arr. Kirby Shaw
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy - SATB, arr. Kirby Shaw
Smoking and Drinking - Chester Books of Madrigals Strawberries from "Madrigals for a New Age" by Robert Nelson, Roger Dean Publications (Lorenz)
Stone Soul Picnic - jazzy, challenging
Teddy Bears' Picnic - Oxford arrangement
Tourdion, brindisi of "Die fliedermaus"
There's a Meeting Here Tonight (Square Dance and Box Lunch Sale)
Vive La Compagnie! TBB arrangement by Dave and Jean Perry
Wassail Song - Ralph Vaughn Williams
Wonderful Soup - Mark Foster Co. #MF3070 - parody of big ensemble waltz

Apologize for this late reply; we are planning a similar concert in Antwerp, Belgium during spring 2000 and I hope this list can be useful:

1/ In Taberna, from Carmina Burana (Carl Orff)
2/ Drinking Song from The Student Prince (Sigmund Romberg)
3/ What shall we do with the drunken sailor
4/ A Boire, from the opera Ernani (G. Verdi)
5/ Drinking Scene, from the opera La Damnation de Faust (Hectior Berlioz)
6/ Cats Duets (G. Verdi)
7/ Your hay it is mow'd, from the opera King Arthur (H. Purcell)
8/ West Sussex Drinking Song (Melville Cook)
9/ Liebe und Wein (F. Mendelssohn)
10/ Master of the House, from the musical Les Miserables (Schoenberg)
11/ Appellation Controlée (Vic Nees)
12/ A Drinking Song (Wilfried Holland)
13/ Schenk ein, Trink aus (Manfred Hausmann)
14/ Come wash the dishes (arr. Raymond Keldermans)
15/ Studentenschmauss (Johann Hermann Schein)
16/ Chor der Studenten, from Hoffmanns Erzählungen (Jacques Offenbach)
PS: most of the songs are TTBB as we are a male choir, but assume SATB version will be available as well.

My list of food-and-drink songs is hors d'oeuvres rather than main courses, but maybe it will give you some ideas
Samuel Barber--The Coolin' (from Reincarnations)--a lad and his sweetheart out on the hill at night, drinking "the milk of the white goat."
Supply Belcher (early American singing school composer)--"Set down that glass!" and No brandy will we take"--two 18th century temperance songs, in the style of Billings et al. (a contrarian side to your theme);
The Bobs--contemporary a cappella group. "Food for Rent" (I believe this humorous song is in their published collection of arrangements, The Bobs Songbook);
Matthew Harris--"When Daffodils Begin to Peer" (a rollicking, liting SATB setting of this Shakespeare song from "The Winter'sTale," in which a "quart of ale is dish for a King." From the composer's Shakespeare Songs Bk. IV, distributed by Hal Leonard AMP 8108 ($3.95).
Henry Purcell--I gave her cakes, I gave her ale (3 part round), published by G Schirmer Oct. No. 9797;
Ravenscroft--New Oysters (3 part round) published in Noah Greenberg's An English Songbook (Doubleday, 1963). Actually a whole meal.
Arthur Sullivan--Dance Cachuca, from "The Gondoliers," which extols the various Spanish wines.

FOOD AND DRINK SONGS - NOT KNOWN TO BE SATB BUT ON THE THEME
Beer Barrel Polka
Big Rock Candy Mountain
Black Coffee - Johnny Mandel
The Candy Man (from Willie Wonka) (3-part)
Chicken Cordon Bleus (Steve Goodman)
Cool Water
Days of Wine and Roses
Drink With me (To Days Gone By) from Les Mis
The Fox
Golden Apples of the Sun (Yeats poem, trad. melody; in Judy Collins book)
Have a Little Priest - from Sweeny Todd
I Get No Kick from Champaign
In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening (Johnny Mercer/Hoagy Carmichael)
Johnson's Ale (folk song)
Kisses Sweeter than Wine
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries
Little Brown Jug
Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy
Marshmallow World
Meat Pies from Sweeney Todd
Monks and Raisins (Barber?)
The Night They Invented Champaign
Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow
Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be
On Top of Spaghetti
One for my Baby and One More for the Road
The Parting Glass
A Real Nice Clambake (Carousel)
Scarborough Fair
Scotch and Soda (Dave Guard, Kingston Trio)
Shuckin' of the Corn
Sipping Cider Through a Straw (possibly audience sing-along)
A Spoonful of Sugar
Strawberry Fields
Sweet Gingerbread - Michael Legrand
Tea for Two
That's Amore
There is a Tavern in the Town
Vievala Campanie
Who Threw the Overalls in Mistress Murphy's Chowder
Yes, We Have No Bananas
You Go to My Head
You Gotta Taste All the Fruit
You're the Cream in My Coffee

---

Dear Listers,
Thank you so much for your ideas, I got a great number of responses.
Please find below the compilation part 1. The second part will follow as a
complete list itself - thank for Choralist, and Matti from Finland who saved
it and send it to me.
There are some repetitions, but hope you do not mind. The 'dressing' is
different each time, however...

Thanks again!

C.Szalai, Ágnes
cszalai(a)veszprem.hu
cszalai(a)sednet.hu


John Rutter's "Banquet Fugue" from "The Reluctant Dragon", available in
separate octavo through Hinshaw Pub. SATB, easy, piano.

xxxxxx

Great jazz piece (and kinda funny too) called Java Jive - it would go with
the Coffee Cantata

xxxxxxxx

Have you tried Leonard Bernstein's La Bonne Cuisine? It contains things
like Plum Pudding, Queues de Boeuf, Tavouk and Civet a Toute Vitesse.. Just
a thought. This however is now contained in the Song Album of Bernstein and
is published by Boosey and Hawkes.

xxxxx

Food Glorious Food is the opening choral number for unison choir from the
Broadway musical
Oliver by Lionel Bart.

xxxxxxxx

I have a suite for suite for solo piano entitled Time Pieces, of which there
is a two minute movement called "Dinnertime."
The movement is very programmatic, and we hear in the movement the water
bubbling, the dishes clanking, and then the call for dinner: "Dinner time!"
[the rushing of feet down the stairs is heard and then:] "Time for dinner!"
Then we hear more clanking of dishes and the traditional prayer before
dinner: "Bless us ourLord, and these thy gifts,..." and this is interrupted
by more clanking of dishes (and perhaps some throwing of peas!). The
question is asked (musically), "So, how was your day?" and the response is
intermingled with more passing of dishes. The movement ends with a second
blessing: "In the name of the Father, the Son the Holy Spirit, Amen."
Perhaps this is something that would fit in your program?
Sincerely,
Margaret Collins Stoop
megcollins(a)stoop.org

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If Music Be the Food of Love - arrangements by David Dickau and Jean Belmont
both excellent.

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>From the "Little Mermaid" is the "le Poisson" song. Don't know if there's a
choral version of it, but that's also a fun piece.

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Good Ale (Rutter) "bring us in no [bread/eggs/bacon/etc for various reasons]
but bring us in good ale"

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The most obvious that comes to mind are the movements from the Nutcracker.

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Save the bones for Henry Jones is a really fun jazz tune
The big fat goose (Audite nova!) - di Lasso

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Take a look at "If Music Be the Food of Love"....there are likely several
settings of this old text. I believe one is by David Dickau

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Bob Chilcott's "Fragments From His Dish" is a good one - it's a six-song
cycle for a cappella SATB choir, with texts from all kinds of sources (Ogden
Nash, a 16th century newspaper, and Samuel Pepys, for example). Oxford
publishes it; the catalog number is OX2 6DP if I read this score correctly.

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"If Music Be the Food of Love" by Jean Belmont, published by Gordon V.
Thompson (Toronto) SATB

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The Prune Song - Arr. by Archibeque SATB - National Music Publishers, WHC
017
English text, very humorous!

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Two sets of Madrigals on food by Alan Petker Feast #1 and Feast #2
Java Jive
Chili Con Carne (oh so difficult and so much fun)

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Be our Guest from "Beauty and the Beast" SATB

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Clear, Cool Water. A 40's-50's pop song by the Sons of the Pioneers
Food, Glorious Food from the musical Oliver
Suppertime from You're a Good Man Charlie Brown (sung by Snoopy)
There is great, humorous piece called "Fruitcake" which is a recipe for that
which American's seem to hate (which I love)

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John Rutter's "Drinkhail" is a good SATB piece. As well the famous "Boars
Head Carol" is another great SATB tune.

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I wrote a fairly funny medley using all songs about food for an all-female
show ensemble, The Belles of Indiana, back in the 70s. We spent one
rehearsal woodshedding ideas and coming up with a list of songs, and I took
it from there. You seem to be looking for "classical novelties," if there's
such a category, rather than popular songs.
The song that tied the medley together was "Food, Beautiful Food" from
Oliver. I can't off the top of my head come up with a list of the other
songs we used, although "On Top of Spaghetti" (to the tune of "On Top of Old
Smokey") was one of them. Another Broadway song that I did not use is
"Abbondanza" from Most Happy Fella. (John Howell John.Howell(a)vt.edu)

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any setting of "If music be the food of love" choralnet.org has a repertoire
section which gives listers' input on lots of concert themes; I'm sure there
is one on the subject of food.

As far as instrumental - I can think of none right now. There are so many
nicknames for Haydn symphonies or other Classical era string quartets -
perhaps somewhere there is one with a food twist.

xxxxxxxxx

Bernstein has several songs about food but one is a receipt for Rabbit.
(soprano and piano)

Various drinking or toasting songs from opera. Libbiano from Traviata, Beva
con me from Otello
the Champagne Chorus from Fledermaus

xxxxxxxxx

There's a popular tune called "Scotch and Soda" and also an old pop tune
called "Buttermilk Sky". "On the Good Ship Lollipop" mentions lots of
different kinds of candy; it comes from a movie from the 1930's.

xxxxxxxxxxx

I once had a composition written especially for us, the Pa'amon Children
Choir, by an Israeli composer, name: A'aron Harlap and it is talking about
a girl not knowing what kind of an egg to eat for breakfast..It is cute -
but it is all in Hebrew, so I don't know if it is good for you. - Tova
Reshef

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Take a look at Lee Hoiby's opera "Bon Appetit." it is based on one of Julia
Child's cooking shows. I saw it once. It's hilarious. It's a one-woman
show. I don't know if it would work for you but it is definitely about
food! You could also do excerpts from Hansel and Gretel - gingerbread
cookies, candy houses - lots and lots of references to food in that opera
since the family was starving.

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Tourdion - anon. French

---

... and here you are the list, as I have received it. Thank you for your
kind assistance again!
C.Szalai Ágnes
cszalai(a)veszprem.hu
cszalai(a)sednet.hu


SATB FOOD SONGS SUGGESTED BY CHORALIST RESPONSES (from choralist)

Banquet Fugue - John Rutter
Brindisi - From Rutter's book of opera choruses - drinking song
Chili Con Carne - SSATB or SAATB - is moderately challenging vocal
jazz
Chocolate - Kirby Shaw
Chorus of Homage -.good drinking song by Brahms
Cockles and Mussels
Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes
Drinking Song from The Student Prince
The Feast - published in 4 "sweets" with music by
Allan Robert Petker, published by Pavane
Publishing, distributed by Hal Leonard.
Food, Glorious Food - Oliver (2 part only)
Fragments from His Dish: A cycle of Six Choral
Pieces on a Theme of Food - Bob Chilcott -
Oxford - premiered this year by Chicago A
Capella
The Free Lunch Cadets - John Philip Sousa tune
Frisco Bay
Fruitcake - Philip Hagemann and Penny Leka
Give Me Good Digestion, Lord - Edwin Earle Ferguson - Walton WW1027
Goober Peas
Goober Peas TTB arranged by Donald Moore
Good Ale - John Rutter
Grandma's Killer Fruitcake (silly)
Hanibal Mo (From Tom Sawyer)
If Music Be the Food of Love - Jean Belmont
If Music Be the Food of Love - David Dickau
Jamaican Market Place - Larry Farrow
Java Jive - Kirby Shaw
Let Us Break Bread Together On Our Knees
Lime Jello Marshmello Cottage Cheese Surprise - William Bolcom
A Little White Hen - Antonio Scandello
Now to the Banquet We Press - Gilbert and Sullivan from The Sorcerer
Oysters and Clams - a Vocal Rag by Theodore
Morse. Arr. David Dusing. E. Henry David Music
Publishers, Theodore Presser
Pasta - Kirby Shaw"
Pop! - A Salute to Soft Drinks
The President Jefferson Luncheon Party March -
Leonard Bernstein from "1600 PA Ave."
The Prune Song - Arr. Charlene Archibeque
The Recipe by Jacques Offenbach from "Robinson Carusoe)
The Roast Beef of Old England
Save the Bones for Henry Jones - arr. Kirby Shaw
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy - SATB, arr. Kirby Shaw
Smoking and Drinking - Chester Books of
Madrigals Strawberries from "Madrigals for
a New Age" by Robert Nelson, Roger Dean
Publications (Lorenz)
Stone Soul Picnic - jazzy, challenging
Teddy Bears' Picnic - Oxford arrangement
Tourdion, brindisi of "Die fliedermaus"
There's a Meeting Here Tonight (Square Dance and Box Lunch Sale)
Vive La Compagnie! TBB arrangement by Dave and Jean Perry
Wassail Song - Ralph Vaughn Williams
Wonderful Soup - Mark Foster Co. #MF3070 - parody of big ensemble waltz

Apologize for this late reply; we are planning a
similar concert in Antwerp, Belgium during spring
2000 and I hope this list can be useful:

1/ In Taberna, from Carmina Burana (Carl Orff)
2/ Drinking Song from The Student Prince (Sigmund Romberg)
3/ What shall we do with the drunken sailor
4/ A Boire, from the opera Ernani (G. Verdi)
5/ Drinking Scene, from the opera La Damnation de Faust (Hectior Berlioz)
6/ Cats Duets (G. Verdi)
7/ Your hay it is mow'd, from the opera King Arthur (H. Purcell)
8/ West Sussex Drinking Song (Melville Cook)
9/ Liebe und Wein (F. Mendelssohn)
10/ Master of the House, from the musical Les Miserables (Schoenberg)
11/ Appellation Controlée (Vic Nees)
12/ A Drinking Song (Wilfried Holland)
13/ Schenk ein, Trink aus (Manfred Hausmann)
14/ Come wash the dishes (arr. Raymond Keldermans)
15/ Studentenschmauss (Johann Hermann Schein)
16/ Chor der Studenten, from Hoffmanns Erzählungen (Jacques Offenbach)
PS: most of the songs are TTBB as we are a male
choir, but assume SATB version will be available
as well.

My list of food-and-drink songs is hors d'oeuvres
rather than main courses, but maybe it will give
you some ideas
Samuel BarberThe Coolin' (from
Reincarnations)a lad and his sweetheart out
on the hill at night, drinking "the milk of the
white goat."
Supply Belcher (early American singing school
composer)"Set down that glass!" and No brandy
will we take"two 18th century temperance
songs, in the style of Billings et al. (a
contrarian side to your theme);
The Bobscontemporary a cappella group. "Food
for Rent" (I believe this humorous song is in
their published collection of arrangements,
The Bobs Songbook);
Matthew Harris"When Daffodils Begin to Peer" (a
rollicking, liting SATB setting of this
Shakespeare song from "The Winter'sTale," in
which a "quart of ale is dish for a King." From
the composer's Shakespeare Songs Bk. IV,
distributed by Hal Leonard AMP 8108 ($3.95).
Henry PurcellI gave her cakes, I gave her ale
(3 part round), published by G Schirmer
Oct. No. 9797;
RavenscroftNew Oysters (3 part round)
published in Noah Greenberg's An English
Songbook (Doubleday, 1963). Actually a whole
meal.
Arthur SullivanDance Cachuca, from "The
Gondoliers," which extols the various Spanish
wines.

FOOD AND DRINK SONGS - NOT KNOWN TO BE SATB BUT ON THE THEME
Beer Barrel Polka
Big Rock Candy Mountain
Black Coffee - Johnny Mandel
The Candy Man (from Willie Wonka) (3-part)
Chicken Cordon Bleus (Steve Goodman)
Cool Water
Days of Wine and Roses
Drink With me (To Days Gone By) from Les Mis
The Fox
Golden Apples of the Sun (Yeats poem, trad. melody; in Judy Collins book)
Have a Little Priest - from Sweeny Todd
I Get No Kick from Champaign
In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening (Johnny Mercer/Hoagy Carmichael)
Johnson's Ale (folk song)
Kisses Sweeter than Wine
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries
Little Brown Jug
Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy
Marshmallow World
Meat Pies from Sweeney Todd
Monks and Raisins (Barber?)
The Night They Invented Champaign
Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow
Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be
On Top of Spaghetti
One for my Baby and One More for the Road
The Parting Glass
A Real Nice Clambake (Carousel)
Scarborough Fair
Scotch and Soda (Dave Guard, Kingston Trio)
Shuckin' of the Corn
Sipping Cider Through a Straw (possibly audience sing-along)
A Spoonful of Sugar
Strawberry Fields
Sweet Gingerbread - Michael Legrand
Tea for Two
That's Amore
There is a Tavern in the Town
Vievala Campanie
Who Threw the Overalls in Mistress Murphy's Chowder
Yes, We Have No Bananas
You Go to My Head
You Gotta Taste All the Fruit
You're the Cream in My Coffee

>Dear Listers,
>
>Could you help me with a quite difficult task? I need roughly 30 minutes of
>music - *not* exclusively choral - on *food* (in a broad sense, since e.g.
>Bread-baking is not really about food, but still fine). What I have in the
>mind is the Bread-baking by Bartók, and the Coffee cantata by Bach, but
this
>is not enough. *All* sort of music is welcome besides choral.
>Thanks in advance!
>
>C.Szalai, Ágnes
>Veszprém, Hungary
>cszalai(a)veszprem.hu
>cszalai(a)sednet.hu

BR Matti



Matti J Järvinen
Juvenalia Choir
http://www.juvenalia-kuoro.org/
Räisäläntie 35 A, FIN-02140 Espoo
PH: +358-9-512 1201
MOBILE: +358-50-62 166
FAX: +358-9-8946 1411
matti.j.jarvinen(a)kolumbus.fi