I think it may be a recent addition to the repertory, but lately we've noticed that one of the songs played by the carillon in Saint-Ghislain is "Yankee Doodle." While it
is a catchy tune, I'm not sure what the connection is. Maybe it has something to do with the Seven Years' War.
4 comments:
Didn't you know that Yankee Doodle came to town riding a Belgian Pony? I must have forgot to include this on your "things everone -- especially a Davidson graduate and an almost UNC Master's degree hoder -- should know test.
It's Memorial Day in America, hence, Yankee Doodle. Obviously Clint hasn't made it big in Belgium yet--Burning bridges up for evermore...donald
Well, if I'm to believe Owen's nursery rhyme book, the lyrics to "Yankee Doodle" actually first mocked the British in Cromwell's time, in Dutch, "Yanker dudel" meaning "Dumb Englishman". And your carillon is next door to the Netherlands, so over the last 350+ years, it's probably had the chance to pick up some of their songs.
hmm. dunno about that one, travis. the story i got when i was learning dutch (even before your doom-of-GM article was published) was that yankee was a fusion of "jan en kees," two common dutch names, and thus referred generically to duchmen, not unlike our "tom, dick, and harry." i've found a couple of explanations i like that i plan to explore in days to come. watch this space.
david
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