Talk:Do-Re-Mi

Untitled
In some (or all) of the dubbed versions of the movie, some of the songs were also re-written to the target language. In the case of this one, the solfege names are the same in other languages, but the sound-alike words must be different. I once had someone write out the French version of the song, but have lost it. Do any international wikipedians want to add the other-language versions to this page?

Walt 19:17, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

These are the french words for the same passage, as heard in the French version of the film:

Do, le do il a bon dos

Ré, rayon de soleil d'or

Mi, c'est la moitié d'un tout

Fa, c'est facile à chanter

Sol,la terre où vous marchez

La, l'endroit où vous allez

Si, c'est siffler comme un merle

Et comme ça, on revient à Do

--Onaryc 19:25, 3 October 2006 (UTC)


 * There should be no reproductions of the entire lyrics to the song. It is a copyright violation. The "word meanings" section sufficiently references what the song is about without reprinting all of its lyrics. --FuriousFreddy 05:40, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

This is the spanish version I sung in the sixties:

DOminemos nuestra voz

REpitiendo sin cesar

MI cancion se entiende ya

FAcil hemos de cantar

SOLtaremos a volar

LAs palomas del amor

SI sabemos bien solfear

Cantaremos sin cesar!


 * The spanish version I saw of the film didn't change the sound-alike words, it merely translated it. For example, the first line went "Do, un reno..." Reno being spanish for Raindeer.

--200.44.7.101 00:54, 6 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Here goes the spanish version I sung in the sixties:

DOminemos nuestra voz

REpitiendo sin cesar

MI cancion se entiende ya

FAcil hemos de cantar

SOLtaremos a volar

LAs palomas del amor

SI sabemos bien solfear

Cantaremos sin cesar!

This article seems to have a net loss of content from the last month's edits. Can someone take the time to sort it out? Walt 13:00, 1 May 2006 (UTC)


 * There is another version I have on a longplay witht he sountrack of the movie in spanish:

Don, es trato de varón

Rez, selvático animal

Mi, denota posesión

Fa, es lejos en inglés

Sol, ardiente esfera es

La, al nombre es anterior

Sí, asentimiento es

Y otra vez ya viene el Do —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.255.114.254 (talk) 22:07, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Translation of French lyrics
I went to a language translator and got:

C, C it has good back, Ré, sunbeam of gold, Mi, it is half of a whole, Fa, it is easy to sing, Sol, the place where we walk, the place where we go, If, to whistle like a finch, And we return to Do

Now, where does "C, C" come from?? C is a letter used in both English and French, and letters remain how they are. Georgia guy 21:51, 4 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Automatic translators suck :) . The "C" probably comes from the fact that in french, "le do" could only refer to the musical note C, so it translated it as C. There's a pun on "dos" ("back"), and "do" (the note C). Both are pronounced the same. If I used an automatic translator to translate the english words into french, it wouldn't mean a thing. That's why you need humans to do a good job of it. Onaryc 12:18, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Il a bon dos is a common French idiom. It refers to a person who does not complain when they are unjustly blamed, or who puts up with someone else's faults without complaining. Or it can be something (or someone) which is used for an excuse (like the dog who ate your homework). --ABehrens (talk) 04:27, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

Behind meaning section
This recent edit seems to make no or little sense as the lyrics presented aren't even close to accurate. Does anyone know what the editor intended? kabl00ey 09:14, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

8 notes not sufficient to play the song
This song cannot be played on simple children's instruments with only the 8 notes of the C major scale, as the article states. The la line uses F sharp (which is not one of the 8 notes of the C major scale). The ti line also uses notes which aren't on the C major scale. -- 12.116.162.162 (talk) 13:47, 21 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Strange. I am no musician, but I have a good enough ear to recite to myself the C major scale and check that all the notes in the lyrics are indeed right on the money. Are you sure we're talking about the same song? It's easy to check a version of it in Youtube for instance. All the notes are just right and in accordance with the lyrics. The "la" is indeed a "la". The "ti" is a "ti". Sorry... Onaryc (talk) 17:37, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

reply
Mr. or Ms. 12.116.162.162 is correct. I have perfect pitch and the notes of the lines la and ti are:

la (A) a (D) note (E) to (F#) follow (G, A) so (B)

ti (B) a (E) drink (F#) with (G#) jam (A) and (B) bread (C)

It's possible that Rodgers originally wrote F and G natural, and that many singers raise them to F and G sharp in performance because it sounds more natural.

By the way, the probable reason the song was lowered to Bb major in the movie was so that Julie Andrews could sing a high Bb at the end. High C may have been out of her range. An opera singer like Frederica van Stade could have managed the C; I don't remember how she did it in her recording of the song. CharlesTheBold (talk) 03:44, 7 December 2007 (UTC)


 * It would still have gone onto high C for the "-ny-" in "When you know the notes to sing / You can sing most anything." Perhaps it was to avoid a high D? Double sharp (talk) 13:51, 31 July 2012 (UTC)


 * No, the line "When you know the notes" is set an octave lower than high C and wouldn't have given Andrews a problem. 73.137.170.88 (talk) 17:37, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

Pop culture/"Suite Life" error?
I don't know much about the "Suite Life" show, but whoever added the example of how London Tipton creates her own song to memorize the scale should double-check whether Tipton says "Ti" is her favorite vowel or consonant. The article now reads that it is her favorite vowel, because her last name begins with "T." Shouldn't that be changed to state that it's her favorite consonant? 98.192.247.242 (talk) 06:10, 22 July 2008 (UTC)
 * She says it's her favorite vowel because she's an idiot. 75.118.170.35 (talk) 16:44, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

The pop culture section is awful. References to do-re-mi aren't references to the song! 213.106.248.201 (talk) 10:06, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

So solfege syllable historically inaccurate?
The syllable "so" is historically inaccurate in the context of the history of solfege, where it is "sol." I'm not really sure if that is important enough to be noted in the article, but I had a nerdy music theory teacher who made this point in class one day and I thought it was funny. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.86.29.237 (talk) 02:50, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

A note to follow so?
La(w), a legislative bill!!! 128.146.46.2 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 18:00, 13 March 2009 (UTC).
 * We can't use our own lyrics when we sing a copyrighted song. Georgia guy (talk) 18:38, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * We can think of "la" as "law," a "note," or a piece of paper with something (such as an instruction or command) written on it, "to follow," i.e., to obey "so," meaning in this case "thus." Sure, it's a stretch, but it's not impossible. 108.246.205.134 (talk) 06:13, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Trivia
This song was performed at the Central Station of Antwerp in Belgium in 2009. Here is a link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k.
 * There is also one in Cardiff and Korea on YouTube. It is being done as flash mobs. LA (T) @ 08:52, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

Transposition for the film
The last sentence of the lead states that the key was transposed for the film from C to B-flat, "to minimise the transition from speech to song." Does anyone have a source to cite for this assertion? The fact that the song has been transposed is correct, but the explanation makes no sense. --Thomprod (talk) 13:08, 13 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Seeing no reference, I have removed the conclusion. --Thomprod (talk) 11:32, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Modality instruction as well
It is worth noting that (give or take a few details) the song also introduces an idea of musical modes.

I actually hate this song with a passion because I find it unbelievably trite, but it does have the interesting aspect that each phrase introducing a different solfege note (with a charitable eye) demonstrates a different musical mode. Thus "Me, a name I call myself" arguably is in phrygian mode, for example.

What is also interesting is that Rogers and Hammerstein addressed the issue of musical tension between locrian mode (starting at Ti) and the root of the scale (at Do) with the lyrics: "... which will bring us back to Do..."

Granted, as some people have observed above, it's not purely a "white note" song, but the teaching principle is definitely there and music teachers might exploit it to expose elements of theory. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.88.220.102 (talk) 15:37, 6 January 2012 (UTC)

Not an 8-note song
I have boldly removed the sentence "It is also often one of the first songs that children will learn to play on simple children's instruments that have only the eight notes of one octave of the major C to C scale." As discussed above, it is simply not true that the melody contains only the eight notes of the C major scale, as reference to any published version will confirm. In "La, a note to follow sew", "to" is on an F#; in "Tea, a drink with jam and bread", "drink" and "with" are on F♯ and G♯ respectively, and finally in "that will bring us back to Doh". "will" is on a B♭. (Source: original Vocal Score.)

I also removed the uncited (and anyway rather trivial) "it is often sung in day care centers". AndrewWTaylor (talk) 19:26, 26 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I don't think the interntion was to say the melody of the song was limited to the eight notes of the diatonic scale, just that the syllables that are taught to the children in the song lyrics--do, re, mi, fa(r), so(l), la, ti and do (again)--comprise the notes of the diatonic scale and can be played on simple instruments. --Thomprod (talk) 16:19, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
 * It's more than one octave covered, in any case. "When you know the notes to sing / You can sing most anything." The latter part of that is "do re do", where they go into the next higher octave - a subtlety left uncommented on. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 22:47, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

It does actually only use the notes of the C major scale (C,D,E,F,G,A,B)... when it's played in C major. If you drop the tune down to Bb, like the film version, then of course you're going to get notes out of the C major (Ionian) scale, if you want to retain the same melody/intervals between the notes. It's actually a brilliant example of how you can use the same notes to create all seven (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, & Locrian) classical modal patterns. Winterdenni (talk) 14:10, 18 July 2012 (UTC)
 * No, it does use notes not in the diatonic scale. Here is the song, with bolded syllables being notes not in the scale:


 * Do, a deer, a female deer
 * Re, a drop of golden sun
 * Mi, a name I call myself
 * Fa, a long long way to run
 * So, a needle pulling thread
 * La, a note to follow so (the word to is on an F♯)
 * Ti, a drink with jam and bread (the words drink with are on F♯ and G♯)
 * That will bring us back to do (the word will is on a B♭)

Notice that the La and Ti lines are V-I chord progressions of the keys of G major and A minor. Georgia guy (talk) 14:16, 18 July 2012 (UTC)
 * This is quite correct, and is exactly as I said at the top of the section. (Strictly speaking the words of the song use the homophones of the sol-fa names, so it's "Doe, a deer", "Ray, a drop.." etc.) AndrewWTaylor (talk) 09:33, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

Translated to Chinese Wikipedia
Version 23:52, 21 July 2013 of this article was translated into Chinese Wikipedia.--218.84.42.16 (talk) 12:07, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Real-world use
When I was in elementary school the music teacher used this song to teach the scale. I think this is or was common, but the article says nothing about whether it is used in schools. 73.137.170.88 (talk) 17:37, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

Resemblance to Tannhäuser overture
The musical sequence for "Fa, a long long way to run, So, a needle pulling thread, La, a note to follow So" is lifted (almost note by note, about 20 notes in a row and with the same note duration) from Wagner's "Tannhauser, WWV 70: Overture" -- it's about 7 1/2 minutes in.

96.241.203.46 (talk) 20:46, 29 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Moved from top of page, title added. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 16:09, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

Anyone know if all of the melody is 100% original, or are any parts borrowed?
Anyone know if all of the melody is 100% original, or are any parts borrowed?

In particular, I am curious about its starting phrase where the words "Doe, a deer, a female deer" are sung. Is the melody in this section borrowed from something else? Perhaps a common tune, or folk tune, or traditional?

Misty MH (talk) 21:53, 24 March 2024 (UTC) Misty MH (talk) 21:54, 24 March 2024 (UTC) Misty MH (talk) 10:22, 9 July 2024 (UTC)


 * The first four notes are the same those of Frère Jacques (though the rhythm is different), but with such a simple melody it's probably impossible to say whether is was deliberately "borrowed". AndrewWTaylor (talk) 14:21, 9 July 2024 (UTC)