My father was a hiker
My father was a wanderer , also known as The Happy Wanderer , is a German wandering song that goes back to a text by Florence Friedrich Sigismund in the mid-19th century. The melody, according to which the song has primarily been sung since the early 1950s, comes from Friedrich Wilhelm Möller , whose sister Edith Möller adapted Sigismund's text for the Schaumburger Märchensänger choir , which she leads. Under the title The Happy Wanderer , the song also became known in the English-speaking world from the end of 1953.
history
Lyrics and first settings
Florence Friedrich Sigismund, who lived from 1791 to 1877, published the poem Wanderlust in the sixth volume of the anthology Christmas tree for poor children in 1847 , which begins with the lines:
My father was a wanderer,
and it's in my blood too;
So I wander briskly as long as I can,
And wave my hat,
Heidi! Heida!
And wave my hat.
In 1876 Johann Michael Anding set the text to music; his name as a composer can be found in most song books from the first half of the 20th century. In the following decades there was at least one other melody for Sigismund's text, which was composed by Otto Richter. Settings of the "happy wanderer" were also assigned to various other composers, including Georg Federich (1852–1895) and the Hanoverian Ludwig Kageler. In the songbook Berg frei! of Naturfreunde , who, however, only printed the text without notes, Franz Abt is given as the composer; the 1929 youth songbook attributed the composition to Friedrich Wilhelm Sering.
Revitalization in the 1950s
Friedrich Wilhelm Möller composed a new melody in 4/4 time under the title The Merry Wanderer originally as a practice song for the Schaumburg fairy tale singers founded in 1949 by his sister Edith . The choir took part in 1953 under the name Obernkirchen Children's Choir (Obernkirchener Kinderchor) in the Llangollen International Eisteddfod , an international choir singing competition in Wales . In the song of your own choice , the fairytale singers sang “My father was a wanderer” as an encore. The choir won the competition broadcast by the BBC on the radio . The Welsh writer Dylan Thomas , who attended the competition, spoke enthusiastically of the "pigtailed angels", the "angels with pigtails" from Germany. The record company Parlophone released a recording of the song as the A-side of a 78 / min single with the order number R.3799. The song had the English title The Happy Wanderer on the label and in the hit lists with the small print subtitle "The Happy Wanderer" and the note in small print (Sung in German) . The single with the song sung in German and the catchy refrain
"Faleri, falera,
faleri, Falera ha ha ha ha ha
Faleri, falera,
and wave my hat."
was sold so often that it entered the UK's official top 12 at number 10 on January 22, 1954, and climbed to second place by March 19, 1954, which it held for five weeks. The Stargazers with I See the Moon and Doris Day with Secret Love prevented her from climbing to the top position . In total, the record stayed for 26 weeks, until July 23, 1954, in the charts, which then comprised only twelve titles.
The Happy Wanderer
Antonia Ridge wrote an English text for Möller's melody, in which the chorus was largely retained:
"Val-de-ri - Val-de-ra
Val-de-ri - Val-de-ha ha ha ha ha ha
Val-de-ri - Val-de-ra,
My knapsack on my back."
The greatest success in the British charts was celebrated by the Stargazers , whose interpretation came in at number 12. Further versions by saxophonist Frank Weir and singer Diana Decker also made it into the Top 12 Best Selling Hits in Britain by British Artists . The Merry Wanderer became the best-selling sheet music in the UK in 1954 . Weir also came with the song in the top 30 of the US annual charts in 1954. The Happy Wanderer was used in the United States as the theme song for a travel magazine of the same name on television.
With the BBC broadcasting around the world, The Happy Wanderer was not limited to the United Kingdom and the United States. In Trinidad and Tobago , the song was so popular that it is the traditional Calypso - Carnival Parade 1955 Popular Road March Song was chosen. Since other foreign songs such as Skokiaan were among the favorites that year , it was subsequently decided that only genuine calypso music should be selected for the competition from the following carnival season.
The film "The Happy Wanderer"
Based on a screenplay by Juliane Kay , director Hans Quest made the film The Happy Wanderer in 1955 after the great success of the song , a homeland film starring Rudolf Schock , Elma Karlowa , Waltraut Haas and Willy Fritsch, among others . In the Berolina feature film, Schock leads a children's choir as a small-town teacher, seeks his fortune in the big city as an opera singer and finally finds it on his return with his choir, with whom he goes on a world concert tour. The Schaumburg fairy tale singers were involved in the recordings and the film soundtrack. A single by Rudolf Schock and the children's choir with a potpourri of The Happy Wanderer and other songs from the film was released by Electrola .
More shots
After the success of the Schaumburg fairy tale singers, numerous artists recorded and published the song "My father was a wanderer". In Germany, in addition to the cover version of Rudolf Schock, there were also recordings of artists as diverse as Heino , Andrea Jürgens , Udo Jürgens with the Tölzer Knabenchor , Freddy Breck , Mickie Krause and the Zeltinger Band . In addition to Stargazers, Diana Decker and Frank Weir, Joe Dowell , Mantovani , Louis Prima , Bill Staines , Lawrence Welk , Frankie Yankovic , Max Bygraves , Ken Colyer 's Jazzmen and John D. Loudermilk have published the English version The Happy Wanderer . In episode 401 of the Muppet Show , three wandering pigs sing the song.
literature
- Tobias Widmaier: My father was a hiker (2010). In: Popular and Traditional Songs. Historical-critical song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive
Individual evidence
- ↑ DNB 1206745037
- ↑ My father was a hiker. at volksliederarchiv.de
- ^ Collection Florenz Friedrich Sigismund , Archives in Thuringia, accessed on March 25, 2020
- ^ First printing of the text in 1847 . In: Popular and Traditional Songs. Historical-critical song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive
- ↑ in: Collection of folk songs for the male choir. 2nd volume, Zurich 1894 ( ( page no longer available , search in web archives: website Deutsches Lied )).
- ↑ The three different melodies Andings, Richters and Moellers can be heard on this website
- ↑ u. a. in: song book for evangelical associations and groups of young girls etc. Burckhardthaus Verlag, Berlin-Dahlem 1931 7 , ( page no longer available , search in web archives: website Deutsches Lied )
- ↑ in: Hans Heinrichs, Ernst Pfusch: Freshly sung - mixed choirs and unanimous songs . Verlag von Carl Meyer (Gustav Prior), Hanover 1910, ( page no longer available , search in web archives: Website Deutsches Lied )
- ↑ Friends of Nature songbook Berg Frei! Behrendt-Verlag, Stuttgart 1947; ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Website Deutsches Lied )
- ↑ August Albrecht (Ed.): Youth song book . Arbeiterjugend-Verlag, Berlin 1929; ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Website Deutsches Lied )
- ↑ Bernd C. Langnickel: The ABC of folk music: From Alpine rebels to Zillertaler. The comprehensive lexicon of stars, musicians, composers and lyricists. Moewig, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86803-370-0 , p. 111.
- ↑ Pigtailed Angels . ( Memento of the original from December 14, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Website of the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod
- ↑ David Roberts (Ed.): Guinness World Records - British Hit Singles and Albums. 19th ed. 2006, ISBN 1-904994-10-5 , p. 402.
- ^ Chart of All Time - 1954 , UKMix.org
- ↑ 1950's NME: Bestselling Discs by British Artists, 1954 (Weekly) , at 1950's British TV and Radio
- ↑ The Happy Wanderer , Song Facts
- ↑ Billboard Top 30 - 1954 ( Memento of the original from March 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Longbored Surfer Charts
- ↑ The Happy Wanderer . Homepage of John L. Bartholomew, Radio N7JY
- ↑ Terry Joseph: Carnival Story - The Negative List. In: Express. March 2, 2000, p. 27 ( ( page no longer available , search in web archives: nalis.gov.tt )); viewed on March 31, 2010.
- ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: photographs of the record cover ) at lpcd.de, viewed on March 1, 2010.
