There's a hole in the bucket

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A hole is in the bucket is a German folk and children's song.

construction

The song is structured as a duet between a first person who inquires without understanding and a second person who answers patiently:
In order to be able to mend the hole in the bucket , you need straw. To cut the straw, you need a hatchet (originally meant probably a “meadow hatchet ” , a kind of machete ) to sharpen the hatchet, a whetstone to moisten it, water. A bucket would be required for this, but ... "there is a hole in the bucket". The core motif of the song could thus be in the form of a chain linkrepeat cyclically, if it is not broken off in the last verse in most variants of the folk song version ("Let it be, stupid, stupid Liese!"). In contrast, the end of the text version of the medium trio remains open.

Possible origins

The earliest surviving source of the folk song is likely to be the German Bergliederbüchlein (around 1700). It contains the song as a dialogue between the awkward Liese and a second, unnamed person.

 
1.) When the Beltz has a hole -
plug it up, my dear Liese -

2.) With what should I plug it -
with straw, my dear Liese -

3.) If the straw is too long -
chop it off, my dear Liese -

4.) With what should I chop it off -
With the ax, my dear Liese -



5.) If the ax is too blunt -
let it sharpen my dear Liese -

6.) On what should I sharpen it -
on the stone my dear Liese -

7.) If the stone is like this - put
water on it, my dear Liese -

8 .) What should I do it
with - with the diedel diedel deygen -

Under the title Heinrich und Liese , the song, probably originally from Hessian , has been handed down in various textual, dialectal and melodic variants. It was often sung as a student song and was published in the Allgemeine Deutsche Kommersbuch in 1858 . Ludwig Erk and Franz Magnus Böhme printed it in the Deutsches Liederhort (1894) in three text and two melody variants and refer to the corresponding Flemish song Mooy Bernardyn ("Wat doet gy in het groene veld?"). In the Zupfgeigenhansl (1909) it was published as Wenn der Topp aber nu e Loch hat , and thus became even more widespread.

Contemporary interpretations

A German interpretation comes from the group Medium-Terzett , was recorded in 1964 and can be heard on the album of the same name. The new edition of the album was released in 1997 (Spectrum) on CD. Reinhard Mey and Rainhard Fendrich recorded a modified version in 1986 with the title Loch in der Kanne . This track has now been published as the title on Fendrich's album Raritäten (Amadeo, 2001).

An English version with the title Hole in the Bucket was recorded in 1960 by Harry Belafonte and Odetta and landed on the British charts at number 32 in 1961. Burl Ives also recorded it in 1959 under the title There's A Hole In My Bucket .

Web links

Wikisource: When the pot is down. In: Allgemeines Deutsches Kommersbuch , 1858  - Sources and full texts
Wikibooks: There's a hole in the bucket  - learning and teaching materials

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See also A pug came into the kitchen | and stole the cook an egg u. a. m.
  2. ↑ Deutscher Liederhort : Selection of the more excellent German folk songs, by word and manner from the past and present / collected and explained by Ludwig Erk . On behalf of and with the support of the Royal Prussian Government, based on Erk's handwritten estate and based on his own collection, revised and continued by Franz M. Böhme . Volume 3. Reprint of the Leipzig edition 1893/94. Olms, Hildesheim 1988. pp. 527-529 ( digitized version ).
  3. ↑ Medium-Terzett: Ein Loch ist im Eimer , hitparade.ch, accessed on April 26, 2016
  4. ↑ Medium-Terzett: Ein Loch ist im Eimer , discogs.com, accessed April 26, 2016
  5. ^ Officialcharts.com, "Harry Belafonte and Odetta" , accessed April 26, 2016