Wednesday 19 February 2020

Byzantine Uke-Song: "CONSTANTINOPOLIS"

SONG with UKULELE CHORDS

ORIGINAL SONG: "Moscow Nights"(Подмосковные вечера Podmoskovnie vechera), Chad Mitchell Trio, 1963. You can listen to the Trio's well-known  version on YouTube here, or a version with English translation here.
The original was created as "Leningrad Nights" by composer Solovyov-Sedoi and poet Matusovsky in 1955, but changed at the request of the Ministry of Culture for use in a documentary about a national athletic competition. The tune was subsequently popularized in the West, in the middle of the Cold War era, by Van Cliburn in 1958, and recorded with commercial success by Kenny Ball and the Jazzmen, and the Chad Mitchell Trio in the early 60s. 

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, August 2018.  To view the lyrics without the chord-charts, proceed to our blog "Edifying NonsenseHERE. You will also find further discussion of the history of Constantinople and other matters.

SONGLINKS: This post deals with Graeco-Roman history during the Byzantine period. Another song dealing with Greek history, culture and travels is found in an earlier blogpost as  "Singable Limerick Medley #15: Travels in Greece"This entire effort was inspired by "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", a swing-era hit with a very catchy tune whose lyrics are a bit truncated re history.


CONSTANTINOPOLIS

(to the tune of "Moscow Nights")


UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT (also banjo, mandolin, guitar etc.!)

(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.)

Specifics for C-tuned ukulele:
Am7 = 0000;  Dm7 = 2213;  E7 = 1202;  B7 = 1211 




















  
*  the prediction was made by the Seer early in the fourth century A.D.
Byzántion (Greek), later known as Byzantium (Latin) was at that time a moderate-sized Greek colony-city on the Bosporus. It was chosen by the Roman Emperor Constantine to become the eastern capital of his empire.
As capital of the Roman Empire (also called Romania), the grand city was known as Constantinopolis, or Konstantinoupolis, for most of its history, i.e. until 1453 A.D. (later as Istanbul by the Turks). The term 'Byzantine Empire' has only been in use by Western historians since that time.


ORIGINAL SONG-LYRICS
(click on any song-chart to enlarge and proceed to thumbnail mode











Sunday 9 February 2020

Limerick-Medley: ACID REFLUX and Other G.I. Symptoms


LIMERICK VERSE:  Original verses composed by Giorgio Coniglio, and compiled in November 2017. Many of the poems have been published at the OEDILF website (the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form) by Giorgio Coniglio, 2016-2017. The OEDILF identifying number (#) and the Author's Note accompanying each poem, where relevant, are shown following the first verse.
ORIGINAL SONG: These verses can be sung to  "The Limerick Song", as per YouTube here.
SONGLINK: Much earlier, lyrics were published by Giorgio on this site for another song about GI reflux entitled "Reflux Romp". 

CONTENTS:
1. Gastrointestinal Pact
2. Borborygmi
3. (Failure of the) Gastroesophageal Junction
4. Laryngeal Inflammation
5. Galactosidase (Beano)
6. GERD (Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease) 



ACID RELUX and other G.I. SYMPTOMS

A LIMERICK MEDLEY

(To the tune of "The Limerick Song". Display of the lyrics has been condensed to 4 lines for each verse, with internal rhyming in line 3, rather than the more customary 5-line limerick format.) 

1. I have just signed a well-crafted pact
With my gastrointestinal tract.
Peaceful truce will constrain us, from my throat to my anus.
All disruptions will cease, that’s a fact.
No more outbursts, like hiccups, just tact!

2. Borborygmus, herewith we apprize:
A gas bubble sound breeding denies.
You can’t manage to squelch when it’s fated to belch
Or worse yet, to escape twixt your thighs.

3. "To regurgitate, you may have heard
Of a problem we doctors call GERD:
Symptom-complex that’s drastic; due to reflux that’s gastric
Your esophagus’ role is deterred.
   So at first you can try careful diet,
Avoid alcohol, keep things more quiet.
Spicy foods you must spurn -- Gullet lining will burn!
As for caffeine, please don’t even try it.
    The real problem? Defunct G.E. junction,
It’s the part that’s copped out, doesn’t  function.
Drugs for acid suppression can prevent some progression --
You won’t likely require extreme unction. 
    After years where your food causes dread --
Spouse got lost, she slid down tilted bed --
We’ll do laparascopic (please read up on this topic),
And we’ll tighten that junction instead.”

4. Cough and hoarseness? No need for despair!
You just sit in Doc’s ENT chair.
Tiny tube up your nose, fiberoptics disclose;
Hi there, Larynx. What’s happening there?”
    After months of my voice getting ‘tired’--
Hard to work, in anxiety mired.
Viewed with scope, takes a minute.  “Throat: no cancer. What’s in it? 
Its inflamed, acid-refluxly fired.”

5. Our intestines have low days and high days —
At their worst eating chili on Fridays.
Choose a Nobel Prize winner with leguminous dinner:
Diet supplement — galactosidase.
   Though Cruciferae bloat, not just fill us,
Meals delight when we use Aspergillus
(Alpha-GAL source for Beano). We could dine with the Queen — oh,
Beats out times when the gas could just kill us.

6. Gastro: sack where tract’s acid gets made
Esophageal: mucosa gets flayed:
Reflux: acid up-spurts;  Disease: whole thorax hurts
You gasp, “Heartburn!” when this drama’s played.



UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT
(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.)



SONGLINK:

"Reflux Romp": substituted lyrics, parody of the Ink Spots' "Java Jive".