If Bec Goddard wants to do the Adelaide Crows AFL Club - and the world - another big favour, she might consider insisting that the Crows' team song be revised upwards (in every respect!) to include the third musical motif: the one associated in the original with the chorus. Apart from anything else, the words of the chorus in the English translation could hardly be more relevant to the game, perhaps setting a new standard in the AFL for the appropriateness of the words of team songs: We run 'em in, we run 'em in, We run 'em in, we run 'em in, We show them we're the [mighty Crows] We run 'em in, we run 'em in, We run 'em in, we run 'em in, We show them we're the [mighty Crows] (The only possible reservation about the relevance of these extra words is that they might be construed as heaping too much praise on the rushed behind, rather than the goal. But my assumption is that the Club's preferred meaning of 'run 'em in' would in any case be far more combative or violent than the mere act of scoring a goal or rushing a behind!)
Tayla Harris of the Brisbane Lions; 2017 AFLW Grand Final, March 25 2017. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Media/Getty Images) As for the melodic improvement that adding the chorus would achieve: who could possibly disagree? Even If the men can only manage a (let's be honest: rather dreary) melodic structure that is A-A-B-A, surely the women can manage A-A-B-C-C-A?! (Given the music's provenance one is tempted to say "surely the women can-can manage A-A-B-C-C-A".) So Bec, others: let's add some more art and finesse to an already great game! By the way: has anyone commented on the irony of Bec Goddard, officer of the AFP, having to obsess about a corrupted version of a song about corrupt gendarmes? A nice enough version of the duet, in English, is here: https://youtu.be/oSP3LF2K4k4 Postscript: The music was originally from the 1859 opera Geneviève de Brabant by Jacques Offenbach, which debuted in Paris in 1859. It was an 'opéra bouffe', which is perhaps what appealed to Australian Rules in the first place. Opera bouffe is a style featuring comedy, satire, parody and farce. The opera became so popular that Offenbach expanded it into three acts in 1867. The newly revised opera included a duet between two French gendarmes. In 1871 Henry Brougham Farnie translated the opera to English and titled the song 'Gendarmes' Duet'. It has become well known in the US, with quite different words, as the Marines' Hymn, "the oldest official song in the U.S. Armed forces". [http://bit.ly/2oT4nxK] Gendarmes' Duet. Verse 1: We're public guardians bold yet wary, And of ourselves we take good care. To risk our precious lives we're chary, When danger looms we're never there, But when we meet a helpless woman, Or little boys that do no harm: Chorus: We run them in, we run them in, We run them in, we run them in, We show them we're the bold gendarmes. We run them in, we run them in, We run them in, we run them in, We show them we're the bold gendarmes. Verse 2: Sometimes our duty's extramural, Then little butterflies we chase. We like to gambol in things rural, Commune with nature, face to face. Unto our beat then back returning, Refreshed by nature's holy charm: Chorus: The first two verses are the only 'official' verses in the original script, but the song was such a show stopper that the producers often added multiple encore verses - a dozen per performance was not uncommon - which commented on the hot social and political topics of the day. This encore verse is the one commonly added today: Encore Verse: If gentlemen will make a riot, And punch each other's heads at night, We're quite disposed to keep it quiet, Provided that they make it right, But if they do not seem to see it, Or give to us our proper terms: Chorus: We run them in, we run them in, etc Here are the French lyrics. The characters are Grabuge, a sergeant, sung by a comic baritone, and Pitou, a 'simple gunner', sung by a comic tenor. (There's a note on the music that Pitou should sing in "voix de tête" - head voice or falsetto - presumably to enhance the comic effect.) G: Protéger le repos des villes P: Courir sus aux mauvais garçons G: Ne parler qu'à des imbéciles P: En voir de toutes les façons G: Un peu de calme après vous charme P: C'est assez calme ici, sergent! G: Ah, qu'il est beau... P: Ah, qu'il est beau... G: D'être homme d'arme... P: D'être homme d'arme Mais que c'est un sort exigeant! G: Ne pas jamais ôter ses cottes P: C'est bien penible, en vérité G: Dormir apres de longues trottes P: Rêver, c'est la félicité G: Sentir la violette de Parme P: Vous me comblez, ô mon sergent! The music chart is here: http://looselywoven.org/concerts/caves/music/Gendarmes%20Duet%20Cello.pdf C'Mon you AFC Women! C'mon Bec Goddard, Jenna McCormick, Chelsea Randall and Beccy Cole! Do it for art: incorporate the C part into the song! (Thinks: "Oh I do love to be beside the C side.") gg 31 March 2017
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