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Okay, here's my musing for today. I've tried googlin' and wikiing (or whatever the verb is) for the answer, but I can't find anything. "la la" doesn't work well as a search term.
While driving home, I was singing some song or other, using "la la la" because I couldn't be bothered to remember the words. So my question is this: how unique to our own culture is the use of "la la la" or combinations of "dums" and "dees" to sing a wordless tune? Do other cultures in the world use a different default? What did the various ancient civilisations of the world use to convey a tune if they didn't know the words?
I did look up Scottish waulking songs and other forms of Gaelic mouth music, but that seems to be a different thing. It's nonsense syllables, but each song has a different set. They're effectively words. It's not a default sound used for an entire song. For the same reason, I don't count all the various nonsense choruses on folk song - the fol-de-rols and so on. They're a specific line for a chorus, and not used as a fill-in for an entire song if the words are forgotten.
I am asking this here because I know my friends list is knowledgeable about all sorts of diverse things. (See? Flattery is always good.) However, feel free to tell me that I need to get out more.
While driving home, I was singing some song or other, using "la la la" because I couldn't be bothered to remember the words. So my question is this: how unique to our own culture is the use of "la la la" or combinations of "dums" and "dees" to sing a wordless tune? Do other cultures in the world use a different default? What did the various ancient civilisations of the world use to convey a tune if they didn't know the words?
I did look up Scottish waulking songs and other forms of Gaelic mouth music, but that seems to be a different thing. It's nonsense syllables, but each song has a different set. They're effectively words. It's not a default sound used for an entire song. For the same reason, I don't count all the various nonsense choruses on folk song - the fol-de-rols and so on. They're a specific line for a chorus, and not used as a fill-in for an entire song if the words are forgotten.
I am asking this here because I know my friends list is knowledgeable about all sorts of diverse things. (See? Flattery is always good.) However, feel free to tell me that I need to get out more.
