George. Bee. Zay.

[eclectic_boy]

We had an impromptu roundsing in our apartment tonight, where 'we' signifies Chris W., Jillian, Noda, Chelsea, Mike C., BDan, Eric, Rebecca, Herbert, Lydia, Mark, and I. There we stumbled upon the first Rounds/Parlorgame crossover that it's ever been my pleasure to play: we sat in a circle and sang the round "George Bizet". Collectively. Each person sang the next note, keeping in tempo with the song, so it circled around and around. When someone goofed up (forgot the syllable or forgot to sing at all) they were out, and we started again with the next person taking the first note.
Then when we got good at it, which happened pretty quickly, after only a few mistakes, we tried a harder version: singing it as a round. So person 'A' sings "George", then person B sings "Bee", then person C sings "Zay" while at the same time person A starts with "George" for the other part. Boy did it fall apart quickly. We made it slightly easier by separating the parts, so it was D starting the first part, and F was singing "Zay" as A started with the "George" of the second part---it was easier this way because separating the voices gave you slightly more time to hear the melodyline that was coming at you before it was your turn to sing in it---but that only meant we could get eight words in before completely falling to pieces instead of six. I'm still optimistic that it's doable with enough practice, but more importantly it was a nonstop half-hour of being reduced to giggles. Highly recommended!

Comments

[crystalpyramid]

Do you think it would be easier with a bigger circle?

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

I think it would. It would make it much easier to deal with the pickups and syncopation if there were about twice as many people. Though I still think it would be pretty hard.

[crystalpyramid]

I bet it would be easier if there were a couple people on each part. Maybe have two simultaneous copies of the same part going around at once? More than two? (Since for a bigger circle, it might be hard to hear the thread from far away.)

Also... what about two concentric circles, one on each part of the "round"? Going in opposite directions.

[eclectic-boy.livejournal.com]

I bet two people would throw each other off more, actually. Any time they didn't sing at the same instant there'd be this jarring "was I the one who was off?" that would throw both of them and be more likely to confuse the people who came next.

I like the concentric circles idea a lot! They wouldn't have to go in opposite directions, though; the fact that the outer circle would have more people in it would be enough to insure that the two parts would shift their relative separation around the circle, like with the orbits of two planets.

[nightengalesknd.livejournal.com]

I think this as well, just based on the description. Although when we did "Charlottestown" on a two-syllable entry round, one person was enough.