YĒSU OLLEVA originally Tamil Sunday School Song music: traditional - see below Kannada words, English and German Translation by Rev. Paul Shindhe, who also sings on this video, recorded in Kassel 2011 1a) Knd.: Yēsu olleva, nanage olleva, ninage olleva, namage olleva. 2x E.: Jesus is good, He is good to me, to you, to us. dt.: Jesus ist gut; er ist gut zu mir; er ist gut zu dir; er ist gut zu uns. 1b) Meeya meeya meeya meeya meeiya. (Sound of a cat - So miaut eine indische Katze!) 2x 2a) Knd.: Yesu rakshaka, nanage rakshaka, ninage rakshaka, namage rakshaka. 2x E.: Jesus is the saviour. He saves me, you, us. dt.: Jesus ist der Retter; er rettet mich; er rettet dich; er rettet uns. 2b) Keeya keeya keeya keeya keeya. (Sound of a violin - So klingt eine Geige!)2x 3a) Knd.: Yesu kurubanu, nanage kurubanu, ninage kurubanu, namage kurubanu. 2x E.: Jesus is the shepherd. He is the shepherd for me, for you, for us. dt.: Jesus ist der Hirte; er ist mein Hirte; er ist dein Hirte; er ist unser Hirte. 3b) Lalla-la-la, lala lalla-la-la. ( … ) 2x E.: First these three stanzas will be sung. The words for stanza 4 will be taken from the second parts of the first three stanzas. dt.: Zunächst werden diese 3 Strophen nacheinander gesungen. Dann wird nur noch der Text der jeweils 2. Zeile jeder Strophe gebraucht, um Str. 4 zu singen: 4) Meeya meeya meeya meeya meeya. Keeya keeya keeya keeya keeya. Haa! Meeya meeya meeya meeya meeya. Keeya keeya keeya keeya keeya. Lallalala lala lallalala. ( … ) 2x music sheet for free download: http://www.kirchenkreis-eschwege.de/scripts/angebote/1244/233929?layout=4&back=%2Fscripts%2Fangebote%2F1244%3Flayout%3D3 Some further explanations to the musical components of this song: The melody of this charming song for little ones is composed of two components, only: The 1st part is nothing but the upper half of a major scale, or what the ancient Greeks would have called a tetra chord. Harmonically the classical cadence I - IV - V - I is underlying. The rhythm is characterized by groups of triplets. The 2nd portion of the song bears lot of contrast to the prior half: Melodically this part is purely pentatonic, in other words: The tune here avoids the 4th and 7th note of the major scale. This pentatonic structure is the reason why the 1st part of this melody’s 2nd half reminds at the headline of “Silent night”, just to mention one of a legion of close “cousins” of this rather old melodic structure, which belongs to the common heritage of mankind. This pentatonic line you will find around the globe in music cultures, may they be influenced by the so called “West” or not. Rhythmically there is a characteristic change in the middle of the song, almost a shift of paradigm. We already noted the triplet character of part one. In the 1st half of each bar of the 2nd part instead of these triplets we have two dotted notes plus one without a dot. This is a quite common pattern in all kinds of Latin American music, but it also does appear in early Protestant Hymns as well. As 3+3+2 is just another combination of the accents within a bar, when consisting of 4 beats, musicians love to use this structure: Like chilli makes a masala mixture more spicy and tasty this little tumble stone makes a song more lively. You will find this metric “hot chilli” ingredient in a few old German Hymns as well. “All Morgen ist ganz Frisch und neu” and “Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ” are still in use in the Evangelical Church. But mind! You have to look at - as well as to listen to - historically correct renditions or editions of these old hymns, because later centuries often deprived these originally highly rhythmical songs of their thrilling characteristics, because later generations regarded them as too difficult to be sung by larger congregations. No doubt, it’s true, but that’s another problem. What I wanted to demonstrate: This lovely Indian song bares some characteristics, which are no true exotic “novelties” to so called “Western music”. 3+3+2 as a rhythmic structure resp. metrical variant only has been forgotten in the churches of Europe for quite a long time, but what is time under the perspective of Psalm 90?
