Tuesday 6 August 2024

Thunder Enlightening

The weather girl said there may be thunderstorms the other night. At 10.45pm. after I'd watched the news, I suddenly realised there was a lot of stuff on the lawn, I persuaded Bob to come outside with me and pull everything into the summerhouse, and put down the big parasol. There was no thunder that night at all. Typical...
Yesterday morning Rosie and I were waiting for breakfast [Grandad Bob cooking the pancakes] and somehow we started talking about circuses. "What is the name of that tune they always play at the circus" I said. In the kitchen Bob started singing 🎵"DumDum Diddle Iddle, DumDum Diddle Iddle..."🎵 and Rosie said "That's the Dumbo Tune" and I said "I think it's older than that"
As we sat round after breakfast, I looked it up and announced to the family "The tune was written by Julius Fučik, a Czech composer, in 1897. He wrote lots of music for military bands, and was fascinated by the Roman Empire. He called this piece the March of The Gladiators. It quickly became popular with marching bands, and was adopted by many circuses as the piece played for the arrival of the clowns.. In the States it was renamed Thunder and Blazes". "They stole his thunder" said Bob "I wonder where that phrase comes from?"
"I know that!" piped up Rosie "It's an idiom. There was a man who wrote plays, and one play had a storm in it. He built a thunder machine with wooden balls banging on a sheet of iron. The thunder was really good, but the play was rubbish, so they stopped performing it, and put on "Macbeth" instead. Then the man went back to the theatre to see a performance and during the storm scene, he realised they were making the noises using his machine. He was so angry he stood up and shouted, 'You won't perform my play, but you have stolen my thunder!'
Bob and I sat amazed at this information. I checked online, she was absolutely right in every detail - this was playwright John Dennis in 1709, and his failed play was called Appius and Virginia.[I learned it on a podcast, Grandma] So before 9am on a Monday morning, I learned
~the proper name of the 'circus tune'
~the alternative name in the USA
~and the origin of a popular idiom.
And now you know it too!

36 comments:

  1. Wow! Thank you Angela and Rosie! I didn't know any of that before I read your blog post!

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  2. I didn't know that! I do now.

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  3. You have me informed and entertained, and all before I've even had my breakfast. 😀

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  4. Great blog title. Well done Rosie and thank you to Grandma for passing on all the info.

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  5. You also learned your granddaughter is a mine of information, what a star . Regards Sue H

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  6. They say "every day is a school day" and it is. I love learning derivations of sayings etc.
    Your Rosie is one smart cookie! She will do well in life with her enquiring mind.

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  7. That is one clever little girl!
    Alison in Wales x

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  8. Thanks for all the new things I learned today from all of you. Catriona

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  9. Children are SO much smarter than we were at that age. With so much exposure to the internet and TV, and also increased library access, I suppose.

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    1. so many advantages we never had - but not all screen time is quite so productive

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  10. How astonishing for Rosie to know and remember all that! We all learned something today. JanF

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  11. I'm amazed that at my advanced age I've learned the origin of the expression to steal someone's thunder, from a little lass called Rosie!

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  12. Very cool information! Cheers to Rosie!

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  13. I want to know HOW she knew that! I'm amazed- that is a great story!
    I did know the name of that piece but not the composer! As a little girl, I used to think it was called Send in the Clowns but that turned out to be s song of a completely different ilk from the musical, A Little Night music by Stephen Sondheim! Kezzie x

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