Oranges and Lemons

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The tune is reminiscent of change ringing, and the intonation of each line is said to correspond with the distinct sounds of each church's bells. Today, the bells of St Clement Danes ring out the tune of the rhyme—as reported in 1940 the church's playing of the tune was interrupted during World War II due to Nazi bombing of the church during the Blitz. As is the case with almost all traditional songs, there were minor variations in the melody. Collector of British folk songs James Madison Carpenter recorded two versions of the song in the 1930s which are now available on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website: one in Garsington, Oxfordshire, and another somewhere in either Yorkshire or Lincolnshire. These recordings show slight melodic and lyrical variations. \header { tagline = ##f } \layout { indent = 0 \context { \Score \remove "Bar_number_engraver" } \context { \Voice \remove "Dynamic_engraver" } } global = { \key a \major \time 3/4 } repeated = \relative c'' { \global \autoBeamOff \set midiInstrument = "tubular bells" e4 cis e | cis a b8 cis | d4 b e | cis a2 | e'8 e cis4 e | cis a b8 cis | d4 b e | cis a2^\markup { "al" \musicglyph "scripts.coda" } \bar "||" } payme = \relative c'' { b4 gis b | gis e fis8 gis | a4 fis b | gis e2 | b'4 gis b | e,2 fis8 gis | a4 fis b | e,2.^"D.C." \bar "||" \mark \markup { \musicglyph "scripts.coda" } } koda = \relative c' { cis'4 a e' | cis a b8 ([cis]) | b4 d gis, | a2 b4 cis a e' | cis a b8 ([cis]) | d4 cis b | a2. \bar "|." } grep = \relative c { \global \clef bass \set midiInstrument = "tubular bells" a4 e' a | a,4 e' a | b, e gis | a,4 e' a | a,4 e' a | e a cis | e, gis b | a cis a | } gpay = \relative c { e gis b | e, gis b | dis, fis b | e, gis b | e, gis b | e, gis b | fis dis b | e d! b | } gkoda = \relative c { a e' a | a, e' a | b, e gis | cis, e a | a, e' a | a, e' a | | 2. \bar "|." } verse = \new Lyrics \lyricmode { > Here comes a cand -- le to light you to bed, And here comes a chop -- per to chop off your head! } \score { \new ChoirStaff > \layout { } } \score { { > } \midi { \tempo 4=120 \context { \Score midiChannelMapping = #'instrument } \context { \Staff \remove "Staff_performer" } \context { \Voice \consists "Staff_performer" } } } Source ==As a game==

The song is used in a children's singing game with the same name, in which the players file, in pairs, through an arch made by two of the players (made by having the players face each other, raise their arms over their head, and clasp their partners' hands). The challenge comes during the final lines beginning "Here comes a chopper to chop off your head"; and on the final repetition of "chop" in the last line, the children forming the arch drop their arms to catch the pair of children currently passing through. These are then "out" and must form another arch next to the existing one. In this way, the series of arches becomes a steadily lengthening tunnel through which each set of two players has to run faster and faster to escape in time. ==Origins and meaning==

Various theories have been advanced to account for the rhyme, including: that it deals with child sacrifice; that it describes public executions; that it describes Henry VIII's marital difficulties. Similar rhymes naming churches and giving rhymes to their names can be found in other parts of England, including Shropshire and Derby, where they were sung on festival days on which bells would also have been rung. • St. Margaret's is St Margaret Lothbury. • St. Giles' is St Giles Cripplegate. • St. Peter's is St Peter upon Cornhill. "Pancakes and fritters" may refer to foods sold nearby, as it was a grain market. • "Fleetditch" is St Pancras Old Church, located near the River Fleet. • St. John's is St John's Chapel in the Tower of London; "pokers and tongs" may allude to instruments of torture used on prisoners. It could also be St John Clerkenwell. • St. Anne's is St Anne and St Agnes near the Barbican. "Kettles and pans" may refer to nearby coppersmiths. • "Aldgate" is St Botolph's Aldgate, while "old father baldpate" refers to the monk Saint Botolph. It may also be an allusion to the glans penis, as St Botolph's was notorious for being a meeting-place for prostitutes. ==Song settings==

Bob Chilcott's "London Bells", the third movement of his Songs and Cries of London Town (2001) is a setting for choir of the song's version from ''Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book''. Benjamin Till composed music based upon the nursery rhyme which was performed in 2009 at St Mary-le-Bow, London, to commemorate 150 years of the Palace of Westminster's great bell, Big Ben. ==In popular culture==

• The line, "You owe me five farthings, say the bells of St Martin's", provides the title, and the family name, Farthing, with parents and three children, hence five Farthings, for Monica Redlich's 1939 novel, Five Farthings. The novel is set in London, and several churches are important locations in the story. • "Oranges and Lemons" and people remembering the words to it is a common motif in George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. • "Oranges and Lemons" is a song often referenced in the 2003 children's novel Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo. • "The God Complex", a 2011 episode of Doctor Who, quotes the line "Here comes a candle to light you to bed, here comes a chopper to chop off your head." • In It, It Chapter Two and It: Welcome to Derry, a creepy rendition of "Oranges and Lemons" plays through the opening logos of both films and also throughout both films and the TV series too especially when Pennywise is around, sung by a then-four-year-old Elodie Barker. ==See also==