You wrote:
 
>
>I'm inquiring for a friend... Can readers send to me any/all instances
>of words put to famous tunes? E.g. "Can you see___, that I am the
>Fugue in G" or "Papa Haydn's dead and gone," etc. Don't be reluctant
>to send the ones with "colorful" language too!
>
>Thanks in advance--
>
>Bob Judd
>[log in to unmask]
>
>
I've got two:
 
In the sixties we used to have weekly chamber music parties at our
house, and a favorite was the triosonata from The Musical Offering (See
where that got me?).  Those of us not lucky enough to get one of the
parts would stand on the sidelines and sing, to the fugue subject,
"Seeds and stems and seeds,
and stems and seeds and stems,
a-and seeds and stems and seeds and stems."
 
You get the idea.
 
The other is more recent, from the recordings of the Six Partitas with
Ed Parmentier, who often writes words or scenarios on the margins of his
music, to subliminally guide the interpretation.  Wanting a slow,
dolorous tempo for the fugue in the opening toccata of the  E minor
Partita, no. 6, I composed the following "lyrics":
 
        It hurts me
        It hurts me
        It hurts me so bad
        I cannot see,
        I think I want to die.
 
Try it.  And listen to Ed's recording- see if we made it.
 
Joseph