VL-1:German folk song mystery (fake "Unterlanders Heimweh")

[CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler]

The demo song of Casio VL-1 was listed as "German folk song", and since the ROM-Pack RO-551 contained a version as "Unterlanders Heimweh" it got commonly known as such. The strange thing is that in Germany nobody knows it.

The so-called "German folk song" was not only the demo tune of the VL-Tone 1, but was also used in various Casio pocket calculators (e.g. my Casio ML-90, on which calculator keys one can play piano in piezo sound). Later a wonderful orchestrated version of this theme appeared as one of 4 songs (labelled "Unterlanders Heimweh") on the music cartridge "ROM-Pack RO-551", which was shipped as the default cart with many cheap ROM-Pack keyboards. A badly detuned short clip of the melody was even used in the "rating" sound effects of the Casio PT-82 "melody guide" play teaching feature, and later the melody appeared as one of many songs in various "song bank" keyboards. Thus it can be likely considered a kind of unofficial Casio anthem. To me it was one of my childhood key experiences with electronic music.

But here in Germany it is definitely not a commonly known standard folk song. Most bizarre is that apparently nobody else than Casio ever referred this as "Unterlanders Heimweh", so it is likely wrong despite the ROM-Pack RO-551 lists this name. Blatantly based on this version was the title theme and background music of the Atari VCS2600 lightgun game prototype "Shooting Arcade" (©1989 Axlon / Atari). Later I bought a Casio MT-36, which demo tune "Unterlanders Heimweh" (name in manual) is a rural folk waltz piece that is very different from the VL-1 melody. I also bought an Elite MC2200 keyboard that has many demo tunes of those one is labelled "UMTERLANDERS AEIMWEH" (regard the typo), and the Letron MC-38 that includes it too (misspelled "UMTERLANDERS HEIMWEH); both melodies corresponds to the MT-36 and not the famous demo of VL-1. The MT-36 melody is definitely the genuine documented "Unterländers Heimweh" (means something like "Lowlander's Homesickness", regard the 'ä'), alternatively known as "Drunten im Unterland" (means "Down in the Lowlands", ©1835 by Gottfried Weigle, seen on YouTube with German lyrics).

Drunten im Unterland: (video with lyrics, musical score sheet)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57fdiT0bW28
http://www.lieder-archiv.de/drunten_im_unterland-notenblatt_300138.html

When I bought and repaired a Citizen - Melody Alarm clock with 8 polyphonic tunes, it turned out that it included the RO-551 melody, which in its blurred manual (only an eBay photo) was listed as "Musician of the Mountain", which appeared to be a translated title of the Japanese children song "Yama No Ongakuka" (Mountain Musicians). After hours of websearch in different languages I thought that the original German title of this folk song was "Ich bin ein Musikante". This is a traditional (lesser known) children's game song about a musician, involving vocal imitation and miming of the many instruments he plays (a well fit choice for the first mass produced toy-size mini synth). But the melody in all YouTube examples clearly differs, hence there is no exact German equivalent known, and also in YouTube "Unterlanders Heimweh" examples with RO-551 melody I found no other concrete hints of origin than Casio and particularly nothing with German lyrics. Another similar song is "I Am a Fine Musician", which has yet another different melody.

So it has to be be concluded that the only "original" of the VL-1 melody is the Japanese children song "Yama No Ongakuka" (about forest animals playing different instruments on a mountain), which concept was only inspired by a German folk song ("Ich bin ein Musikante") and on the ROM-Pack accidentally was misnamed by Casio as "Unterlanders Heimweh" (without 'ä' umlaut) until it got known worldwide under this wrong name.

Ua - Yama No Ongakuka: (in a typical Japanese children's TV rendition)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m_x5iNAKm4

Generally Casio in their early products (e.g. barcode song books) applied the term "folk song" or "traditional" quite sloppily - possibly as an excuse when they didn't know the author or even to avoid paying royalties. Thus the "German folk song" indication must be taken in doubt.

- Are there German lyrics?

But I still may be wrong. The melodic style would not be unplausible to be a classic German folk or children song (compare e.g. "Der Kuckuck und der Esel"). So does anybody know traditional German lyrics sung to the melody of "Yama No Ongakuka"?

 

[chickenpee]

Not sure how old this post is but...THANK YOU for clearing up this decades-old mystery!  There's a clip on Youtube that proves conclusively that it is indeed the Yemano gaku ka song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L06HFBrNhXk

 

Why the claim of a German folk song?  I chalk it up to pure marketing.  No one knows what Yama No Onkika is.  Also, back in the 80's it would have been far more acceptable in America to call something German than Japanese (remember the term "Oriental"?)  So cover it up with a moniker that people can swallow, and boom, you're rich.  Brilliant move, Casio.  And brilliant detective work to the OP!

[CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler]

May be that Japanese was indeed considered embarassing to western countries. But I thought they just mixed something up and didn't correct it later. May be it's time to write German language lyrics for this. (Or in far future I make a ROM-Pack with real German folk songs made from a microcontroller or emulated on a Raspberry Pi adapter.)

[MitsuharuSan]

I just found this thread.

 

Amazing that there was such a mystery behind this song and that it was mislabeled or something! When my fiancée (a Nisei) first heard that demo song in one of my Casio keyboards (MT-18, I think, with the ROM pack that came with it) she immediately recognized it and started singing the Japanese lyrics along with the melody. To be honest, it never crossed my mind that "Unterlanders Heimweh" wasn't its title - I just thought that it was how they called the song in Germany. 

 

Nice detective work. While we're at it, does anyone know if the fantastic CT-700 demo song is a Casio original or based on another song? It's truly beautiful and I really think that it does a good job of showing what the keyboard is able to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF0fBDSE290

 

[Awilley]

Oh my, thank you for this post! I grew up with the little Casio PT-82, and I recently got one on eBay for my daughter. The song definitely brought back memories, and I stumbled on this while I was trying to find out its origins. I was also a student of the Suzuki method growing up, and I've noticed that a lot of the songs in the Suzuki books are folk songs (many German since Suzuki studied in Germany, but there's also "French Folk Song"). 

[Jokeyman123]

Just out of curiosity I listened to the Youtube CT-700 demo tune-what an amazing piano sound for something this old, and in a budget model. I used several early model Casios in my music classes including the SK samplers and what had me pay attention was a later model CT I used constantly-forget which one but it was the first Casio I played that had a very impressive bunch of electric pianos, acoustic pianos and a collection of organ sounds that beat out my other pro boards of the time-was in the 1990s but I can't  recall which one it was. Was contemporary with the early Yamaha PSR series. I've been a fan ever since, but then I did own and play all the CZs, spent immense hours programming those.

[CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler]

If you are interested in a unique sweet sounding Casio e-piano sound, watch out for classic SA-series small keyboards. These contain a single-chip softsynth with special FM/phase distortion algorithms (e.g. "triangular wave modulation") not found in professional casios. The longest keyboards with this e-piano are MA-120/MA-130 (49 keys, no velocity).


I have now analyzed the CPUs of Casio musical calculators. There are only 2 hardware families. All 3 with clock (Melody-80, ML-81, ML-90) have basically the same CPU pinout. 3 without clock (MG-880, ML-831, ML-833) employ a smaller CPU with also each the same pinout. All other musical calculator models seem to be only case variants of these. I don't own yet an UC-365 or UC-360, but I suspect its CPU to be yet another software variant of the one with clock.


- Casio MG-880

CPU= "NEC D1822G 001, K0729K" (52 pin SMD)
melody "When The Saints Go Marchin' In"


- Casio ML-831

CPU= "NEC D893G, E9Z236" (52 pin SMD)
no melodies


- Casio ML-833

CPU= "NEC D1822G 002, K0Y64K" (52 pin SMD)
3 melodies
"Nocturne OP 9 n°2" by Frédéric Chopin
"Picnic" (British folk song)
"Romanza de Amor" (Spanish folk song)


- Casio Melody-80

CPU= "NEC D1863G, K93926-912, Japan" (64 pin SMD)
3 melodies
Alarm-1: "Tarantella Napoletana" (traditional)
Alarm-2: "For Elise" by Beethoven
Timer: ascending cadence

This little instrument of 1979 was Casio's first musical calculator. Unlike later models, the timbre is a rough squarewave piezo beep (resembling bagpipes) with a crude sort of square tremolo, i.e. the buzzy tone is interrupted by short pauses 4 times per second, which resembles a purring stutter dial tone of US phone service or tabletop electronic games of its era.


- Casio ML-81

CPU= "NEC D1864G, E0205K-007, Japan" (64 pin SMD)
3 melodies
Alarm-1: "Frühlingslied" by Mendelson
Alarm-2: "Träumerei" by Schumann
Timer: "Moments Musicaux No. 3" by Schubert


- Casio ML-90

CPU= likely "NEC D1864G" (64 pin SMD, software number unknown, soldered upside-down)
The 12 melodies are:
* alarm-I
"Whistler And His Dog" by Prior
"Le Primavera" (Le Quattro Stagioni) by Antonio Vivaldi
"Menuet de l'Arièsienne" by George Bizet
"Holdilidi" (Swiss folk song)
"Gavotte" by F.J. Gossec
"Beautiful Dreamer" by S.C. Foster
"Picnic" (British folk song)
electronic buzzer (30 seconds)
* alarm-II
German folk song* (genuinely Japanese children song "Yama No Ongakuka")
electronic buzzer (30 seconds)
* date memory-I
Happy Birthday (M. Hill)
* date memory-II
"Wedding March" by Mendelssohn
"Trinklied" (German folk song)
* christmas
Jingle Bells (by J.S. Pierpont)
* time signal
"Big Ben" (Westminster)

The ML-90 is the only one with a Jasrac number (i.e. still copyrighted songs included). The back of the manual booklet shows a JASRAC number M4A0057 for royalties of the built-in musics (or the included "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" score sheet?).

The so-called "German folk song" also here is genuinely the Japanese children song "Yama No Ongakuka" (falsely known as "Unterlanders Heimweh").

It would not surprise me if the 2nd German folk song "Trinklied" (means "drinking-song") is fake too; at least I don't know it. Has anybody identified it?

[MitsuharuSan]

On 5/17/2018 at 7:53 PM, Jokeyman123 said:

Just out of curiosity I listened to the Youtube CT-700 demo tune-what an amazing piano sound for something this old, and in a budget model. I used several early model Casios in my music classes including the SK samplers and what had me pay attention was a later model CT I used constantly-forget which one but it was the first Casio I played that had a very impressive bunch of electric pianos, acoustic pianos and a collection of organ sounds that beat out my other pro boards of the time-was in the 1990s but I can't  recall which one it was. Was contemporary with the early Yamaha PSR series. I've been a fan ever since, but then I did own and play all the CZs, spent immense hours programming those.

 

If it's indeed a CT keyboard and not a CTK one, then it's possibly the CT-670 or any of the keyboards from that same family. The 670 is the main instrument from said family, IIRC, with 5 octaves, pitch bender and editable parameters. There's also the CT-470 which is very similar but with a 4 octave keyboard. Also, the last MT (mini keys) from Casio, MT-750, is the same CT-670 but in a smaller version. There are a bunch of other CT models with the same soundbank but without pitch bender, editable parameters, etc. That family had quite good piano and organ timbres (lots of them), so that's why I'm thinking of it.

[Jokeyman123]

I'll look it up. i will recognize it if I see it. thanks!

[CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler]

Yesterday I started to analyze my Casio VL-80 musical calculator. I started 2:00 AM, messed around with SMD parts (soldered diodes in for test, wires fell off again and again or debris fell between CPU pins) and so (mind-clouded by solder smoke) got to bed not before 12:00 AM. yuck! :6 (I hope it survives all that experimental surgery.)

- Casio VL-80

CPU= "NEC D1867G" (64 pin DIL)
demo: "Yama No Ongakuka"

Despite the user interface differs, I found out that it really is based on the regular Casio VL-1 CPU "D1867G" (print is invisible because it is soldered upside-down). 3 fixed diode places (actually only a bridge here) switch it into VL-80 mode, which makes a matrix place become a shift button ("# ±") to switch natural into sharp notes (also changes/disables some other buttons). There is even a mode with ADSR synth that supports shift (i.e. the given vibrato slide switch becomes "ADSR" to use M+ memory for synth parameters), which despite many restrictions (lack of switches) is an exciting easteregg in this tiny Kraftwerk gadget; it suggests that Casio likely had planned to build such a more advanced version and found it too complicated to use for novices by lack of normal preset sound switches. Unfortunately the octave switch feature is unuseable here, because in normal VL-1 mode (which includes it) does not support the shift button (necessary by lack of sharp keys). Connecting both diodes only switches the octave low but still disables the shift button. Certainly the VL-10 (haven't analyzed yet) also uses the same CPU in one of these modes.

[whc2001]

On 5/18/2018 at 9:44 AM, CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler said:

If you are interested in a unique sweet sounding Casio e-piano sound, watch out for classic SA-series small keyboards. These contain a single-chip softsynth with special FM/phase distortion algorithms (e.g. "triangular wave modulation") not found in professional casios. The longest keyboards with this e-piano are MA-120/MA-130 (49 keys, no velocity).


I have now analyzed the CPUs of Casio musical calculators. There are only 2 hardware families. All 3 with clock (Melody-80, ML-81, ML-90) have basically the same CPU pinout. 3 without clock (MG-880, ML-831, ML-833) employ a smaller CPU with also each the same pinout. All other musical calculator models seem to be only case variants of these. I don't own yet an UC-365 or UC-360, but I suspect its CPU to be yet another software variant of the one with clock.


- Casio MG-880

CPU= "NEC D1822G 001, K0729K" (52 pin SMD)
melody "When The Saints Go Marchin' In"


- Casio ML-831

CPU= "NEC D893G, E9Z236" (52 pin SMD)
no melodies


- Casio ML-833

CPU= "NEC D1822G 002, K0Y64K" (52 pin SMD)
3 melodies
"Nocturne OP 9 n°2" by Frédéric Chopin
"Picnic" (British folk song)
"Romanza de Amor" (Spanish folk song)


- Casio Melody-80

CPU= "NEC D1863G, K93926-912, Japan" (64 pin SMD)
3 melodies
Alarm-1: "Tarantella Napoletana" (traditional)
Alarm-2: "For Elise" by Beethoven
Timer: ascending cadence

This little instrument of 1979 was Casio's first musical calculator. Unlike later models, the timbre is a rough squarewave piezo beep (resembling bagpipes) with a crude sort of square tremolo, i.e. the buzzy tone is interrupted by short pauses 4 times per second, which resembles a purring stutter dial tone of US phone service or tabletop electronic games of its era.


- Casio ML-81

CPU= "NEC D1864G, E0205K-007, Japan" (64 pin SMD)
3 melodies
Alarm-1: "Frühlingslied" by Mendelson
Alarm-2: "Träumerei" by Schumann
Timer: "Moments Musicaux No. 3" by Schubert


- Casio ML-90

CPU= likely "NEC D1864G" (64 pin SMD, software number unknown, soldered upside-down)
The 12 melodies are:
* alarm-I
"Whistler And His Dog" by Prior
"Le Primavera" (Le Quattro Stagioni) by Antonio Vivaldi
"Menuet de l'Arièsienne" by George Bizet
"Holdilidi" (Swiss folk song)
"Gavotte" by F.J. Gossec
"Beautiful Dreamer" by S.C. Foster
"Picnic" (British folk song)
electronic buzzer (30 seconds)
* alarm-II
German folk song* (genuinely Japanese children song "Yama No Ongakuka")
electronic buzzer (30 seconds)
* date memory-I
Happy Birthday (M. Hill)
* date memory-II
"Wedding March" by Mendelssohn
"Trinklied" (German folk song)
* christmas
Jingle Bells (by J.S. Pierpont)
* time signal
"Big Ben" (Westminster)

The ML-90 is the only one with a Jasrac number (i.e. still copyrighted songs included). The back of the manual booklet shows a JASRAC number M4A0057 for royalties of the built-in musics (or the included "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" score sheet?).

The so-called "German folk song" also here is genuinely the Japanese children song "Yama No Ongakuka" (falsely known as "Unterlanders Heimweh").

It would not surprise me if the 2nd German folk song "Trinklied" (means "drinking-song") is fake too; at least I don't know it. Has anybody identified it?

The "Picnic" song is also a Japanese nursery rhyme instead of British. It's famous for the electronic musical chime made by Nichol Electronics used in ice cream trucks, that begins the song with a "Hello" voice.

Vocal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHuAg5mFDLM

Chime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7WuxWpYUY4

[OBattler]

Hello,

Keen On Keys on Youtube has been able to successfully track down this melody back to Germany. It appears in the 1841 children's songbook "Kinder-Gärtlein" under the title "Das Lied vom Musikanten", though the German original also has a middle section that the Japanese version (or at least all Japanese versions from the 1964 NHK arrangement onwards, even I can't find any recording or sheet music that predates that) omits. The German songbook also labels the song a "Volkslied" which means "Folk song", so Casio were right on that one. I have been able to find the same melody in an even earlier German children's songbook, from 1838, also titled "Das Lied vom Musikanten". The third book in which I found that song title was from 1890 but there it already uses the same melody as the modern German "Ich bin ein Musikante" (so it's basically that but under a different title) and "I am a fine musician", so it appears like the melody underwent rapid evolution between 1841 and 1890. There is also another German melody for the song, which is somewhere in between the two, and on YouTube, I was able to find a recording of the Waldsteiner Sängerbund singing a melody that is somewhere between that and this 1838/1841/Japanese one. I have also found a YouTube video of a little girl from I believe Ukraine singing the song in German which exactly this 1838/1841 melody (but with slightly different lyrics), and of a recording in Dutch by Dikke Leo titled "Ik ben 'n muzikant" that, just like the Waldsteiner Sängerbund version, chiefly diverges in the third part (which is where the instruments are simulated, so exactly where you'd expect to see the most divergence).

 

I have also been able to find this melody in South Korea and the People's Republic of China, in both cases in two different forms - one with the middle part omitted (so exactly like the Japanese version), and one with the middle part in the wrong place. And in both places, one of the titles used for the melody is a direct translation of the Japanese "Yama no ongakuka". In Korean, that would be "Saneui eumgagga". This leads me to suspect that the Japanese version, too, initially contained the now-omitted middle part and at some point (I suspect most likely the 1964 NHK arrangement by Katsuhisa Hattori) that was removed.

 

And by the way, the person who translated the song to Japanese was Takatomo Kurosawa (Keen On Keys misread his name as Takamasa Kurosawa), who translated a number of German folk songs / nursery rhymes to Japanese. An alternate Japanese title seems to be "Mori no ongakuka" ("Forest musician"), that is also found in South Korea. As an additional curiosity, the normal "Ich bin ein Musikante" / "I am a fine musician" melody also exists in Japan as the more obscure "Minna ongakuka" ("Everyone is a muisician").

 

Both the 1838 and 1841 German children's songbook are on Google Books, just search Google for "Das Lied vom Musikanten" with quotation marks, you should be able to find them easily.

 

YouTube links:
Waldsteiner Sängerbund - "Ich bin ein Musikant": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21Phzr92aew ;

The South Korean "Saneui eumgagga": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKeZ0dYIS-8&list=RDxa0JijNE7BQ ;

Dikke Leo - "Ik ben 'n muzikant": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP8Z46lV6B0 ;

"Ich bin ein Musikante" with the 1838/1841 melody (the one translated to Japanese) by that Ukrainian little girl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k7gyQVF0bE ;

The video by Keen On Keys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZCwrdseXKI ;

"Minna ongakuka": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa0JijNE7BQ .

 

Also, we do have the song here in Slovenia as well, "Jaz sem muzikant", but the melody currently used by everyone is slightly different from all three German melody. Unfortunately, while it's labeled a folk song, I can't find any recording or sheet music that predates the 1989 recording by Čuki and Ansambel Lojzeta Slaka, so I have no idea if the oldest melody (which is the one currently used in Japan) was ever used here or not. The current melody, much like the more widely known two German melodies, does seem like it could have evolved from this melody but without definite evidence, I can't conclude anything.

[pianokeyjoe]

On 12/8/2016 at 8:03 PM, chickenpee said:

Not sure how old this post is but...THANK YOU for clearing up this decades-old mystery!  There's a clip on Youtube that proves conclusively that it is indeed the Yemano gaku ka song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L06HFBrNhXk

 

Why the claim of a German folk song?  I chalk it up to pure marketing.  No one knows what Yama No Onkika is.  Also, back in the 80's it would have been far more acceptable in America to call something German than Japanese (remember the term "Oriental"?)  So cover it up with a moniker that people can swallow, and boom, you're rich.  Brilliant move, Casio.  And brilliant detective work to the OP!

LOL! YEAH! Thats IT! Oh Japanese! So it DOES have lyrics! Casio PT demo song. Yes it starts with the Casio demo song "second" stanza, but it most certainly IS Japanese, NOT German! Wow.. I have a Room full of Lies lol!

[OBattler]

Please read my post above - it is in fact German. The melody appears in two German children's songbooks, one from 1838 and one from 1841, the song's title being "Das Lied vom Musikanten" in both. I even posted a YouTube link of a girl singing it in German. The Japanese version just omits the middle section, but is otherwise the exact same.

 

Edit: A search on Google Books is finding me more 19th century German sources for the melody. I just found it in Illustrirtes allgemeines Familien-Spielbuch from 1882 now, so that make three such books.

Edit #2: And in another book from 1838 - Die deutschen Volkslieder mit ihren Singweisen, Volume 1. That makes four books now.

 

Edit #3: This is one of the two songs whose evolution is studied in the book Zwei Liedstudien from 1914, but Google Books only has one paragraph from that book.

 

Edit #4: Also found it in a book from 1858 now, Sammlung von ein- und mehrstimmigen Gesängen für den katholischen ... This makes it five books now. This book names the song "Der Musikant".

Edit #5: It exists in English as "The young musician"! Here is a YouTube link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOHgiteY_lw .

[pianokeyjoe]

Well my apologies. In a half sleep daze, looking and listening to Casio tone vids, I only clicked on the one link that was clickable here and it was the Japanese one which does sound the most like the demo from my Casio PT1. I can hear bits and pieces of the demo song in the other links from you OBattler! So you are correct, it sounds to me like it has German origin! But seems, at least to me, as a listener and collector of these keyboards, that it is a "REMIX!" of the songs linked here cause the Demo on the PT1/VL1 is one version, but on the PT80/MT18, it starts differently. While this is not a YAMAHA forum, I can say YAMAHA portasound keyboards of the 1980s also have their own mystery demo songs debacle lol!. This is very fun topic and I did see the Keen on Keys Video long before I joined this forum so I did get some clue the demo song on the Casio was NOT the correct title, but was a mix of German and Japanese folk songs, and he went on about the older more rare and obscure versions that ARE of Germanic origin, but only today did I actually hear the other examples.. I like them all! Good work you guys! What other Casio Demo songs from the 80s are there to decipher?

[OBattler]

On the PT-80 (and the RO-551 ROM included with the PT-82 and PT-87 - I had the PT-82 as a child, by the way), it's the same song, just with a note sequence tacked to the beginning by Casio.

 

Also, the Japanese version would be identical to the German original, had someone not removed the middle section for some reason. And I suspect Takatomo Kurosawa's original translation retained it, since the middle part made it to China and South Korea. So I guess we can blame the NHK and Katsuhisa Hattori for that. I can also sing the second line of the Japanese lyrics perfectly fine to the melody of the middle section, and the line seems like very close to a translation of the lyrics of the middle section in German - either a remarkable coincidence, or that's how it was originally sung before someone in Japan decided it was better to just replicate the first line's melody instead.

 

Though, Japan is not only place where this song lost an entire section. I have the score for a Dutch version that is essentially identical to Dikke Leo's, but loses the entire first section.

 

And by the way, it appears that the melody differences might depend on which region of Germany a particular variant is from. The one that Casio used, ie. the one that Takatomo Kurosawa translated to Japanese, is the melody from the Bergisches Land (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergisches_Land) in North Rhine-Westphalia. The more popular one (which 99% of German-language YouTube videos of the song are of) is from Silesia.

Also, I was now able to dig even deeper: The lyrics of the version from Bergisches Land remind of another local folksong, "Vetter Michel auf der Hasenstraß", while the last part of the melody is very similar to another "Vetter Michel" folksong, "Gestern Abend war Vetter Michel da" from the 18th century from Northern Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia is not part of that by the modern definition, but it's right below, so not far from there). Whether or not that indicates any relation (or both are from yet a third, common origin), I don't know. The first part, on the other hand, is very similar to parts of the anthem of the Dutch province of North Brabant, "Toen den Hertog Jan kwam varen". North Brabant is not far from North Rhine-Westphalia, so it's not unlikely that the two regions had similar musical references. In the Netherlands, they also have the Children's song "Er zaten zeven kikkertjes" which also has a similar melody.

> What other Casio Demo songs from the 80s are there to decipher?
Above, someone mentioned the "Picnic" song, which Casio claimed it was a British folk song, but it's another Japanese nursery rhyme. I think that's going to be the next song I'm going to dig into and attempt to trace after I'm done with this "Musician" melody. I'm actually curious where "Picnic" actually comes from.

Edit: And "Trinklied" that Casio also claimed is a German folk song.

[pianokeyjoe]

@OBattlerI must give you kudos! You have done your homework! Well done! I guess it pays to BE from Germany and IN Germany to find out more thoroughly about German folk music. Sadly I may never see Germany though I wanted to so badly when young. The pandemic is hitting us all hard. I would say the other Casio songs I was inquiring about would be Old Folks at Home, Die Lorelei and Green Sleeves which are on the same ROM pack "World Songs". The true German Unterlander's Heimweh IS the song on the MT35/36 of which I have like 4 or 5 units. The CT102 maybe the same unit with full sized keys. I am very thankful for folks such as yourself and Keen on Keys that have researched and broken the mystery of these songs since it does matter. Alot of people grow up with this things thinking the music or other examples are what is genuine and is a bit off putting when we find out we be lied to by our childhood things lol! Yeah I can laugh now

[IanB]

The VL-1 was my first electronic keyboard. The German Folk Song is burned into my memory and hearing it gives me Proustian flashbacks!

 

I'm thinking of making it the demo song on the monosynth I'm building on my YouTube channel, heh.

 

And I still don't understand why Casio didn't follow up the VL-1's ADSR functionality. It was great. There was a VL-5 but it had no ADSR function.

[OBattler]

- pianokeyjoe: I'm actually from Slovenia but that's not far from Germany, and I do speak some German, so it wasn't that hard for me to continue the research from where Keen On Keys (who, however, is from Germany) left off. It also helps that a lot of old german songbooks from the 19th century are available in full on either Google Books or a German government website, so I was able to read them. If only that was true for Japan and my native Slovenia as well - there's pretty much no old songbooks from either country easily available online.

 

As for the other songs - Greensleaves is a traditional English melody according to the English wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensleeves , it even has a sound recording, which indeed matches the melody on RO-551 So the Casio got that right.

Old Folks At Home is also correct - it's by Stephen Foster and also has a Brazilian Portuguese translation, "Da linda pátria estou". The melody matches that on RO-551. This is a YouTube recording in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc8V4Vyc5iA .

 

Die Lorelei is also correct, YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8_QotuhPSk , the original poem was written by Heinrich Heine and the specific melody is by Friedrich Silcher. It's about the Lorelei/Loreley rock on the Rhine.

 

So Casio got three out of the four songs on the ROM pack correct, but for some reason misnamed the first song.

 

- IanB: That song makes me cry tears of joy every time I hear it, that's how special a place it has in my heart. I listened to it all the time as a child on the PT-82, so now, regardless of what language I hear it in, it brings me back those memories.

Edit: Just found the score and lyrics of "I am a young musician": https://www.musicnotes.net/SONGS/05-IAMAY.html . The melody is identical to the variant seen in China and South Korea, so now I know where that comes from. That still, however, does not answer my question if that particular structure was ever seen in Japan. Also, in all three, the last five notes are different from both the German original and the Japanese version. Why, I don't know.

[pianokeyjoe]

@OBattlerAmen! That is nice! I think Bald and Bankrupt did a video about your country! Well, in my quest for finding out about the Casio CZ230S LCD display, I found the Table Hooters website from weltenschule.de and this forum and some of you guys are mentioned there! Lol! The song.. Is CYBERYOGI the author of the Tablehooters site? I read his stuff ages ago back in 20xx? I forget, it was so long ago, but I really started my massive collection shortly AFTER reading his site. I see in the site, that he states the demo song on the MT36 is NOT Unterlander's heimweh but a waltz like little brown jug. I am so confused lol! So the demo on the RO551 and PT1 IS the correct song but only an excerpt and missing the middle section. I did hear keen on keys yesterday too before visiting Tablehooters site and Keen did play the demo on the VL1. Oh the thrill of the hunt. The oldest rendition you stated seems to be it in its completeness but yes, the Japanese musician who reinterpreted it, may have just missed a few notes and passages. Mistakes were made, but we prevailed lol!

 

@IanBI am in full agreement with ya there my friend! I do not understand why Casio did not continue with and add to the ADSR(SYNTH) functionality of the VL1 either! Funny thing is, I had a dream back when I started with keyboards(13 years old), that I saw a black Casio PT1 but it had CZ101 like features including ADSR and waveform graphics on the top cover of the unit, like what shows on the CZ101 but with no LCD, but had sliders, and buttons to correspond to SYNTH actions, and had the same micro keys of the PT1 and overall size(maybe a little bigger like the PT30?). And well, speaking of PT30, Casio could have EASILY made such a synth since the PT30/50 both had alot of functions and electronics packed into that small keyboard case and microkeys! The KX101 even had POLYPHONIC play! So yeah.. why Casio did not make a micro sized CZ101 like synth using the VL1 synth engine like I dreamed, IS a let down.. Funny thing is, I am 46 and still dream of Casio keyboards, and strange PT1/PT20 like SYNTHS that never were! Ahh Childhood..

[IanB]

A special stage appearance by our favourite song I just found!

 

 

[pianokeyjoe]

@IanBLol, ya know? I did not even notice that your name has your location as UK until I saw the video you linked above lol! I LOVE British shows and movies of the comedic and horror variety! And those reality shows.. wow, UK is something else! I wished I could visit until the pandemic hit and I saw that was NEVER going to happen now, sadly. Thankyou for the video! Being Brit, funny, and having a Casio in it, IS special indeed. 😄

 

[OBattler]

"So the demo on the RO551 and PT1 IS the correct song but only an excerpt and missing the middle section."
It's not Unterländers Heimweh (a.k.a. Drunten im Unterland) which is completely different, and the one on MT-36 actually is the real Unterländers Heimweh, Keen On Keys even mentions it.

The demo on RO-551 is actually Das Lied vom Musikanten (The song of the musician), or according to other German sources where the melody appears, "Der Musikant" (The musician), which doesn't even have anything to do with mountains other than the Japanese translation turning the musicians into mountain animals for some reason. The third title is, of course, "Ich bin ein Musikante", under which this melody is also referenced, as the version from Bergisches Land. I think Casio simply misname it Unterländers Heimweh because they were working backwards from the Japanese title, which by the way is also listed on RO-551 and is clearly given as "山の音楽家", that is, "Yama no ongakuka". This makes me wonder why Casio couldn't simply hire someone in Germany to go to a library and look at old German songbooks to find the melody in them.

And by the way, I have been able to find two Japanese recordings of the song with the middle section... in the very beginning of the song, as a short instrumental prelude. So now that whole thing is even more confusing.
Here is one of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ua_wwNfV30 .

Edit: Also, here's is a recording of the real Unterländers Heimweh, under the alternate title Drunten im Unterland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLI1UF8udfI .

[OBattler]

Well, the plot thickens on the origins of this song. The comment section of an 8-year-old YouTube video with the full Casio VL-1 version of this song had a link to this Mozart piece, that uncannily resembles the first part of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxqJnYuOh7I&t=38s . This dates to 1759-64, so to the 18th century. So this now where I can trace parts of this song ("Yama no ongakuka" / "Das Lied vom Muskanten") to:
- The first part to this Mozart piece from 1759-64 (but what are its roots, a folk song?) and possibly in the Northwest German (apparently, Bergisches Land again, the exact same region as "Das Lied vom Musikanten" to "Vetter Michel wohnt in der Hasenstraß", which also has lyrics resembling the second part;

- And the second part (as well as the last part of another German children's song, "Vogelhochzeit", that Keen on Keys compared the second part of this song to in his vieo) to the 18th North German folk song "Gestern Abend var Vetter Michel da".

 

So it looks like this children's song might be an amalgamation of simplified parts of folk songs (and in parts, their lyrics as well) going as far back as the 18th century. The Mozart Piece is based on compositions of someone named Nannerl, so that's a lied I'm going to follow.

[pianokeyjoe]

@OBattlerWow lol! That plot HAS thickened! Good work in your research! Your last comments on this seems to be the answer at least for the VL1/PT1/RO551. The song may be a mix of bits from different songs. That was what I thought a while back but was not sure. The other thing to think of is that maybe it is just the ONE song, but truncated for the lack of memory and indeed memory tech was very expensive and hard to implement back then cheaply, so it makes sense the manufacturers would have just recorded snippets, hence the word "DEMO" or DEMONSTRATION TUNE.. A "SAMPLE" if you will. This is interesting stuff!