Major-General's Song

mini|Henry Lytton als der Major-General Major-General’s Song, auch I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General, ist ein Patter song aus Gilbert und Sullivans Operette Die Piraten von Penzance aus dem Jahr 1879, welcher aufgrund des hohen Tempos und der Zungenbrecher als besonders schwer zu singen gilt.

Major-General Stanley stellt sich bei seinem Auftritt in der Operette mit diesem Lied als Universalgelehrter vor, wobei er auch Mängel einräumt. Gute Kenntnisse hat er demnach an klassischem, historischem und wissenschaftlichem Wissen, jedoch weniger an militärischer Taktik, Waffen oder Fachjargon. mini|Major-General's Song Das Lied parodiert die Vorstellung eines modernen, gebildeten Offiziers der britischen Armee des späten 19. Jahrhunderts. Es enthält viele historische und kulturelle Anspielungen.

Das Lied wird häufig in US-amerikanischen und englischen Filmen und Serien von den Protagonisten dargeboten.

Text I am the very model of a modern Major-General,

I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical

From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;

I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,

I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,

About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,

With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.

I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;

I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:

In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's;

I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox,

I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus,

In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous;

I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies,

I know the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes!

Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore,

And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.

Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform,

And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform:

In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin",

When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin,

When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at,

And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat",

When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery,

When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery?

In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy?

You'll say a better Major-General has never sat a-gee.

For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury,

Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century;

But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

Einzelnachweise

Kategorie:Lied 1879