Patter song

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The patter song is a staple of comic opera: a solo, typically for bass or baritone and delivered very quickly to a simple sing-song. Today's best-known patter songs come from the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, though the genre is by no means extinct.

Patter songs lend themselves well to adaptation; Tom Lehrer's listing of the chemical elements to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's Major General's Song is a widely known example of this.

It is a tradition of long standing in some Gilbert and Sullivan troupes to come up with additional verses as encores to the song itself (though Gilbert is said to have disapproved of such practice and to have remarked, "'Encore' means 'again'."), especially with the Major-General's song. Ko-Ko's first solo from The Mikado (which details the kinds of people who might fruitfully be beheaded, should the need to behead somebody ever arise) is often re-written completely.

Examples of patter songs

Gilbert and Sullivan

"When I, good friends, was called to the bar" (the Learned Judge): Trial by Jury
"My name is John Wellington Wells" (J. W. Wells): The Sorcerer
"When I was a lad" (Sir Joseph Porter): HMS Pinafore
"I am the very model of a modern Major-General" (Major-General Stanley): The Pirates of Penzance
"If you want a receipt for that popular mystery" (Colonel Calverly): Patience
"If you're anxious for to shine" (Bunthorne): Patience
"Come walk up and purchase with avidity" (Bunthorne): Patience
"So go to him and say to him" (Bunthorne and Lady Jane): Patience
"When I went to the bar" (Lord Chancellor): Iolanthe
"The lady of my love has caught me talking to another" (Strephon, Queen, Chancellor and others): Iolanthe
"When you're lying awake" (Lord Chancellor): Iolanthe
"If you give me your attention, I will tell you what I am" (King Gama): Princess Ida
"When'ere I spoke sarcastic joke" (King Gama): Princess Ida
"I've got a little list" (Ko-Ko): The Mikado
"My boy, you may take it from me" (Robin): Ruddigore
"Henceforth all of the crimes that I find in the Times" (Robin): Ruddigore
"My eyes are fully open to my awful situation" (Robin, Despard, and Margaret): Ruddigore

This song from Ruddigore is listed as a "Patter-Trio" in the libretto, and as described in its own lyrics, it is a "particularly rapid, unintelligible patter". The song was adapted for the Broadway revivals of The Pirates of Penzance (Papp production) and Thoroughly Modern Millie.

"I've Jibe and Joke... I've wisdom from the East and from the West" (Jack Point): The Yeomen of the Guard

"Oh! A private buffoon is a light-hearted loon" (Jack Point): The Yeomen of the Guard

"In enterprise of martial kind" (Duke of Plaza-Toro): The Gondoliers

"Rising early in the morning" (Giuseppe): The Gondoliers

"Let all your doubts take wing" (Scaphio and Phantis): Utopia, Limited

"Henceforward of a verity" (King Paramount, Scaphio, Phantis and chorus): Utopia, Limited

"It's understood, I think, all round" (Scaphio, Phantis, Zara and Fitzbattleaxe): Utopia, Limited

"Well, you're a pretty kind of fellow" (Rudolph): The Grand Duke

"Sing Diamonds Hearts Spades and Clubs" (Quintette): The Grand Duke

Others

"Uidite, Uidite, rustici" (Dulcamara): L'elisir d'amore, Donizetti
"Miei rampoli femminini" (Don Magnifico): La Cenerentola, Rossini
"Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja." (Papageno): Die Zauberflöte, Mozart
"Largo al factotum," (Figaro) Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini
"Getting Married Today" (Amy): Company, Sondheim
"Rock Island (opening sequence)" (six traveling salesmen): The Music Man, Meredith Willson
"The Elements", Tom Lehrer; Richard Stilgoe also uses the Major-General's song as the musical setting for William Pratt, a list of Hollywood stars and their birth and stage names
"Tchaikovsky (and Other Russians)", Lady in the Dark, Kurt Weill (music), Ira Gershwin (lyrics),
Reviewing the situation, Fagin in the musical Oliver! by Lionel Bart

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