User:Janneman/Drafts

Drei Chinesen mit dem Kontrabass (Three Chinamen With A Double Bass) is a popular nonsensical German children's song. It constitutes a very simple form of wordplay. While the lyrics remain in effect unchanged, all the vowels become interchanged by all the vowels, umlauts and diphthongs found in the German language with every consecutive stanza.

Melody

The most widely used tune today is as follows, slight variations in the dotted quarter notes are not uncommon:

Listen

A slightly different tune used to be more common in Germany and still prevails in Western Austria and the German speaking part of Switzerland:

Listen

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Note that in the ambitus is only a Perfect fifth in the latter but a Minor seventh in the former Variation.

Rules of the Game: Lyrics

The first stanza is sung in correct German:

Drei Chinesen mit dem Kontrabass saßen auf der Straße und erzählten sich was. Da kam die Polizei, ei was ist denn das? Drei Chinesen mit dem Kontrabass.

Three Chinamen with a double bass sat on the street and chatted along came the police: ‘Now what is this?‘ Three Chinesemen with a double bas.

At least eight stanzas follow, in which all the vowels are consecutively interchanged by the eight monophthongs found in the German language, following the order A, E, I, O, U, Ä, Ö, Ü. Thus, the second stanza goes

Dra Chanasan mat dam Kantrabass

saßan af dar Straßa and arzahltan sach was.
Da kam da Palaza, a, was ast dann das?

Dra Chanasan mat dam Kantrabass

Sometimes the game is extended to diphthongs (ai, au and so on). In another variation one of the players announces the next vowel change by shouting `Nochmal!` (Again!), or, rather nachmal, nechmel, etc.