Jeanette wrote me…
Good Evening;
My husband’s Grandmother was from Norway and she used to sing a song to him as a little boy about a poor man’s horse, a rich man’s horse, a soldier’s horse etc. My children and Grandchildren only remember the chorus – and only phonetically as they remember my husband (who is now deceased) singing it to them as he gave them a horsey ride on his knee.
The chorus sounded like this to them:
Stoldala, stodola, stodola pumpa,
Stodola pumpa,
Stodola pumpa,
Stoldala, stodola, stodola pumpa,
Stodola pum, pum, pum, pum, pum.I hope you can help me find it for them.
A Grandmother,
Jeanette
If anyone can help Jeanette with this song, please comment below.
Thanks in advance!
Lisa
Note: Many people commented below saying this song is originally Czech.
This artilce was posted on Saturday, April 26th, 2008 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, Languages, Mama Lisa, Norway, Norwegian, Norwegian Children's Songs, Questions, Readers Questions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 27th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I remember that song … but I learned it as Czech song. We sang it in our high school glee club (1964-1968).
I alos found this posting
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=11063
Subject: RE: Anyone know the words to ‘Stodala Pumpa’?
From: Bob Schwarer
Date: 20 May 99 – 07:33 PM
As I recall: Stodala,stodala,stodala pumpa
Stodala pumpa, stodala pumpa
Stodala, stodala, stodala pumpa
Stodala pumpa, pum pa pa.
Also my recall is that stodala pumpa = barn pump
Bob S.
—
I know that I have a book of songs that includes this one in my attic … if come across it, I’ll send you the music score
Ed
April 27th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I’d like to confirm that the Polish word for barn is:
StodoÅ‚a – budynek w gospodarstwie rolnym przeznaczony do przechowywania zebranego zboża, siana i sÅ‚omy. W stodole wykonywaÅ‚o siÄ™ też omÅ‚oty zboża, przechowywano narzÄ™dzia, pojazdy rolnicze.
The Czech word for barn is
Stodola je zemÄ›dÄ›lská stavba, urÄ?ená k uskladňovánà objemných zemÄ›dÄ›lských produktů (obilÃ, sláma, seno). DÅ™Ãve byla souÄ?ástà téměř každého statku.
The Norwegian word is
Løe er en selvstendig bygning eller et rom i en større driftsbygning. Ei løe er til lagring av høy eller annet tørrfor til husdyr, og for lagring av korn før det blir tresket.
April 29th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
There’s definitely a Czech folk song called “Stodala Pumpa” called “Walking at Night” in English. I don’t know if it’s related to Jeanette’s song though.
May 1st, 2008 at 9:39 am
Ed Gawlinski was kind enough to send me a midi tune of the Czech folk song “Stodala Pumpa”. You can hear it if you click the link. Is this the tune of your husband’s Grandmother’s song Jeanette?
July 4th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
I don’t know if this will help, but I’ve found a few different sets of lyrics to this song that I learned from Grandmother.
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=7stnHz7dADI
October 28th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
We use to sing this song in grade school back in the 50’s in Detroit Mich.
In the song book the title, “Stodola Pumpa” was suppose to mean Dance of the Barn Owl? Stodola meaning Barn and Pumpa, meaning Owl. At least that’s what I remember the book stating.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:47 am
I have also been searching for the Czech text to “Stodola pumpa” without much success. However, being a Norwegian-American who has spoken Norwegian and English since I was a child (at home in the Midwest), and as a public school music teacher in both the US and Norway, I must say that this song is definitely NOT Norwegian; the song rhythm doesn’t fit the Norwegian language, nor does the melodic structure. The passage in Norwegian from Ed Gawlinski is an encyclopedia definition of a “løe”, a hay-barn or a hayloft. I guess we are all still searching for that text. I found an English version of it in an old American songbook — at the home of my Norwegian grandparents in northwest Wisconsin, back in the 1950s.
Jim Nelson, Drammen, Norway, May 2009
October 5th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
stodola pumpa is a czech folk song. i learned it as a boy in country school in michigan. it was one of our favorite songs even though we didn’t have a clue what it was about. we were just little kids.
November 15th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I found an English version of the Czech song (this one seems to be meant to be sung in English)…
Walking at night along the meadow way
Home from the dance beside my maiden gay
Walking at night along the meadow way
Home from the dance beside my maiden gay . . . Hey!
Chorus: Stodole, stodole, stodole, pumpa
Stodole, pumpa, stodole pumpa
Stodole, stodole, stodole, pumpa
Stodole, pumpa, pum, pum, pum.
Nearing the woods we heard the nightingale
Sweetly it helped me tell my begging tale
Nearing the woods we heard the nightingale
Sweetly it helped me tell my begging tale.
Chorus
Many the stars that brightly shone above
But none so bright as her one word of love
Many the stars that brightly shone above
But none so bright as her one word of love.
Chorus
April 10th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
I was cleaning up in the kitchen just now and for some reason began singing the chorus to “Stodala Pumpa,” and then I thought I might be able to find it on the Internet. Why not — one can find anything on the Internet! Indeed, it is the song everyone is talking about, and the midi tune, referenced above, is what I learned in elementary school in Ohio in the 1950’s. Amazing …
May 12th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
…..i am sixty five years old….this tune has been floating around in my grey matter since i was eleven years old….i had an old accordion teacher teach me to play this….i dont know why but today it was on my mind AGAIN..so i looked it up…….i remember the teacher…in 1956 she musta been a hundred years old….she was a real “old school” type of teacher…she wrote the tune she was to teach me…she used the c clef and g clef lines…and hand wrote the notes on the paper and proceeded to instruct….her name was mrs. ckelly….the is correct spelling…spoke with a strong european accent…..
January 5th, 2011 at 3:27 pm
I will be 77 this month (Jan.) and remembered this song as I worked a crossword puzzle today….the word was “stola”…Ilearned “Stodala Pumpa” in elem.music class … we sang song of countries around the world! My teacher was Mrs. Branstead…she liked me because I could sing harmony very easily! What fun to read about this song t…the chorus still sticks in my head!
February 1st, 2011 at 9:27 am
I remember singing the song in grade school in the early 60’s. The words we sand were Stola Pumpa and I thought that the songbook said that it meant “Barn Pump”. It has also stuck in my head all of these years.
February 1st, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Others seem to agree about the meaning barn pump – which may be just nonsense.
February 1st, 2011 at 4:18 pm
I found this version:
February 1st, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Here’s another video of Stodole Pumpa…
February 23rd, 2011 at 11:53 pm
Far in the hills I hear the nightingail
Singing a song that brings home back to me
Three years ago at home I left my love
Still she is waiting waiting just for me hey
Chorus
Three years to wait is much to for us
My love and I we now would married be
February 24th, 2011 at 12:00 am
This song is in the Rotary song book we sing it all the time
April 11th, 2011 at 1:38 pm
Yes, I remember learning the song from grade school, in the 60’s. Here is what I remember.
Strolling along as nightfall ends the day
sweet scented breezes whisper on their way
under the stars the night winds softly blow while distant hills re echo with our song ….. HEY!
stola stola stola pumpa stola pumpa stola pumpa
stola stola stola pumpa stola pumpa pum pum pum
July 25th, 2011 at 12:55 pm
We sang this song all through my childhood, while dancing a rollicking polka to the chorus… how I miss those days, and my long lost sisters!
The words were:
Walking along, while night follows the day
Sweet scented breezes whisper on their way
Under the stars, we slowly stroll along
While distant hills ring, echoing our song – Hey!
Stodala Stodala Stodala Pumpa Stodala Pumpa Stodala Pumpa
Stodala Stodala Stodala Pumpa Stodala Pumpa Pum Pum Pum
April 6th, 2012 at 9:52 am
Ed Gawlinski confirms that the Polish word for barn is Stodoła
Note that the ” Å‚ ” is pronounced like an English “w” but the slash often gets deleted in transliteration. Thus, “Stow Doh Wa” not “Stow Doh Lat” or Stodola
Alternatively, “Sto lat” is a common Polish birthday song, wishing someone “one hundred years”. If you repeat it rapidly, it comes out sounding like “stowdolat”
Granted, repeating “one hundred year pumps” doesn’t make much sense, but neither does “barn pump” in the context of the main verse. Has ‘pumpa’ been garbled in transliteration?
My Polish in-laws claim not to have heard the song. Polish and Czech are close
April 20th, 2012 at 4:34 pm
Hi, I’m Czech :-). Stodola pumpa could mean something like “barn pump” but… Stodola is a noun and in Czech nouns don’t sound the same as adjectives. If you mean “barn” as an adjective, in Czech you must say “stodolová”, “stodolový” or “stodolové” (depends on grammatical gender). And another thing is that I can’t imagine any “barn pump”. So I think this is only enumerating of words.
As for the song about a poor man’s horse, a rich man’s horse, a soldier’s horse etc. – yes, we’ve got such as song. Frankly speaking, it’s not real song, but something like chant. It goes like:
Takhle jedou páni (fine men ride like this)
Takhle jedou kmáni or Takhle Cikáni (poor men ride like this or Gypsies ride like this)
A tak jedou husaři! (and hussars ride like this!)
Adult person “gives to the child the horse ride” on his or her knees, softly in the begginning, wildly at the end, saynig this words. Children love it :-). There are many variants of this here is one of them (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkdXRVdHEjU) and here is another part with the less often verse about farmers (this part with the slow rocking motion – takhle jedou sedláci) and the completely new verse with Formule 1 :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqZiKixNcaY
September 28th, 2012 at 7:57 am
Chorus…
Stodola, stodola, stodola pumpa,
Stodola pumpa, stodola pumpa,
Stodola, stodola, stodola pumpa,
Stodola pum, pum, pum, pum, pum. (repeat)
Up from the valley we will make our way,
leaving behind the worries of the day,
being at one with all that we survey,
singing aloud this joyous song. Oh,
Chorus…
Greeting the sunlight in the morning air
is a happy feeling well beyond compare.
To the mountaintop, we’ll soon be there,
and as we climb, we’ll sing this song. Oh,
Chorus…
October 3rd, 2012 at 10:02 pm
I am just learning this song as I am in high school right now and my version matches Alice’s. My music teacher researched and found a translation that this song was about drinking. I don’t know though so…..yeah. Um help if you know whatever language this song is in!
December 14th, 2012 at 11:09 am
Wow – I can not believe I found this post. I have been singing this song for ages. Since first grade in the 50’s in Fairmont WV. The words I learned were:
Walking along, while night follows the day
Sweet scented breezes whisper on their way
Under the stars, we slowly stroll along
While distant hills ring, echoing our song – Hey!
(then the fun begins with the Stolada pumpa chorus…and on pumpa we pounded the tables to make a boom boom sound)
Our class loved this interactive song. I am so happy to know it’s origins.
December 14th, 2012 at 11:47 am
Correction : while distant hills, re-echoing our song!
February 25th, 2013 at 5:17 pm
I was surprised to find this information. I remember being taught the chorus before 1972 from some relatives visiting from Germany. My Grandpa was fluent in German and often had visitors and relatives. I don’t remember the verse words but thought they were sung in German but not sure about that. I thought the song was about a horse or horses racing. I have remembered the chorus and tune. I have not remembered to ask my older cousin to see if she remembers more of the story or what language the verses were sung in by our relatives.
February 26th, 2013 at 4:37 am
It seems to me that many songs quite widespread in the US (and considered to be Czech national songs) are quite extinct in the country of origin. It is interesting how this heritage and some particular songs were preserved by Czech emmigrants for many decades (as far as I know largest communities existed in Texas, Nebraska, Illinois and neighbouring states).
The text indeed literally means “barn – pump – barn – pump etc.” The catchy music seems to be a traditional tune, quite widespread in the past. Many different songs were probably sung to this melody.
I have found just this example from the modern days using mentioned tune AND wording (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovISzlWqxFc). You can hear there are two different lyrics used for the chorus.
In the Czech Republic the tune was most notably preserved in the folk song called “Má roztomilá BáruÅ¡ko” (i.e. “My Sweet Babette”) in one of its versions (lyrics: http://hudba.hradiste.cz/index.php?AKCE=DETAIL&ID=33323336320500 video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPArz_Kz0pc and adapted: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRMcFB0D-8I). The song and this version especially is quite vulgar. It can also sound quite differently and have somewhat different lyrics (check this version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuxM2Eo8Omg).
May 1st, 2013 at 8:50 pm
Hello,
Stodola is a Bohemian word. It means “shelter of animals” in bohemian.
I was raise by bohemian grandparents, my grandfather spoke the language. I do not know the song title or the lyrics, but maybe this will help in any case