Music, Rhyme, and Dance

Music

• songs by title
  • “A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love” performed by Celestina Warbeck (HBP16) A “particularly jazzy number” with sentimental associations for Mrs. Weasley, as she and her husband danced to it when they were eighteen. Its lyrics include:
    

    Oh, come and stir my cauldron,
    And if you do it right,
    I’ll boil you up some hot, strong love
    To keep you warm tonight.

    It features not only Celestina Warbeck, but her chorus (HBP16).

    “God Rest Ye, Merry Hippogriffs”Christmas carol (evidently sung to the same tune as the Muggle Christmas carol “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen”, to judge from the audio edition); sung by Sirius Black (OP22)

  • the Wizarding Suite, by Musidora BarkwithFeatures an exploding tuba. The last performance of the piece was in 1902, when it blew the roof out of Ackerly Town Hall (FW).
  • “You Charmed the Heart Right Out of Me” performed by Celestina Warbeck (HBP16)This includes the lyrics
    

    Oh, my poor heart, where has it gone?
    It’s left me for a spell…

  • “You Stole My Cauldron but You Can’t Have my Heart” performed by Celestina Warbeck (album) (DP)
• professional and/or famous musicians
  • Blodwyn Bludd, the famous “vampire from the Valleys”, is known for singing to his victims in his sonorus bass baritone (FW)
  • Glenda Chittock is a presenter on the WWN (FW)
  • the Hobgoblins (now disbanded) – band members included Stubby Boardman (OP10)
  • Celestina Warbeck – singer on the Wizard Wireless (CS3, HBP16) who performs with a backup group of banshees (DP).Her recordings include
    • the Puddlemere United team anthem (QA7)
    • “A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love”
    • “You Charmed the Heart Right Out of Me” (HBP16)
    • Her latest album is entitled “You Stole My Cauldron but You Can’t Have my Heart” (DP).
  • Weird SistersThis musical group is very popular on the WWN. Their instruments consist of a set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello, and some bagpipes. They were “all extremely hairy and dressed in black robes that had been artfully ripped and torn” when Harry saw them at at the Yule Ball (Dumbledore had booked them to play) (GF23).The band members are (CS/g, FW):
    • Barbary, Heathcote – rhythm guitar (FW)
    • Crumb, Gideon – bagpipes (FW)
    • Duke, Kirley McCormack – lead guitar (FW)
    • Graves, Merton – cello (FW)
    • Thruston, Orsino – drums (FW)
    • Tremlett, Donaghan – bass (FW)
    • Wagtail, Myron – lead singer (FW)
    • Wintringham, Herman – lute (FW)

    “The weird sisters” is a term from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, referring to the three witches who accost Macbeth and foretell the future when they hail him as “king hereafter”. These characters in Macbeth recite the incantation “Double, double, toil and trouble” which provided the lyrics for the song used in PA/f (see Hogwarts choir).

    In Norse mythology, there are three sister-goddesses of fate – the Norns – who are also referred to as the Wyrd Sisters. The archaic term “wyrd” means “fate” or “destiny”.

• Other musical moments
  • armour-bewitching charm at Christmas
  • flute, hand-carved by Hagrid, given as a Christmas present to Harry (PS12). This flute was later played by Harry and Hermione to put Fluffy to sleep (PS16).
  • hostly musical saw band at the Deathday Party (CS8)
  • Hagrid sang drunkenly after Buckbeak escaped (PA20) and (with Slughorn) at Aragog’s wake (HBP22)
  • Albus Dumbledore enjoys chamber music (PS6)
  • Nicolas Flamel is an opera lover (PS13)
  • Fwooper song drives listeners insane (FB).
  • Merpeople love music (FB).
  • phoenix song – magical music of surprising power (CS, GF)

Dance

• Yule Ball (GF23)
• Dumbledore was rumored to have booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for the Hallowe’en feast in Harry’s second year. Since Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to the Deathday Party instead, they didn’t find out if the rumor was true (CS8).Hogwarts ghosts entertained at Hallowe’en with formation gliding (PA8)
• Veela dance before the World Cup (GF8)
• The fake Moody made a spider perform a song and dance routine (GF14)
• Xavier Rastrick was a famous entertainer who disappeared unexpectedly while tap-dancing before a crowd in Painswick (FW)

Songs, Riddles, and Poems

Book One

• Gringotts motto (PS5)
• Hogwarts School Song (PS7)
• Snape’s potion riddle (PS16)
• Sorting Hat’s Song 1991 (PS7)

Book Two

• Ode to Harry by Peeves (CS11)
  Oh Potter, you Rotter
  Oh look what you’ve done.
  You’re killing off students,
  You think it’s good fun!
• the singing valentine for Harry (CS13)

Book Three

• Professor Trelawney’s Second Prediction

Book Four

• Sorting Hat’s Song 1994 (GF12)
• The merpeople in the Lake sing a song to tell the Champions what the Second Task will require (GF25).
  • Merpeople’s Song (GF25)
    

    Come and seek us where our voices sound.
    We cannot sing above the ground.
    And while you’re searching, ponder this:
    We’ve taken what you’ll sorely miss.
    An hour long you’ll have to look,
    And to recover what we took.
    But past an hour – the prospect’s black.
    Too late, it’s gone, it won’t come back.

  • Merpeople’s Song (Version 2)
    

    An hour long you’ll have to look
    And to recover what we took.
    You’re time’s half gone, so tarry not.
    Lest what you seek stays here to rot.

• the riddle of the sphinx (GF31)
• Voldemort’s revival (GF32)
  

  Bone of the father, unknowingly given,
  You will renew your son.
  Flesh of the servant, willingly given,
  You will revive your master.
  Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken,
  You will resurrect your foe.

Book Five

• Sorting Hat’s Song 1995 (OP11)
• New Ode to Harry
  

  Oh most think he’s barking, the Potty wee lad,
  But some are more kindly and think he’s just sad.
  But Peevsey knows better and says that he’s mad

• Weasley is Our King (both versions)
• The Lost Prophecy

Book Six

• Morfin’s song, translated from Parseltongue (HBP10)
  

  Hissy, hissy, little snakey,
  Slither on the floor,
  You be good to Morfin
  Or he’ll nail you to the door.

• See songs by title for Celestina Warbeck’s Christmas concert

“Eez eet over? Thank goodness, what an ‘orrible -” 
– Fleur Delacour (HBP16)

Quidditch Through the Ages

• A tragic Gaelic poem of the 11th Century tells of the sad outcome of a game of Creaothceann:
  

  The players assembled, twelve fine, hearty men
  The strapped on their cauldrons, stood poised to fly,
  At the sound of the horn they were swiftly airborne
  But ten of their number were fated to die… (QA2)