Wheeling times and advertiser. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1839-1849, 1845-05-16
POPULAR SONGS

waller kiver. From the PROFESSIONS and slo- |
rious gatherings Of enthusiastic frcemen i'm
which this little book was SO conspicuous.
from the well -rcmem5ered feelings OF hope and
JOY, the noble banners, the cheering sounds of
a multitude of voices, and all the sights and
sounds which make up tn memory of that re-
markable pcriol, om m.ind ut length wandered
OIL into some thoughts on popular songs.
Nature is musical and it is wonderful how
many oil her creatures have the gift of u%ttering
sweet ounds Aud of nan music and song
are almost without exception the universal de-
light. Poetry is the primitive form of litcra-
ture songs the earliest form of poetry. Rude
nations preserve their laws. ami history, at
first, only IN the chanted rhymes of their bsrds.
The most barbarous tribes are accustomed to
celebrate their victories, To stimulate their
martial ardor and to utter all their passions,
msimplc and %artless melody. And the infu-
ence oil popular songs, Ginning with the pre-
vaiiimg tone of the people. does not cease
among the most cultivated nations. "Lct me
write the songs of a nation,' said a correct OBJ
server, 'and care not who writes it's laws,
In cuitivatcd'statcsof society OTHER forms
of literature usurp the place which is oc-
cupied by songs alone in more primitive times.
These are often the only record of the early
customs, exploits, language and laws of whole
races of people, and unless tradition preserves
them until the art Of writing comes to embalm
them, the only materials of history vanish
with them. Thus the war-songs and death
songs, and other rude compositions of our
own Indian tribes, handed down from father
to son may have long retained the memory of
ancient events among them, which are now
lost forever, because their %conquerors never
thought il worth while to collect their harsh,
unintelligiblc songs. We have failed to make
the only return we could have Offered to the
tribes that have persisted at our hands. We
have let the memory Of their deeds perish also.
In vain they toiled, in vain they bled,
They had no poet and are dead!
From these tribes which have melted way
so rapidly before the white race we might turn
our eyes to a people almost as uncivilized and
yet who have filled large space in history ev-
CT since their first ancestor, Ishmael. was
driven forth a wanlercr. In all that tract of
time the wandering Arabs have INDUCED their
native love Of music and poetry and have kept
alive the memory of the past by their national
songs composed in their own copious, flexible,
and mclodious language. II we could, at this
evenings sunset, set in the hospitable tent of
a Bedoween Arab or ride with him over his
native deserts in quest of some hereditary foe
or rich caravan; if we could drink with him
from the secret wells that have refreshed his
fathers since the days Of Abraham, or bray,
with him the perils of a daily warfare against
all mankind; w might hear him sing the
songs, which, from time immcmoiL n. have
aroused the national :" virtues" of valor. re-
venge, robbery and generous hospitality. E.
WIN ucforc tire time oT rranonrrr am unr,r,uf MIR
drew together from all parts of Arabia compc-
titors for the prize of poeiical success. The
Prophet found and preserved seven of these
successful songs or poems which superstition
and taste had written in golden letters on the
walls Of the ancient Caaba. Among that
strange people a private fcud which may have
kept open, for halfa century, a bloody account
oil alternate vengeance is transmitted to tie
last degree of kindred with the words of a fam
lily song. But the rowing tribes whom neither
sceptre nor laws can bind assume tn. form of
one great nation, with scarcely a tie to unite
them. except language spoken by them all
and the national lyrics which they all sing.
In ancient times the northern savages of Eu-
rope who cncircled and pressed upon the Ro-
man Empire had neither regular government
nor established laws. They presented to the
eye OF Tacitus a few simple customs which,
with a common dialect, were the only ties that
bound them together as independent nations.
But, In the absence of a written language and
the absence OF laws, the philosophic historian
did not TAIL to observe the universal prevalence
OF their national songs. They rudely sung the
barbarlc virtues which the elegant Tacitus i'm
morialized. Aftero lapse of six centuries the
character of the savage German tribes was vet
scarcely softened or changed, and then we
read III a latin annalist whose degenerate style
proianes the language of Tacitus and Livy,
that the same songs were still their chief de-
light. He compares their unmusical sound to
the rafting OF a car over stony streets. But.
however harsh this outlandish melody NAV
have seemed TO an Italian car, the sagacious
Charlemagne was so sensible of the effects of
those congenial and popular songs upon his
subjects that, by his command, they were col
lected ina volume and published with his own
laws.
Shall we descend with the descendants of
Charlemagnc's subjects to the songs which ex-
pressed the potter feelings of the ages Of chiv-
airy? Shall we discourse Of the troubadours
and MINISTRIES wbose themes were the praises
OF . lair women and brave men? Or skipping
over many a century in the history Of the
pleasant land Of France, shall we come TO the
fearful days Of the " Marseillics" and the
AEn irnr2 ill., L. L. 49,.