Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-12-28
OH 3ree press.
SONGS AND WAR SONGS.
An Interesting DisquisitiOn on an In.
teresting SubjIct.
Saturday Review.

There is certain saying of Andrew
Fletcher of Saltoun, now familiar
enough to breed contempt; and even he
does not pretend to have made the pre-.
cious saying for himself 81 knew a very
wise man," he says, chat believed if n
man were permitted to make the ballads,
he need not care who should make the
laws of nation" He would not be n
very wise man nowadays who should
make this remark, whatever he may have
been in the days when the ballad singer
was the only novelist, and when newspn-
pers were not ubiquitous and omniscient.
The invention Of printing was rs fatal to
the minstrel as it was to most of the other
instruments for preserving oral traditions
they may die hard but die they must soon
or or later. And, moreover, the very wise
man erred if he believed that the ballads
of nation can, in any exact sense of the
word, be made. If there is any one thing
more impossible than another, it is the
manufacturing to order OF popular song.
Nothing seems easier, and nothing is
more difficult. The Second Empire could
not find anything better for use on State
occasions than the feeble and feminine
"Partant pour la Syrie; :" and the United
States Of America have not vet been able
Of the greatness of the nation. hesitatine
between the rather trivial yankee Do0-
die and the not wholly satisfactory,
"Star-Spangled Banner''-even the
mighty struggle of the civil war having
failed to suggest war song acceptable in
all respects. In fact, it seems MS though
national hymn is born. not made. We
may suspect that, like Topsy it grow
ed" The one really great war song, the
"Marscillaise, was due to the uncon-
cious conjunction of the hour and the
man. Rouget de l'Isle builded better
than he knew, and accomplished more
than he intended. Had he been burden
ed by the desire TO write a national hymn.
it may well be doubted whether he would
have produced even good partisan bal
lac. Time is the best collaboration of
every poet, and it was this literary part
ner who won enthusiastic acceptance for
the burning uerses oi De l'Islc. Even in
Italy, the land of song, the freeing of
Rome and of Venice and the consumma-
ton of national unity, with all the yearn-
ing and intensity engendered in the act,
failed altogether to call forth the patrio-
tic lyric one might fairly have expected
from people among whom the improvis-
atore's IS Il recognized calling. "Viva
but it is not so much above the level of
"Partant pour Ia Syric." When all is
said, it seems as though the "Wacht am
Rhein' was the only really important ad
dition made by this generation to the mea-
gre list of national hymns. And there is
no need to lay stress on the grcatinferior-
ity Of the German air. stirring as it is, to
the nobility and dignity Of "God Save the
Queen. or TO the fiery and martial might
of the "NTaya1iilaiec.
The ready mrde patriotic poem Is gen
orally as perfunctory as a birthday ode
Even the best Of them Mussct's "Rhin
Allemand, for cXample-fine and fiery as
they may be- are rather words for music
than an actual song singing itself sponta-
eously into being. The best of them
have been written TO a prcexistng tune.
De lIsle adapted the music of the "NIar
seillaise" at the moment when he compos-
ed the lines and Francis Ssott Key, when
as prisoner on the English fleet he wit.
messed the bombardment of Fort McHen.
ry, and vi 4 thereby moved to write "The
Star-Spangled Banner" fitted the words
to the air of a preceding patriotic song
known as adams and Liberty" not
knowing or caring that that was sung TO
an English hunting-tune known as "An-
acreon IN Heaven and composed by Sam
uel Arnold. In case it is ever definitely
decisively established that Good Save the
Queen was the work of Jean Baptiste
Sally, the friend and musical collaboration
OF Moliere, 1t may be some compensation
to-know that The Star-Spangled Ban
ner' was the work of an Englishman.
Whenever would-be national hymn has
not been written for n given time. and
sometimes even when it hus been fins
written, it is more than likely literary.
and to lack, either wholly or in part tIee
direct simplicity and manly pathos of n
song which comes spontaneous and mex.
pected from the heart of the people II
is likely to smell of the lamp (and the
slightest flavor of midnight oil is certain
death to popular song, and to contain
too many OF what Henri Monnier would
call mots ddHc"r, and to lay itself open
to the criticism of not being csse= rccu.
Even when writer like Paul Deroulede
overcomes this difficulty with more or less
success, his martial strains remain at best
only fine words ready to be set to music
And fine words do not make war SONG
any more than they butter parspips. The
song has a better chance of life when tbe
air is satisfactory, although set to made.
quate and unworthy words. Thus it is
that the American marching-song. "John
Browns Body, has vitality of its own.
although the wor.ls most often sung to il
are OF the most elementary nature. The
massive simplicity of this tune, which was
greatly favored by the troops in Zululand
Will be galnsaid by no man who had the
good fortune to hear it sung by Northern
soldiers in the carly days of the war. Tc
near 1t sung by regiment of stalwarI
backwoodsmen from the State of Maine
more than one thousand strong and with
no man under six feet in height, marching
down Filth avenue III New York. ON ii.
way 10 tle seat OF war, was to hear thina
difficult indeed to forget.
More.than one American bostried 70 frd
Mt words Tor an air which strs the blood
like the blnre of n trumpet. bnt the rnSe
stanzas Of the original song have beIG
their own against all more polished onf
perfect competitors. Oddly enough. il i,
not exactly certain who was the comnose,
OF John Browns Body. At least Their,
is but meagre information to be found il
any American collection of lyrics. In one
OF these, English readers will discoye,
with some surprise the American Origin
OF many songs as frequently heard on thi,
SIDE OF tho Atlantic MS on the other W.
all know that John Howard Payne The
author of Home, Sweet Home" was m
American by birth, although lie wrote bis
song for play prepared for an Englisl
theatre; but 1t IS not generally know
that the author Of "Ben Bolt" was mr.
american yet living, or that the author Of
"A Life on the Ocean Wave" was or
American only lately dead. 1t is hard tC
say lust how familiar may be "Old Doc
Tray and "Woodmon, Spare that Tree
but familiar or not, they are of Americor
origin. And "The Old Folks at Home
the wailing refrain Of which whoever may