Wichita eagle., 1888-11-10
SONGS OF WORKERS.
HOW LABOR's BURDENS ARE LIGHT
ENED BY MUSIC AND SINGING.

HOW LABOR'S BURDENS ARE LIGHT
ENED BY MUSIC AND SINGING.
/ The Trade Songs Of the Ancients Have
! Their Counterpart at the Present Time.
Songs of European Working People.
Music Work Inspirer.
There is scarcely an occupation, certainly
! mono that demands unity Of purpose and reg
ularity of attack, that has not, or has not had,
| its own peculiar kind of song or accompany
/ ing chant. The anvil, the loom, the dairy.
/ the field, the wharf, the plantation, ay, and
/ even the Golfers dreary world, are each in
themselves an incentive to some sort of music,
and their lsborers in all parts make for them
selves if not a pleasing recreation, at any
rate soothing nlonotony by grooming, OF
cumming, or chanting, some rhythlnical
measure AthenRus has preserved the Greek
names Of different songs as sung by various
trades. but unfortunately none OF the songs
themselves There was one for the corn
grinders, another for wool workers, another
for weavers; tie reapers had their carol, the
herdsmen song composed by Sicilian OK
driver; the kneaders, the bathers, and the
1t is still the custom in Egypt and in Greece
to carry on an immense labor by an accom-
pani1nent of music and singing; hence the
story of Aniphion building Thebes with his
Tyre. In Africa TO this day the laborers on
the plantations at Yaoorie work to the sound
Of drum.
Almost all these old Grecian trade songs
have their counterpart at the present time
-, L. Ill
grinders song is initiated on the Russian
wharveS, where the women sing in chorus as
they crush the grain for expectation; the
weavers in Ayrshire, where are still to be
found the almost absolute hand looms, Groom
some weird Highland tune as they sit at their
work; the reapers in Russia have their wheat
chorus and rye chorus, and the haynlakers in
many countries have special songs of their
own. The beautiful chansons de vendange,
or vineyard songs, OF the champagne district
are world renowned for their harmonious
gayety; these, Ike the wheat gatherers
chorus in Russia, are sung In procession; the
men and women, each with basket on their
arm, assemble at the foot of hill, and, stop
ping there, arrange themselves, III a circle;
one of them then bursts into q joyous song.
the burthen of it is chorused; then they
ascend and disperse in the vineyard and work
and sing. Now and again new couplets will
resound from some of the dreSsers.
The herdsnen's songs live today in the
cantons of Switzerland and or the wide Mex
lean plains. Texas provides hog feeders with
a ditty that if not poetic Is certainly realistic
in tone. The kneaders must have suggested
the chant du boulanger of the bread eating
France of today, and the galley rowers have
numberless imitators in the Venetian Condo
liers, the Nile boatmen, and the Chinese
crackers, whose songs have become SO much
4 part OF themselves that one never thinks Of
dissociating them. DR.. Johnson noted in the
Highlands that the strokes of the sickle were
timed by the mobilization of the harvest song,
in which all the laborers' voices were united.
They accompany every action which can be
done in equal time with an appropriate strain,
which has not much meaning, but its effects
are regularity and cheerfulness. Like the
Greek herdsmen and shepherds of old, the
Scotch have their sheep farmers songs and
their herders' choruscs, ard even the potato
workers in Ayrshire their own style Of sing
ing while they pursue their occupation. Any
evening in August you may see picturesque
looking group of women vending neir home
ward way and singing as they go along; the
bright red kerchlef they adopt as headgear,
and their striped pettieoats and bare feet
are gu to 4 feature in the most pastoral OF all
Scotland'S counties.
From the cradle to the grave song is the
constant companion of the Russians life. 1t
is the delight of both sexes and of every age
The sports of childhood, the pleasures CT
youth, and all the varied occupations of ma
ture years have each their own appropriate
accompaniment of song. The 'Khorovod"
is the choral dance with which Russian boys
and girls greet the approach Of spring The
'Zaplachki" or wailing songs bring relief to
the grief stricken The "Byllnas," long
metrical romances Sung or recited by village
Ministries, supply the epic element by record
ing famous historic exploits; and even that
most prosaic of employments-loading with
grain the ships lying in the wharf-add some
beautiful melodies TO the repertoire of Rus
sian national song: the women who carry on
the work singing in chorus the while. The
Taudevilles that are so prominent feature
in the repertoire OF French recreation songs
today originated as songs of labor. There
was once a fuller of Vau de Wire, or the val
lev by the river Wire, who used to make his
men sing as they spread their cloths on the
bank of the river. Usually the theme would
be some incident or adventure of the day,
set to a rhythmical measure; and thus from
the labor of the apprentices Of a fuller on
the banks of the Wire we get the gay, roll
licking songs that resound from every music
hall and cafe in Paris.
Mill songs are especially common in Nor
mandy, and have character of their own
Their ''coupletS" are wont to consist of two
lines with a refrain, ard the refrain is the
principal part of the song. Auvergne is
famous for its bourries, and Burgundy is
rich in Noels and drinking songs The
Italians have no special labor songs; the
seem to enliven their working hours wit b
snatches of national music, and in Tuscan "
you may hear the straw plaiterS singing es
they ply their busy fingers some of the love dy
or rispetti Of the country. he
storueIlo, known as Flower Of the Pea"
particular favorite with these straw work srs
What of nusic's past vocation IS a work in
spirerf Is there not ample proof OF IL In tho
many songs of many tongues that stanl | OFT
as beacons of light along the dull ros I'd {
labor2 What OF the sailors chantie 1 t. as
fresh, breezy, rolling choruses that bel 2ed to
li.hten Jacks manifold labors, and & au the
present, with its ever increasing p ~ r Of
steam, has made things OF the pasti What
of the weavers' songs, that formed q much
part Of the daily life at the loom Eat they
seemed almost woven into the fa' e.cz The
factory girls and the mill hands > Of TODAY
sing to the whirring accompanir, EFT OF the
latest machinery, not as sang tn sse refugee
handweavers OF old whose owo limbs were
the wheels they had TO set In motion, and
l. ~1xsN