Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-10-04
SONGS OF WORKERS.
HOW LABoR'S BURDENS ARE LIoHT- FINED BY MUSIC AND SINGING.
The Trade Songs of the Ancients Have Their Counterpart at the Present Time. Songs of European Working People. Music a Work Inspirer.

Songs of European Working People. 1 Music a Work Inspirer. There is scarcely an occupation, certainly none 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, uY, and even the collier's drearY world, arc each ill themselves all incentive to Sorne sort of music, 1 and their laborers ill all parts make for them selves, if not a pleasing recreation, at any rate a soothing monotOny by grooming, or humming, or chanting, some rhythmical measure. Athenaeus 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; the reapers had their carol, the herdsmen a song composed by a Sicilian OK driver; the kneaders, the bathers, and the galley rowers were not without their chant. It is still the custom in Egypt and i'll Greece to carry on an immense labor by an accom- paniment of music and singing; hence the story of Amphion building Thebes with his Tyre. In Africa to this day the laborers on the plantations at Yaoorie work to the sound of a drum.
 Almost all these old Grecan trade songs
 
 in some land, if not universally The corn grinders song is initiated on the Russian wharveS, where the women sing in chorus as they crush the grain for eXportation; the weavers in Ayrshire, where are still to be found the almost absolute hand looms, croon some weird Highland tune as they sit at their work; the reapers in Russia have their wheat chorus and rye chorus, and the haymakers in many countries have special songs of their own. The beautiful charsons de vendange or vineyard songs, of the champagne district are world renowned for their harmonious gayety; these, like the wheat gatherers' chorus in Russia, are sung in procession; the men and women, each with basket on their arn assemble at the foot of hill, and stop ping there, arrange themSelves Tn circle; one of them then bursts into a joyous song, tho 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 herdsmen's songs live today in the cantons of Switzerland and on the wide Mex ican plains. Texas provides hog feeders with 6 ditty that if not poetic Is certainly realistic ill tonc The kneaders must have suggested the chant du bouianger of the bread eating France of today, and the galley roWers have numberless initators in the Venetian gondo- Hers, the Nile boatmen, and the Chinese trackers, whose songs have become so much a part of themselves that one never thinks of dissociatng them. Dr. Johnson noted in the Highlands that the strokes of the sickle were timed by the modulation of the harvest song, ill which all the laborers' voices were united. They accompany every acton which can be done in equal time with an appropriate strain, which has not much meaning, but it's effects arc regularity and cheerfulnesS Like the Greek herdsmen and shepherds of old, the Scotch have their sheep farmers songs and their herders' chOruSeS, and even tho potato workers in Ayrshire their own style of sing ing while they pursue their occupation. Any evening i'll August you may see picturesque looking group of women vending heir home ward way and singing as they go along; the bright red kerchlef they adopt a5 headgear and ther striped petticoatS and bare feet arc Qu te a feature in the most pastoral of all Sco;land'S counties.
 From tho cradle to the grave song is the constant col2lpaniol of tho Eussan's life. It is tue deli ,ho of both sexes and of every aGe Tho spores of childhood, tho pleasures of 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 "Zaplachhi" or wailing songs bring relief to the grief stricken. The "Byllnas," long metrical romances sung or rccited by village minstreIs, supply the epic element by record ing famous historic exploits; and even that most prosaic of employments-load with grain the ships lying in tue wharf-add some beautiful melodies to the repertoire of Rus sian national song, the women who carry on the work singing iii chorus tho while. The vaudevilles that are so prominent feature in the repertoire of French recreation songs today originated as songs of labor. There was once fuller of Vau de Wire, or the val ley 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 rhythmical measure; and thus from the labor of the apprentices of fuller on the banks of the Wire we get the gay, rol- 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, and the refrain is the principal part of the song. Auvergne is famous for it's bourries, and Burgundy is rich ill Noels and drinking songs The , Italians have no special labor songs; they seem to enliven their working hours with snatches of national music, and in Tuscany you may hear the straw plaiters singing as ) they ply their busy fingers some of the lovely stornelli or rispetti of the country. The stornello, known as "Flower of the Pea" is 6 } particular favorite with these straw workers } What of music's past vocation as work in spirera Is there not ample proof of it in the , many songs of many tongues that stand out 3 as beacons of light along the dull road o1 ) labor2 What of the sailors chanties, tho ) fresh, breezy, rolling choruses that helped tt r tighten Jacks manifold labors and that th' present, with its ever increasing power O. . steam, has made things of the past2 Wha l of the weavers' songs, that formed so mucl f part of the daily life at the loom that they t seemed almost woven into the fabrica Th @ factory girls and the mill hands" of toda1 p sing to the whirring accompaniment of tn s latest machinery, not as sang those refuge l handweavers of old whose own limbs wer l. tho wheels they had to set in motion, ant :, whose own brains blended the harmoniou s co.ors together and traced the wonderful anC :, intricate designs. Here was truly need for r work inspirer and here was it found in song n Nineteenth Century.