San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-10-29
SONGS OF WORKERS.
HOW LAeoRS BURDENS ARE LIGHT
ENED By MUSIC AND SINGING.

The Trade Songs q the Ancients Have |
Their Counterpart at the Present Time. !
Songs Of European Working People. |
Music q 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 4oom, 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 lsboTers in all parts make for them
selves, if not a pleasing recreation, at any
rate soothing monotony by grooming, or
humming, or chanting, some rhythmical
measure. Athen4us 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 song composed by Sicilian OK
driver; the kneaders, the bathers, and the
galley rowers were not without their chant.
1t is still the custom in Egypt and in 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 drum.
Almost all these old Grecian trade songs
have their counterpart at the present time,
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 expectation; the
weavers i'll Ayrshire, where are still to be
found the almost absolute hand looms Groom
somo weird Highland tune - they sit at their
work; the reapers il Russia have their wheat
chorus and rye chorus, and the haymakers 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
Gavety; these, like the wheat gatherers'
chorus III Russia, are sung i'll procession; the
men and women, each with basket on their
arm, assemble at the foot of hill, and, stop
ping there, arrange themselves III circle;
one Of them thOn bursts into u 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 herdSmen's songs live today III the
cantons OF Switzerland and on the wide Mex
lean plains. Texas provides hog feeders with
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
nuElberless imitators in the Venetian Condo
licrs, the Nile boatmen, and the Chinese
traCxerS, whose songs have become so much
a PIT 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 meditation of the harvest song,
IL which all the laborers voices were united.
The 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' choruseS, and even the potato
workers in Ayrshire their own style Of sin.
ing while they pursue their occupation. An
evening in August you may see picturesque
looking group of women vending their home
ward way and singing as they go along; the
bright red kerchief they adopt as headgear,
and their striped petticoats and bare feet
are quite a .,ature in the most pastoral of all
Sco:land's counties.
From the cradle to the grave Eng is the
constant companion o. one Russians life. 1t
is the delight of both sexes and Of every age. |
The sports of childhood, the pleasures Of
youth, and all the varied occupations of ma
ture years have each their own appropriate
accompaniment Of .sQpg. The .'KhorovOd"
TTo b CoHtiaEsdI