Bismarck weekly tribune., 1888-12-07
HOW LABoR,s BURDENS ARE LIGHT
ENED BY MUSIC AND SINGING.


selves, if not pleasing recreation, at any
rate soothing monotony by grooming, or
humming, or chanting, some rhythmical
measure. Athen@us 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 a 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 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 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
gayety; these, like 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 in circle;
one of them then bursts into a 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 in the
cantons of Switzerland and on the wide Mex
ican 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
numberless imitators in the Venetian Condo
lers, the Nile boatmen, and the Chinese
trackers, whose songs have become SO much
8 part of themselves that one never thinks Of
dissociating them. DR.. johnson noted in the
Highlands that the strokes of the sickle were
tisned by the modulation of the harvest song,
In which all the laborers' voices were united.
Trhey 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 sing
ing while they pursue their occupation Any
evening in August you may see apicturesque
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 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. It
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 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 "Bylnas," long
metrical romances sung or recited by village
minstrels, supply the epic element by record
ing famous historic exploits; and even that
most prosaic of employments- 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
vaudevilles that are SO prominent q 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 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
Dimes with a refrain, and the refrain is the
principal part Of the song. Auvergne ID
famous for it's bourries, and Burgundy Is
rich in 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. Tho
oUO1A0AOs AuOW0 d9 = AOW0g Ol UU0 Ee6s" Is q
particular favorite with these straw workers
What Of music's past vocation as work In
spirers Is there not ample proof of it in the
many songs Of many tongues that stand out
as beacons Of Light along the dull road Of
labor7 What Of the sailors chanties, the
fresh, breezy, rolling choruses that helped t6
tighten Jacks manifold labors, and that the
present, with its ever increasing power Of
steam, has made things Of the past? What
Of the weavers' songs, that formed SO much
part Of the daily life at the loom that they
seemed almost woven into the fabric7 The
factory girls and the mill hands" Of today
sing to the whirring accompaniment Of the
latest machinery, not as sang those refugee
handweavers Of old whose own limbs were
the wheels they had to set in motion, and
whose own brains blended the harmonious
colors together and traced the wonderful and
intricate designs. Here was truly need for
work inspirer, and here was it found in song.
Nineteenth Century.
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